In Dialogue: John Gasiewski and Paul DelGrosso
In Dialogue
Featuring John Gasiewski and Paul DelGrosso
The Estrangement Epidemic: Schema Therapy and the Challenges, and Opportunities, of Estrangement
Tuesday, November 10, 2026 · 12:00–1:00 PM ET · Held live inside the JYSTA community on Mighty
Hosted by Travis Atkinson, LCSW, VP of Media & Communications, JYSTA
Organized by Rita Younan, VP of Events, JYSTA
About John and Paul’s Symposium Session
Seen through the lens of schema therapy, estrangement can reflect challenges for some patients and healthy limit setting for others.
Over one in four Americans reported being estranged from a relative in a recent nationwide survey (Pillemer, 2020), and the pattern may hold outside the US as well (Blake, 2015). The deprivation and isolation created by cutoffs with family members can have a lasting impact on patients’ lives, and it needs to be addressed in our work with them.
Estrangement is often explored in terms of how it happens and its impact, holding out the hope of reconciliation (Coleman, 2020; Pillemer, 2020). Schema therapy surfaces a more nuanced picture. The specific schemas and modes involved, in patients and in the important people in their lives, don’t always point to estrangement as the problem.
John and Paul look at conditions in which estrangement leads to challenging schema activation, and conditions in which it acts as a protective factor. They cover treatment pathways to heal estrangement within the client, using schema therapy, and with clients and estranged family members, using schema therapy and attachment-based family therapy. They also look at when, and if, reconciliation can take place.
How the Conversation Works
John and Paul interview each other. Paul questions John about his part of the presentation in the first half, and John questions Paul in the second.
How to Take Part
- Register in advance. This one is for JYSTA members. Registration is inside the JYSTA community on Mighty.
- Watch John and Paul’s symposium session. We are opening their full symposium presentation to members on Mighty in the days ahead. Watch it before November 10.
- Send your questions. After watching, send them to us and we will bring them into the room with John and Paul.
The conversation joins the In Dialogue library afterward, so members who cannot attend live get it.
Learning Outcomes for Mental Health Clinicians
- Describe schema and mode combinations that call for an attempt to bridge estrangement to allow for schema healing
- Describe schema and mode combinations that call for supporting estrangement to allow for schema healing
- Differentiate between the need for full and partial estrangement (limit setting) with patients and their family and friends
- Explain treatment pathways to heal estrangement within the client (using schema therapy) and with clients and estranged family members (using schema therapy and attachment-based family therapy)