Building Better Communication  

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What I Wish You Knew CONVERSATIONS is a resource that offers deceptively simple conversation starters that will initiate dialogue in families. Developing the habit of "just talking" together regularly makes it easier to support one another during challenging times. 

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This website, and its accompanying book, were created in honor of Judy Krizmanic Weingarten, a young mother who died far too young of cancer. Judy was a gifted writer and was exceptionally aware of the importance and value of communication. Her illness and death necessitated many difficult conversations. Our purpose is to encourage and facilitate sharing one's thoughts and feelings in families, schools, therapeutic settings and everywhere communication is important. 

 

The goal of What I Wish You Knew CONVERSATIONS is to help people of all ages communicate better, to spend more time talking with others, not about them. A variety of issues are presented to help initiate discussions so that opportunities to share don't turn into questions that are answered in monosyllables like this,

"How are you doing?"     "OK"     "Good"

or

"How was your day?"        "Fine".        "Great".

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Begin by discussing talking points that are presented in Let’s Talk and the Diary Pages that are shared in Writings. Frequent short conversations about the topics that are brought up offer opportunities to talk together, and  will make it easier to begin to share our own thoughts about more personal issues. Choose a topic that interests you, Ask someone, "What do you think of this?" and listen as if you were talking about an image on a Rorschach test. There are no right or wrong answers to this question. The goal is not to have the same opinion, but rather  to simply develop the habit of communicating frequently, getting to know people in our lives better and, hopefully, deepen relationships.

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