Welcome

The Center for Loss and Renewal is a leading New York City psychotherapy and consultation group dedicated to the practice of life transition therapy. In a setting of warmth and acceptance we focus our energies on helping individuals to discover resilience, hope, meaning and coping strategies in the presence of loss, trauma, work and relationship problems. Over the last thirty years hundreds of clients have utilized our services for grief counseling, bereavement groups, individual psychotherapy for low self-esteem, depression and anxiety, couples counseling using IFIO (the Intimicacy from the Inside Out) model, and grief in the workplace crisis debriefing. We have expertise and advanced psychotherapeutic  training in Internal Family Systems (IFS), EMDR, and Eriksonian Hypnosis.

We are also trained providers of a highly researched and effective sixteen week protocol to help persons suffering from Prolonged Grief Disorder (formerly known as Complicated Grief). We invite you to call today to embark on your journey of change. Please call today  (212) 874-4711 or complete a Contact Form to schedule an individual or marital therapy consultation or to inquire about a bereavement group or professional presentation.

EIGHT WEEK GROUP INFORMATION FOR SPRING 2025

Hundreds of people over the years have participated in our groups and found solace and support in meeting with other mourners under the guidance of sensitive and experienced professionals.

• ADULTS MOURNING THE LOSS OF A PARENT  - Beginning on Wednesday May 28th for 8 weeks from 7 - 8:30 pm via Zoom.

Please call 212-874-4711 or fill out a Contact Form for more information on these groups or to schedule an individual counseling session. Recent participants in our groups write:

• I recommend The Center for Loss and Renewal with all my heart. If you are reading this — it means you might be searching for some support — and I can say with so much confidence that you’ve found it. It’s hard to take that first step and call or email — but I promise it will be a soft landing. The grief journey is long, but Benyamin and Miriam are here to help.

• As I entered the first week of the group, I was ridden with extreme grief, anxiety, fear, and sadness. I had absolutely no coping skills, unable to explain what grief even is. As someone who had never been exposed to death within such close proximity, I was hit like a truck with a million and one feelings that I had never felt before. Attending the group session immensely helped in allowing me to control my emotions, detect what it is that I personally need in this grief process, and reminded me that I am never alone. Being with a group of folks who can understand the immense pain of losing a loved one is so healing. In a time of loneliness, my grief group members were there to pick me back up and I to pick them up as well. Overall, I am so beyond grateful to have been a part of this group. I learned so many skills and ways of approaching death and grief that has allowed me to continue my relationship with my deceased father rather than forget it…Ben,  you  were exceptional leader  as you excelled at facilitating conversations, made a safe space, and validated all emotions felt by the group members.. You were able to allow natural conversations to flow and kept folks rooted in reality. You gave us a lot of hope that is difficult to find. Thank you so much for everything.

• Thank you!  Being part of the group really, really helped me this summer.  I've never tried therapy before and it was not always easy for me to open up but I would have been even more lost and bereft without the group's spirit of sharing and your insights.  I really appreciated that the homework got me writing in my journal again, which has always been helpful for me before.  I am sure that it is not easy to facilitate a group like this via Zoom but it worked out well.  Besides reminding us of our strengths, I think what has been most useful has been realizing through the conversations that these feelings are normal and to be expected and that this is a looping, recursive, unpredictable process for everyone, and that's okay.  I know that I will think back on the conversations and realize more things retrospectively. Thanks again for your thoughtful approach.

• I participated in an 8-week bereavement group with Ben. The experience was wonderful. It was great to be able to hear others who have also experienced loss. Ben's style for leading was excellent. He is very knowledgeable, caring, comforting and knows how to ask the right questions. The weekly homework assignments were a great supplement to our weekly meetings. I highly recommend this bereavement group.

• I can't say enough good things about completing grief therapy here. Benyamin is an extremely skilled facilitator and was able to lead some really important discussions. If you are grieving, I highly recommend seeking out the Center for Loss and Renewal.  I was hesitant to go but I'm so grateful I did. Grief is a confusing and messy process and Benyamin helped me make sense of some really painful feelings.

• I joined the 8 week group program to receive support for the loss of a parent. Ben provided a safe place in a group setting all remotely for all of us to process our grief. The group was very structured and we had homework which I found very helpful and incredibly grounding to help process emotions. I did have difficulty completing a couple assignments but it was met with compassion and understanding. Overall the experience was very helpful. We had wonderfully supportive group members. I have recommended this place to my doctors to recommend for patients as well as a friend who recently lost her father. I found it to be incredibly helpful during a very vulnerable and painful time, especially in the middle of a pandemic where the grief process has been extremely difficult and complicated to cope.

