As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with an expertise in trauma, Nancy specializes in treating patients who are suffering from Prolonged Grief Disorder in a multi-state online private practice.

Testimonials

I lost my darling, beloved sister in August 2020, six months into the pandemic. She was diagnosed with metastasized cancer in March, and due to pandemic-related restrictions I was unable to see her until ten days before she died. During that excruciating six months I lived in a state of blind panic, every day. We were eighteen months apart in age, and she was my mother/twin sister/best friend. I will never know another person who is as kind, gentle, loving and supportive as she always was to me. There was nothing that we didn’t share, and I felt like the luckiest person in the world that she was mine. We used to talk about when we would be old ladies together, sitting on a bench in a NYC park, with a million things to talk about. It never, ever occurred to me that I would walk the face of this planet for one day without her.

After my sister died I completely fell apart. I was afraid to go anywhere or see anyone except my husband, and even dealing with him, a most loving and supportive person, was extremely draining for me. I realized that it wasn’t that I didn’t want to get out of bed – it was that I didn’t want to wake up. I would try to do something simple like drive to the grocery store, and would have to pull over because I couldn’t see the road because I was sobbing so hard. This went on for months and months, and there was no sign that it was getting better, in fact, it was getting worse. I spent one year in weekly sessions with a therapist who I had known for fifteen years and all it did was make me angry and sadder. After a while I started to think about ending my own life. The only thing that stopped me from working out a plan to do that was when I thought about how much it would upset my husband, who couldn’t have been more patient and kind to me.

Two years after my sister died I was still in the same place. A dear friend who has a PhD in psychology decided that it was time for her to intervene. My friend is an acquaintance of Dr. Kathy Shear, and she encouraged me to reach out to the Center for Complicated Grief. That was in July 2022, and at first I couldn’t bring myself to do it. But when my sister’s son got married in September 2022 and I spent the whole wedding weekend sobbing, I decided that I needed to do something. I realized that my deep grief was affecting other people around me, especially my husband but other family members as well.

I contacted the CCG using information I got online, and the person who got back to me, pretty much immediately, could not have been kinder or more thoughtful. Having heard my whole story, she gave me two names of CCG counselors who she thought would be a good fit for me. In October 2022 I had my first Zoom meeting with Nancy Turret, who has been involved in developing the program with Dr. Shear from the very beginning.

It was clear right away that the program was research and science-based, which appealed to me. It was also made clear that there is a beginning, a middle and an end, rather than that I was entering into a ‘forever arrangement’ where results would be unpredictable. The program has an average duration of sixteen to twenty weeks, and has a 76% success rate, which were two very comforting things to hear. I was given a great deal of background information about the program and the process, which helped me feel like I understood what to expect.

One step that was critical to helping me stick with the program was a session early on where I was asked to include a close, supportive family member. My husband attended that session with me, and as it turns out that was critical to my success – when I got wobbly and didn’t think I could continue with the program, he would say to me, “I know it is hard, but maybe just try to do two or three more sessions.” I realized that I could tell Nancy when I was overwhelmed, and she would make adjustments in the pace and nature of the treatment in order to help me keep going.

Slowly, slowly, slowly, in tiny increments, I started to be able to do things that I hadn’t done in almost three years. One example is that we had two friends over to our house for Thanksgiving dinner in 2022, something that I wouldn’t have even considered since my sister got sick. My husband received an award for charity work he does, and with Nancy’s patience and detailed guidance I managed to get through an awards ceremony in December 2022 in a large room with a lot of people I didn’t know. In March 2023 I ordered a new rug for our house, which I had been putting off for months because it was too stressful to make any decisions. After months of holding him at arms length, I finally agreed to go on a vacation with my husband this June for our wedding anniversary. He was so surprised, relieved and happy that I would consider doing something ‘fun’ again.

This program is not easy. There are steps that need to be taken to address Complicated Grief that can be painful because of how they make you think about and remember all the wonderful things you loved about the person who you lost. But here’s the thing I found out: The Program Works.

