Welcome
Welcome to our website. You are likely here because you or someone you care about is struggling with grief and you are seeking information and guidance. While we are sorry to know that this is the reason you are here, we are pleased that you found us and we believe we can be of help to you.
I’ll start by sharing a bit about who we are and why we formed this group practice. Over twenty years ago, Dr. Katherine Shear, a renowned psychotherapy researcher, became interested in a form of grief that appeared to leave bereaved people in a chronic state of unrelenting distress, for months, years, even decades after suffering a loss of someone very close. Unlike permanent grief which is the expected abiding result of a painful loss, complicated – now called prolonged grief – appeared to rob people of any quality of life and left them as grief-stricken as they were in the initial period after the death occurred. This debilitating condition did not respond to established treatments for anxiety or depression. Dr. Shear was determined to find a way to help these people and began, what would be years of research, to develop a psychotherapy that could lift the persistent suffering of prolonged grief for bereaved people.
During those years of research, including three clinical trials funded by the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Shear modified and refined the therapy with her clinical team. As part of her team, the four of us were honored to be selected as the clinicians, supervisors, and trainers for, what proved to be, a highly efficacious, evidence-based treatment. After being introduced to this approach, we each chose to make prolonged grief and its treatment the focus of our careers. We made this choice for two reasons: first, we had deep respect for Dr. Shear’s dedication and clinical expertise, and second, we witnessed first-hand how bereaved people who had lost all hope for their lives, were able to move to a place of hopefulness, fulfillment, even joy, as they worked through this 16-week psychotherapy program. By the time the Center for Prolonged Grief opened in 2013, Nancy, Natalia, John, and I had assisted Dr. Shear in training hundreds of clinicians, and had treated numerous bereaved people with this condition. And since that time, we have continued to work with Dr. Shear to research, refine, and disseminate Prolonged Grief Disorder Treatment and to offer it in our practices. We joined together as a group out of our shared compassion and purpose that we might bring awareness and hope to those who suffer, not knowing why grief has taken over their life or that help exists. This is why we are pleased that you found us and are confident that we can offer information, guidance, and hope for your unique situation.