Carolyn Gartner
Psychotherapy
Carolyn Gartner, LCSW, FT is the founder and director of The Center For Integrated Grief. She is a licensed clinical social worker and a Fellow in Thanatology (the study of dying, death, and bereavement) through the Association for Death Education and Counseling. Carolyn has advanced certifications in Grief Counseling and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. She utilizes Internal Family Systems and Jungian Shadow Work. Before becoming a therapist, Carolyn was a hospice social worker for nine years. She wrote a book about her experience: Death, Brooklyn, and the Gritty Side of Grace. Carolyn has been interviewed by Huffpost, Parade Magazine, American Tributaries Podcast, and the documentary Paw Prints. She earned a BFA from NYU Film School and utilizes narrative storytelling in her practice. In 2011, Carolyn took the Buddhist Refuge Vow. Singing is her happy place.
Leslie Marseglia
Psychotherapy
Leslie Marseglia, LMSW, is a clinical social worker in Brooklyn. She is currently enrolled in a two-year psychodynamic training program offered through the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy in New York City. Adding to her experience in grief counseling, Leslie has worked in home hospice for several years. Leslie earned an MFA in Acting from The New School and a BFA in Drama from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She credits her Meisner training to contributing to her active listening and sitting with emotions. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, she approaches her practice from a place of compassion. She loves to bake if someone else takes part in the eating.
Tania Lee
Psychotherapy
Tania Lee, LMSW, is a clinical social worker in New York and Hong Kong. She has been a social worker for more than 10 years. Her past experiences include working with children, youth, families, domestic violence victims, college students, and drug/alcohol addicts. She is fluent in both Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin) and English.
Tania earned her Master of Social Work degree from Columbia University. As a practitioner, she works with individuals and families. Her passion is in doing grief and trauma counseling. Tania believes that patience, a caring heart, empathy, and walking side-by-side with the clients are the core of therapy. Apart from this, her experiences told her that talking therapy is not enough. Thus, she acquired skills in somatic experiencing (using the body to heal from trauma), EMDR, psychodrama (using action-centered methods and group therapy to heal), etc.
Tania loves nature, being creative, and playing improv games for a good laugh. She prefers the forest over the beach.
Matilda Garrido
Pet Loss Specialist
Concetta Abbate
Death Doula
Sound & Memory, founded by violinist/composer and NEDA proficient Death Doula Concetta Abbate, is a music and arts memorial service that provides personalized memorial offerings including live music, original music compositions, recordings and workshops. We explore innovative ways to incorporate music into contemporary rituals for both grief and death, as tradition evolves over time. Our belief is that music has the power to strengthen communities facing the loss of a loved one by evoking the legacy of that person's life.
Introduction to Leslie
Introduction to Tania
Introduction to Matilda
How we got Started
Therapy on the Stoop
Carolyn's training is rooted in home hospice care in the heart of Brooklyn. Therapy was sometimes at the bedside of the dying person. In many instances, Carolyn found herself perched on the closed lid of a commode (a portable toilet) in the confines of cramped apartments, providing compassionate support to a caregiver holding their loved one's hand.
One poignant memory stands out—a warm day as the sun dipped below the horizon, Carolyn sat on a brownstone stoop alongside a caregiver, patiently awaiting the arrival of the funeral home. This caregiver, an only child raised by a single mother, was a testament to the unique bonds formed in the face of loss.
Our center was born out of the profound experiences gained from guiding individuals through the complexities of the end-of-life process and understanding how these experiences shape the grieving journey. We embrace a holistic approach that extends support not only to caregivers before the inevitable but also to those who are navigating the challenging path of grief afterward.
We are able to transform our experiences to serving grievers whose loved ones have died in other ways; either by suicide, accident, pregnancy loss or natural disaster. We apply our specialized training to non-death-related losses as well—be it the dissolution of a marriage, the loss of employment, or even the abandonment of a cherished goal. Ambiguous loss, a concept we embrace, encompasses situations where closure remains elusive. We also address the intricacies of living losses, the losses that are ongoing and indefinite, intertwined with the experience of chronic illness or caregiving.
At the core of our philosophy lies the harmonious fusion of function and intuition. We seamlessly integrate clinical tools with the art of empathetic connection. We are not just professionals; we are compassionate humans attuned to the unique needs of our clients.