BENYAMIN CIRLIN RECENTLY WAS INTERVIEWED AS A FEATURED SPEAKER DISCUSSING GRIEF AND TRANSFORMATION AFTER A CORE LEVEL LOSS

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO WATCH HIS INTERVIEW:

Benyamin Cirlin on Grief and Transformation

Grief in the Workplace TestimonialS

Part of our mission is to provide onsite debriefing sessions following loss and death in the workplace setting. Below are evaluations of three recent defbriefings held in  New York City.

• Benyamin came to our school after we had endured the death of a child in our program. The timing of the death happened to be during our first week back to school where we had planned on doing classroom set up, multiple professional developments, team bonding, and all of the other regular back to school routines. The loss stopped us all in our tracks and our small team were completely overwhelmed with shock, sadness, and grief. We knew it was critical to properly grieve as a community before opening up our arms to all of our children for the new school year.
   
  Many of the teachers had a very strong relationship with the child, and felt great unease to enter into the room where the child once happily played and learned. When Benyamin came to speak to our group, he created a nurturing and warm environment for our staff to voice their sadness, concerns, anxieties and previous trauma that may have been impacting how they were processing this traumatic event. He discussed the definitions of different kinds of grief, and continued to remind us and ease our minds that within our community we are okay and safe. He raised open ended questions that allowed our staff to further elaborate on their thoughts and offered validation and active listening throughout the session. Benyamin also offered and taught breathing exercises that we could use when feeling anxious or when we just need to decompress.
   
  The room felt much lighter by the time we were done with Benyamin and after this devastating heartbreak, that is exactly how we needed to feel. Benyamin truly created a safe space where he could stretch our thinking and he slowed us down when it felt like the world around us was spiraling like a tornado. We appreciate Benyamin for all that he has done in helping our team process and begin to move forward.  From an administrator of a NYC Early Childhood Program

• I work on my company's HR team and I blindly contacted Ben after the sudden unexpected death of a beloved colleague. Although I came to Ben as a total stranger, he was immediately open to speaking with me and quickly responsive and open to coming in to speak with my team. He was also very flexible to work around our schedule as we were unsure when the funeral would be and we were not  able to lock down a date for his onsite visit. Ben was very understanding, open and comfortable to communicate with, and that comfort extended to my team when he came in to meet with us in-person. Ben led our team through a grief counseling session and provided a safe and open space for our team to grieve. I appreciated how much time was spent allowing us to speak openly about our memories and feelings. Ben also gave us concrete tools to use as we process our grief. Ben also held a few private individual sessions with our team, and I received positive feedback after those as well. Amid the upheaval and uncertainty after a colleague's death, Ben provided genuine care, support and flexibility. From a Human Resources professional of a New York City business employing  200 people.

• Just a note to say thank you so very much for your professionalism and the sensitive way in which you handled helping the Republic Clothing Family move towards the process of healing. Our employees have expressed their profound thanks in the way you were able to address each person in making them feel validated in their grief. Your approach and sensitivity during the communal session to our loss was very helpful in showing that there was not just one person that felt the loss but that we all felt it in different ways and sharing those thoughts out load helped in making the mood lighter because we were able to realize that it is a shared grief. The individual sessions were also a great idea for those employees who needed it and they have all praised your approach in helping them to cope. Again, thank you so very much, the Republic Clothing Family truly valued our meeting with you. Sandy Leon-Gonzalez, Director Human Resources, Republic Clothing Corp.

16 Best Books About Dealing with Grief

Our Clinical Director, Miriam Benhaim, Ph.D., and our Executive Director, R. Benyamin Cirlin, LCSW, were recently interviewed for a New York Magazine article about books dealing with grief and loss. Below is an excerpt of the article. While no single text can offer a simple answer, we’ve compiled a list of books that can, at the very least, help you better understand the grieving process. “When we suffer core-level losses, the narrative arc of our life stories is torn apart,” explains Dr. Miriam Benhaim, clinical director of the Center for Loss and Renewal. “There are no shortcuts in this process, but books can help to repair and rewrite those narratives as we learn about the stories and struggles of those who have gone before us in meeting these challenges and in validating our feelings and reactions.” https://nymag.com/strategist/article/best-books-grief.html