More Seminars for Therapists

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Led by Lynn Grodzki, LCSW, MCC and Margaret Wehrenberg

New 6-session Zoom Seminar starts in June 2026

After the overwhelming response to the webinar Letting Go of the Work You Love: Navigating Retirement for Therapists with Integrity and Compassion, participants asked for more—more time for reflection, deeper dialogue with peers, and more guidance to support either their own retirement journey or the challenges faced by their older clients.

We’re delighted to introduce a new, in-depth professional support and training group. This six-session program meets twice monthly for ninety minutes, offering 9 clinical hours of focused learning and collegial connection. Through structured exploration, experiential exercises, and shared discussion, participants gain the tools and community needed to approach retirement with steadiness, clarity, and confidence.

Led by Lynn Grodzki and Margaret Wehrenberg—co-authors of Letting Go of the Work You Love—each meeting integrates warmth, expertise, and the practical wisdom of their Readiness for Retirement Model. Sessions draw directly from their companion workbook (available in print and digital formats), creating a guided pathway through the emotional, ethical, and relational challenges of retirement. Each group includes live online lecture via Zoom, structured teaching, guided discussion, and time for participant questions.

Overview

Erikson identified later life as a distinct developmental stage—one that invites individuals to integrate their life’s work and cultivate a sense of completion and contentment. Yet many struggle to move through this phase without guidance. Retirement often stirs fears around identity, relevance, daily structure, and the loss of meaningful contribution. When left unexamined, these emotional challenges can intensify anxiety and even lead to a sense of despair about one’s future purpose.

Many people approach retirement with a “Ready, Fire, Aim” mindset—leaping into a major life transition with minimal preparation and a great deal of unspoken anxiety. For therapists, however, the landscape is uniquely complex. Beyond financial logistics, retirement requires grappling with profound identity shifts, ethical considerations, and the emotional weight of bringing long-term therapeutic relationships to thoughtful closure. Without intentional reflection and practical planning, this transition can feel destabilizing—despite offering enormous potential for meaning, integrity, and renewed purpose.

Therapists, in particular, stand at a complicated crossroads. While navigating their own retirement decisions, they are also called upon to help clients face midlife and late-career transitions. When clinicians take time to understand and process their own readiness to retire, they become better equipped—emotionally, ethically, and clinically—to guide others through this life stage with clarity, compassion, and skill.

If you’ve been wanting a place to talk openly with colleagues about this life phase—but haven’t had the framework or the community—this group is designed for you.

Across six sessions, participants will:

• Explore the emotional, ethical, and identity-based tasks of retirement
• Clarify what kind of retirement truly fits their values and lifestyle
• Build the psychological, relational, and practical foundation for a successful      transition
• Develop more skill, language and concepts to help those you counsel navigate their      retirement better 
• Engage in small-group discussions that foster reflection, insight, and peer support

This series expands on the themes of Letting Go of the Work You Love: A Workbook for Therapists to Prepare for Retirement, Close a Practice, and End a Career with Integrity (PESI 2025), and builds on the foundation established in the workshop offered by Leading Edge Institute (2025.) Each session will focus on specific chapters or concepts, allowing for:

• More in-depth exploration
• Application to clinical work and personal retirement planning
• Opportunities  for participants to reflect, discuss, and bring brief examples

Clinical Applications

Therapists will also strengthen their skills in supporting clients who are aging out of professions built on helping or serving others—including physicians, attorneys, educators, financial advisors, massage therapists, and more. Participants will learn to recognize and address retirement anxiety, an often-overlooked driver of stress, depression, relationship conflict, and emotional upheaval in midlife. Integrating this knowledge enhances treatment outcomes across presentations related to anxiety, stress, mood, identity, and life transitions.

Understanding retirement anxiety equips you to better support clients whose sense of worth has been shaped by what they do—high achievers, caregivers, creatives, professionals. This competence supports more effective, values-based therapeutic conversations about endings, transitions and the next chapter of life.

Who Should Attend

• Therapists      preparing for retirement within the next 1–10 years
• Clinicians      supporting clients navigating work or career transitions
• Helping      professionals seeking a reflective, supportive space with expert      facilitation
• Anyone      wanting a roadmap—not guesswork—for a purposeful next chapter

Format

Six, ninety-minute, twice-a-month sessions • Live and interactive
Small-group discussion • CE credits available (platform may adjust)

Session Breakdown

SESSION 1 — Precontemplation & Identity

Why therapists struggle to step back from work, and how to maintain identity through the transition.

SESSION 2 — Contemplation & Your History of Endings

How attachment patterns influence endings, and how therapist guilt affects retirement decisions.

SESSION 3 — Preparation: Practical Steps

Develop your retirement timeline and checklist; shift toward a mindset of “Money Maturity.”

SESSION 4 — Emotional Readiness

Move from fear to openness; use metaphors and rituals to integrate the emotional impact of letting go.

SESSION 5 — Legacy, Values & Next-Life Chapter Planning

Redefine worth beyond work, clarify values, and identify what you want most moving forward.

SESSION 6 — Integration & Visioning

Create a personalized retirement plan using future-self imagery; leave with direction, clarity, and peer support.

Dates: June 4 & 18/ July 2 & 16/ Aug 6 & 20

Time: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM ET each session