Estrangement Reconciliation Therapy

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Joshua Coleman, PhD Related seminars and products

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Joshua Coleman, PhD, is a psychologist in private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area and a Senior Fellow with the Council on Contemporary Families, a non-partisan organization of leading sociologists, historians, psychologists, and demographers dedicated to providing the press and public with the latest research and best-practice findings about American families. He is the author of several books, including Rules of Estrangement: Why Adult Children Cut Ties and How to Heal the Conflict, and When Parents Hurt: Compassionate Strategies When You and Your Grown Child Don’t Get Along. Dr. Coleman has written for numerous newspapers and magazines, including Atlantic Magazine, Psychology Today, The New York Times, and CNN.com. He has television and radio appearances including on NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, Sesame Street, and NPR. 

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Joshua Coleman maintains a private practice. He receives royalties as a published author. Dr. Coleman receives a speaking honorarium from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Joshua Coleman is a senior fellow with the Council on Contemporary Families.

Additional Info

“Joshua Coleman, a thought leader in the area of family estrangement, has written a masterpiece on reconciliation therapy that will help clinicians learn the skills to reunite families without injury. In Estrangement Reconciliation Therapy, Coleman is thoughtful about the causes and firm about what works to repair families.”

—Nedra Glover Tawwab, author of Set Boundaries, Find Peace and licensed therapist

“First, let me say that I genuinely loved this book. It’s quite an amazing feat—Dr. Coleman has somehow distilled his perspective and experience in such a clear way. Estrangement Reconciliation Therapy fills a significant gap in clinical training: despite how common family estrangement has become, few therapists receive any formal preparation for treating it. Coleman addresses that gap with unusual clarity, distilling complicated dynamics into clear, accessible analysis and practical advice, supported by worksheets clients can use directly. The book’s scope is comprehensive, addressing the full spectrum of issues therapists face with estranged parents. Its tone is realistic rather than falsely reassuring, offering real hope rooted in sustained therapeutic work rather than gimmicks. I recommend it not only to therapists but to anyone navigating estrangement themselves.”

—Karl Pillemer, Cornell sociologist and author of Fault Lines

“Family estrangement has become one of the defining relationship challenges of our time. Yet therapists receive little training in how to help families reconnect. Dr. Joshua Coleman’s groundbreaking book fills that gap brilliantly. It is the clinical manual therapists have been waiting for. Combining deep clinical wisdom with practical, immediately usable strategies, Coleman helps therapists understand the many pathways to estrangement and offers clear guidance about what to do, when to do it, and why. Rich with illuminating clinical examples and practical worksheets, this indispensable resource belongs on the bookshelf of every therapist working with families.”

—Michele Weiner-Davis, LCSW, author of Divorce Busting

“As family estrangement becomes increasingly visible in contemporary society, clinicians need evidence-based approaches that acknowledge its complexity. Dr. Joshua Coleman meets that need by moving beyond simplistic narratives of blame and instead treating estrangement as a complex relational process embedded within larger cultural and generational changes. This insightful and accessible book is both theoretically informed and clinically actionable. Its worksheets, case studies, and interventions make it especially useful for practitioners and will shape conversations about estrangement for years to come.”

—Kristina Scharp, professor of communication, Rutgers University

“Clinicians are so often asked to help families through estrangement without any real framework for doing so. Dr. Joshua Coleman fills that gap with Estrangement Reconciliation Therapy. Deep, wise, and extremely hopeful, this book is an essential resource for anyone working with families at a crossroads. I can’t recommend it highly enough.”

—Dr. Galit Atlas, author of Emotional Inheritance; faculty, NYU Postdoctoral Program for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis

“I can’t imagine a more timely book for therapists. It offers a patient, disciplined, and sensitive approach to family estrangement, where wounds abound and clients’ efforts to cope often make matters worse. Coleman is the leading voice in this field, and he pours everything he has learned into this beautifully written and thoroughly practical book.”

—William J. Doherty, PhD, emeritus professor at the University of Minnesota and coauthor of Helping Couples on the Brink of Divorce: Discernment Counseling for Troubled Relationships

“While many authors are now describing noticeable increases in family estrangement, this excellent new book by Dr. Joshua Coleman provides practical guidance for therapists about how to help parents and adult children deal with these painful rifts. The very readable chapters are not focused on pushing estranged family members toward re-engagement, but in helping the generations find ways to listen to each other and to hold collaborative conversations. While written specifically for therapists working with estranged relationships, it’s also an excellent description of therapeutic techniques for therapists working with many different painful problems. Family members struggling with estrangement in their lives will find it extraordinarily useful as well.”

—Philip A. Cowan, PhD, and Carolyn Pape Cowan, PhD, professors emeriti of psychology, University of California, Berkeley, and authors of When Partners Become Parents: The Big Life Change for Couples

“Bowen and Satir built their models for families who fought inside a shared moral language; Joshua Coleman offers his for families who no longer share one. Estranged parents and adult children do not merely carry disagreements and wounds; they often hold entirely different ideas of what closeness, safety, health, obligation, and family itself mean. Coleman reads that divide with precision, and this book is his bridge across it. Estrangement Reconciliation Therapy gives clinicians a thoughtful, highly practical model for working with competing truths, asymmetries of power, grief, accountability, and hope without making either cutoff or reunion the predetermined goal. This is a rare work of clinical wisdom that refuses to trivialize a parent’s grief or an adult child’s need for protection. Whatever you believe about the causes of estrangement and the state of our cultural moment, you will be wiser and enriched for having worked through these pages.”

—Matthias Barker, LMHC, psychotherapist and founder of Estrangement.com