Nancy Turret told me a story about a woman they treated who was so devastated by the loss of her son that she would wear heavy hats, coats and sunglasses and run thought the parking lot to get to her sessions. Feeling frightened and hopeless, even terrified, turns out to be a common emotional state for people suffering from Complicated Grief. Nancy told me that after her treatment, this same woman made a speech to a room full of 200 counselors, and she summed up her experience with the program by saying: “This program gives Hope to people who have none.” That is what happened to me with the program – I started to feel glimmers of the life that I used to have as a happy, engaged and productive person. I understand that I will never be the same as I was before I lost my sister – but I feel Hope that I can find my way to living a life that has happiness, along with the pain of losing her that will be with me forever.

Nancy Turret and the Center For Complicated Grief saved my life – pure and simple. Not only that but she saved my husband’s life and our lives together, and has relieved a huge burden that was on other dear family and friend who were so worried about me. What more or greater testimony can I give to a person and a program than that? And I will know that, and mean it, and be grateful for it for the rest of my life.

To those who are suffering from the effects of Complicated Grief, I am touched and honored to be able to say to you: Have Hope. This program can help you, can save your life, the way it did for me.

I can say that the grief counseling/program was highly beneficial for me. My husband’s death was like a shadow in my daily life following me everywhere, even more than 10 years after his passing. I read every book about grief that I could find and attended multiple grief groups. The grief counseling program that I experienced with Nancy Turret was miles above that and helped me tremendously. I highly recommend it.

Being stuck in the grief and loss, I was in felt like a form of mental torture. I am so very grateful that I was referred to Nancy. Her ability to listen and ask the right questions as well as her understanding and compassion toward what I had and was experiencing brought profound relief. I am forever grateful that there are caring and dedicated professionals like Nancy out there. Through her, I discovered that there was a name for what I was going through and a proven path out of my suffering. Ellen D.

An Appreciation for the Efforts of Ms. Nancy Turret
It was more than eight months after my wife's death before I could comprehend the fact that she died. Thoughts of anger, guilt, suicide spilled out in conversations with an Internist. It was then when Ms. Turret came into my life.

In seeking help we need someone who will listen, but more, a therapist to creatively intervene in our world of bereavement. Someone to both understand and give one an exit from the depression following the death of a partner after a long, close and happy marriage.

Over the months, these sessions with Ms. Turret have continued to be productive. She is a tireless listener, and with gently persuasion has incouraged me to reveal the innermost details of my life, and the problems of this present unbearable existence. In so doing, week by week a new life has evolved. With its emphasis on living, and enjoying the "here and now" it has not negated the importance of my life with my wife, Beatrice.

All the benefits have been acheived without the use of medicines. For me, Ms. Turret has done what the best of physicians have to offer: rescued me from the non-productive despair of widowhood into joining into the life of the present world without mourning what is lost forever.

No brief message can describe my previous depths and the ongoing benefits of therapy due to the ability and wisdom of a very special Ms. Turret.
Yours Truly,
Benjammin Sann, B.S., D.V.M

I really don't know where to begin this letter. Are there really words to thank people who saved my life? My worst nightmare came true when my son Patrick died. He had a wife and a five month old baby girl that he adored. Patrick was my first born and we had an incredibly close relationship. I will never forget that moment I realized he had died. I have always been considered the strong one in my family but I failed this test. I was of no help to my husband and two sons.

When I met my therapist (name intentionally omitted) I felt an immediate connection. She went through the depths of my despair with me. When I finished the 16 weeks there wasn't anything that I hadn't said. I literally purged everything I felt. She knew things that I wouldn't even tell my family for fear of what they would think of me. she listened and I never felt like I was being judged. I knew that I could say anything I wanted in that room and I was safe. She made me feel as if she didn't have any other patients. She was there just for me. Slowly we made progress, something I never thought would happen. While I looked forward to our sessions they were not without a lot of pain.

So, today I am able to leave my house, shop for my family and go out to dinner with my husband. I never thought this would be possible. Yes, there are still moments that are very painful, but with the help of these wonderful, caring people I am trying to biuld a new life. I have told my family that we will find a new normal and I think we are on our way to that goal.