Changing the Conversation around Death and Dying

In 2011 I published Healing Conversations Now: Enhance Relationships with Elders and Dying Loved Ones as a way to help people have meaningful and powerful conversations toward end of life. Whether to enhance/mend relationships, make sense of a serious diagnosis, to find peace and acceptance, or love them goodbye. These ‪end of life #EOL conversations […]

How Do You Create a Legacy? How Will You Capture Life Memories?

Have you ever thought of capturing a loved one’s legacy? How might you go about it? What would you want to capture? What would be most important to share with future generations? Pictures? Stories? Video? Tony and Mary recently spoke with Lisa Dinga, and she told them about her experience creating a Living Legacy video […]

Remembering Papa – A hero and Loving Family Man

This post is dedicated to “Papa,” Gunther Karl Hetzel, who passed away on January 10th at age 88. He was the patriarch of the BIG Hetzel clan – nine children, 27 grandchildren, and 20 great grandchildren. Among this bunch is my amazing father-in-law, Artie (his son), Jennie Mae (his granddaughter – who I’m proud to […]

Powerful Conversation: A 10-year old interviews her Grandmother

While at a presentation, Tony had the opportunity to meet Sarah Ryan. As a nurse, she connected deeply with Healing Conversations and the power they bring to relationships. Excerpts from Sarah’s letter are below, highlighting an interview Avery (Sarah’s granddaughter) did for a school assignment. Out of the interview came an amazingly insightful poem, through […]

What I learned from Mrs. O. – Healing Conversations

Tony (Silbert) and Mary (Vargas) had the opportunity to present a session at the Aging in America Conference in March 2014 in San Diego.  In that session, one of the participants shared a lovely story about Mrs. O, a patient she got to know through her work as a social worker at a nursing home. […]

Re-Membering Mom and Dad

As I was sitting on the deck recently, my thoughts drifted to my father (it was his birthday) who passed away almost two years ago.  Just then a song came on from my shuffle mix – it was a song my wife Jen commissioned, shortly before my mom passed away in 2006.   Jen worked with an […]

The Power of Starting: Just Start – Listen – See Where the Conversation Leads You Both…

Here is a note from my friend Randy. It illustrates clearly how important and easy it is to get conversations with our loved ones started. This is the “Now” in Healing Conversations Now. Sometimes I think we believe we need to have all the answers before we begin; this holds us back. Often, simply starting […]

What About the Tough Personalities in My Life?

Thanks Mary V. for your insightful post below.  How would you engage a loved one that you have a strained relationship with? Having a warm, comforting conversation with someone at the end of life is easier to do if you have fond memories.  Then there are the people with whom you probably really should have […]

She Said Yes: A Healing Conversation with Alzheimer’s

This post was contributed by Healing Conversations Now Reader, Aaron W.  Please keep your stories coming! The substance of relationship is communication. Even our shared history with loved ones is shaped and remembered through language. This is the reason that healing conversations have such transformative power, because through conversation we can complete past conflicts and […]

The time for Healing Conversations is NOW!

I was recently asked to speak at the Ignite Southern RI event, their tagline “Enlighten Us, but make it quick.”  I had 5 minutes to share a powerful story.  I was inspired to share my story behind the book, the power of healing conversations in my own life, and to urge others to have them […]