That Conversation… It may Be Time

Difficult conversations. They’re necessary. They require transparency and authenticity.

Those difficult conversations can allow people into your thinking, your concerns.

Those difficult conversations can help others make sense of their experience with you and their questioning of the moods that may surround them.

Difficult conversations may require preparation, not necessarily of the other, but of oneself.

Difficult conversations requires a capacity to own issues and resist defensiveness while still having boundaries for things not necessarily appropriate to get into.

Although often scary, those difficult conversations can be a gift. They allow people to understand issues in which they may be immersed yet not fully understood.

If considering to start, don’t hedge, be clear.

“I want to have a difficult conversation with you. I want to discuss some things going on so you can better understand what’s happening.”

Things don’t have to be already resolved to have a difficult conversation and that can be part of what is discussed too.

Difficult conversations also provide the opportunity to check in with the other with whom you are talking.

You can ask how they have been managing previously or now in view of the information provided.

Difficult conversations. They allow us to connect meaningfully, check in and be appropriately supportive.

Many a relationship not only deserves this, but needs this.

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I am Gary Direnfeld and I am a social worker. Check out all my services and then call me if you need help with a personal issue, mental health concern, child behavior or relationship, divorce or separation issue or even help growing your practice. I am available in person and by video conferencing.

Gary Direnfeld, MSW, RSW

gary@yoursocialworker.com
www.yoursocialworker.com for counseling and support

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Gary Direnfeld is a social worker. Courts in Ontario, Canada, consider him an expert in social work, marital and family therapy, child development, parent-child relations and custody and access matters. Gary is the host of the TV reality show, Newlywed, Nearly Dead, former parenting columnist for the Hamilton Spectator and author of Marriage Rescue: Overcoming the ten deadly sins in failing relationships. Gary maintains a private practice in Georgina Ontario, providing a range of services for people in distress. He speaks at conferences and workshops throughout North America. He consults to mental health professionals as well as to mediators and collaborative law professionals about good practice as well as building their practice.