Speaking of Dying

’ A…members of the caring professions need all the counselling skills that we can muster. Readers of this book will end up feeling less helpless in the face of death but we should not expect to find communication easy. A”What can we say?A”, once we think we know what to say we are wrong. Rather this book will help us to learn when to speak of dying and when not to, what not to say and when to keep silent and wait patiently for what gliding instructors call an ‘up-draught’. We must start from wherever the other person may be and we must take the time and trouble to discover the language with which this person speaks about death and dying, the assumptions they make and their needs and wishes to speak or not to speak.- From the Foreword by Colin Murray Parkes

Louis Heyse-Moore has worked in palliative medicine for 27 years. He was consultant in palliative medicine to Isabel Hospice in Welwyn Garden City, after serving as the medical director at St Joseph’s Hospice in East London. He has published articles in many leading journals in the field and has lectured internationally and given workshops on the use of counselling skills in palliative medicine.