This book tells the story of a partnership between two universities that spent several years exploring productive ways to engage difficult dialogues in classroom and academic settings. It presents a model for a faculty development intensive, strategies for engaging controversial topics in the classroom, and reflections from thirty-five faculty and staff members who field-tested the techniques. It is intended as a conversation-starter and field manual for professors and teachers who want to strengthen their teaching and engage students more effectively in important conversations.

Sexual dysfunction in marriage is a big topic that no one wants to talk about and, while there are many long volumes on sex and intimacy, there are no books that were written with the express purpose of assisting couples in conversing about their sex lives. This book fills a much-needed void that is, perhaps, most appreciated by the counselors and pastors trying to facilitate conversation between a husband and wife about the more difficult sexual issues. In their own practices, Dr. Hague and Mr. Smith individually sought a resource that would help their patients have meaningful discussions about sex. When they conversed about mutual patients and how best to assist them, they found no publication that approached difficult subjects with the goal of opening lines of communication between husband and wife. It was out of a desire to assist their patients that this book was written. www.BoldSpeak.net Neil and Dr. Melissa Hague have a passion for helping others to promote healthy marriages and families. Through her obstetrics and gynecological practice, Dr. Hague has the unique opportunity to see the frustration and strife that sexual difficulty can cause for women and their marriages. Communicating about the underlying issue or condition is paramount to resolving sexual dysfunction in marriage. Dr. Hague has helped many women, their husbands and their marriages, and based on these experiences she established a sexual dysfunction clinic in her medical practice. Dr. Hague and her husband sense a great need to address the often unspoken topic of sexual issues and co-wrote Start Talking: Intimacy to help couples talk about their sex lives as a vital and important part of a healthy marriage. James and Julie Smith have a heart for counseling couples to help them navigate issues that often arise in every marriage. James, a licensed marriage and family therapist, sees sexual issues in marriage far too often and understands why couples would have a hard time starting the conversation about their sex lives. While many concerns can arise in marriage, sex is deceptively often a cause of a number of those other issues; James co-wrote Start Talking: Intimacy as a resource for his patients and other couples to sort through what is often an underlying problem thereby leading to quality enhancement in other aspects of marriage."

There’s never been a better time, or a more urgent time, to start doing the things you want to do. Perhaps you feel your career is stuck in a rut – or maybe you’re in the wrong job altogether. Or maybe you have a great business idea but something is stopping you from actually getting started. You may already be running a business but struggling to get to it to where you want it to be. Or perhaps you just want to be more successful in general – without knowing exactly what your vision of success is - yet! If you want to do something but secretly fear you’re never going to do it, whatever that might be, then this will help you. Stop Talking, Start Doing is a short, clear and cleverly illustrated book that will inspire you to take action. Whatever you want to achieve, this is the kick in the pants you need to get to where you truly want to be. It’s great that you know you can do more, but just thinking about it, won’t make it happen. It’s doing that makes the difference. DO IT. If you’ve got something you want to do... now is a good time to start.

The rude acquaintance, the dismissive relative, the passive-aggressive coworker--from the snappy comeback to the well-argued response to the simple truth, this book offers an arsenal of rhetorical weapons that can be used to stop verbal assailants in their tracks.

One of the most difficult challenges we may face as parents is to have that first “talk” with our kids. You know the one—discussing their changing bodies and sex for the first time. When do we begin? Where do we start? How do we do it in a way that makes sure they have the information they need, doesn’t make them (or us) feel overwhelming shame, and forms them in Catholic teaching? In Start Talking to Your Kids about Sex, clinical psychologist Julia Sadusky will answer questions you may have and give you the boost of confidence you need as you have foundational conversations with your elementary-age children long before they hit puberty. As Christians, we believe that the body is a blessing and a gift from God—and worth protecting—from the beginning of life. But many parents and educators wait until puberty to begin conversations with kids about sexuality and relationship boundaries. We miss opportunities along the way to reinforce their body’s goodness—like when young children discover their most intimate body parts, for example. We might react out of fear and embarrassment because we don’t know how to respond calmly. Sadusky says we have to be proactive about providing our children a healthy understanding of the goodness of their bodies and offering them ways to respond if someone doesn’t respect their boundaries. If we don’t, our discussions about sexuality end up being too little, too late. By the time puberty hits, children will have learned from culture, social media, and sometimes, early experiences of trauma. Our failure to engage well in these conversations earlier has significant consequences. Start Talking to Your Kids about Sex is one of only a few resources focused on these issues. It is organized in a question-and-answer format, making it easy for you to begin with the topic that’s most pertinent at the time. It will help you identify barriers to these conversations with a child. You’ll be able to draw from concrete scripts addressing everything from responding to questions about genitalia, exploratory play, sexual abuse, and technology use. With each chapter, the content will help you grow your courage and practical knowledge. This go-to resource is structured around the most frequently asked questions Sadusky receives in her clinical practice, including What is healthy body exploration? Should I make my kids hug strangers? How can I help my kids learn to say no when I’m not around? What are good “house rules,” and how do I justify them to other adults? What do I do if my kids say they had an unwanted sexual experience? How should I respond to invitations to sleepovers and overnight trips? An appendix offers additional resources for parents. While the book is geared toward parents, extended family members, caregivers, mentors, mental health professionals, and educators also will find the information helpful.

Let's Start Talking was conceived of as a lower-level companion to the intermediate Can't Stop Talking and the advanced Nonstop Discussion Workbook. Continuing the tradition of Nonstop discussion, Let's Start Talking offers upper-beginning and lower-intermediate students an opportunity to express their ideas about stimulating problems in an interactive small group setting. As with the previous books, the purpose of this text is to generate discussions and conversations in which the students do almost all the talking.

We can all learn to open our hearts to hear what a dying person really needs at the end of his life if we are just able to listen." --Jillian Brasch, OTR, The Last Gifts The Last Gifts tells the stories of 17 dying patients, whom Jillian Brasch cared for as an occupational therapist. Brasch shows that providing care to someone who is dying isn't depressing--it is awe-inspiring and fosters a profound sense of love. No other book on the market deals with issues of death and dying from the functional and creative viewpoint of an occupational therapist. According to a recent AARP report, 34 million people offer care to a loved one. With more than 30 years spent as a caregiver, a motivator, and a coach, Brasch shares her reflections as an occupational therapist and a hospice worker in this harrowing and heartfelt collection. Mingling her own anecdotes and personal revelations with poetry and prose from those patients she has assisted, Brasch creates a dialogue that shows caregivers how to acknowledge their fears and learn the tools to dispel them, while also providing caregivers with strength and courage. The stories give both guidance and the permission to be creative and vulnerable. A wealth of knowledge learned (and earned) through experience exists between these pages. A manual of the heart for those working with the terminally ill, The Last Gifts shows how to get past the physical unpleasantness to see the blossoming of a soul as it sheds its earthly limitations.