Remembering Paul
Pavel Moiseevich Kasyanik was Paul to his international colleagues. He was an important figure in the international growth of Schema Therapy, and a pioneering teacher and trainer in Russia and Eastern Europe.
Generations of Schema Therapists learned the model from him. Paul helped develop Group Schema Therapy and supported new training programs and institutes internationally. He gave generously of his knowledge, and of himself.
Paul was also an accomplished academic and organizational leader. At Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, he served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology. Within ISST, he held two terms on the Executive Board, with responsibilities in science, research, and certification. With his wife and colleague, Elena Romanova, he founded the St. Petersburg Schema Therapy Institute, and his creative work enriched the experiential and group methods of Schema Therapy.
Paul was with JYSTA from the start. As a founding member of the Training Committee, he shaped the planning and strategic direction of our educational work. At our inaugural symposium he co-presented a keynote on Dr. Jeffrey Young's Evidence-Based Model of Schema Therapy. That talk helped set the intellectual and clinical tone we wanted the new organization to have.
A list of positions misses most of who Paul was.
Paul died in September 2026. Tributes followed from Schema Therapists around the world. Colleagues and former students wrote about the same things again and again: his wisdom, kindness, patience, generosity and warmth, his scientific mind, and an extraordinary gift for mentoring. Many remembered less what he taught than how it felt to learn from him: to be taken seriously, encouraged, challenged with care, and supported.
“Schema Therapy was present in the way he lived, in the way he treated people, and in his warmth, authenticity, humour, wisdom, and belief in goodness. Paul's warm smile and the faith he placed in others will remain in my heart forever.”
Ilona Krone, Latvia
In Paul, the model and the man were hard to separate. His mentoring joined intellectual rigor with humanity. He would question assumptions and insist on careful scientific thinking, while staying gentle, curious, and respectful toward the person in front of him. For many students, supervisees, colleagues, and friends, Paul showed what the Healthy Adult and limited reparenting look like outside the therapy room.
Anna Barabanova, whom he supervised, still hears him in her own work. When she pushed back on his suggestions, he would answer calmly: “Anetchka, before you agree, first listen and try, and then we'll talk.” She wrote that her Healthy Adult mode will always speak in his voice.
His influence lives on in the clinicians he trained, the colleagues he inspired, and the communities he helped build. It lives on, too, in the many people who now teach and mentor others because Paul once did the same for them.