Cut off without answers: the family estrangement epidemic hiding in plain sight

Richard L. Blake PhD

As parents struggle with the pain of estrangement, psychology researcher Richard L. Blake asks whether therapy culture could be driving families apart.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, October 15, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A few years ago, parents started reaching out to Richard L. Blake PhD with the same painful question: why had their adult child cut them off? These parents were often struggling to understand what had gone wrong, having in some cases been cut off overnight.

“Then I started posting about this on social media and it blew up,” says Blake.

The response Blake got brought home the human cost of an issue that is affecting millions of people. A 2025 YouGov survey found that 38% of US adults were estranged from at least one close family member, including 16% from a parent.

For families living with the weight of this silence, these numbers represent missed conversations, lost contact, and severed relationships. For Blake, the numbers also raised a difficult question: what is causing this epidemic? And more worryingly, could some of the advice intended to help people actually be contributing to the breakdown?

“When I went into this topic, I thought that therapy was universally useful,” says Blake, who has a PhD in psychology, a postgraduate certificate in psychotherapy, and personal experience of therapy. “Then I realised how many people were being treated unfairly and how many people were being brainwashed by bad therapy.”

In his debut book, Cut Off: How therapy culture is fuelling the parental estrangement epidemic, Blake examines how therapy culture may be shaping the way that people understand their childhood and their relationship with their parents—and how it may be influencing their decision to cut off contact.

The book gives space to parents whose experiences Blake argues are too often dismissed. He states, “It is mostly for decent parents who have had their past rewritten by bad therapy. It is not for parents who were genuinely abusive to their children. It is also for the adult children who may be on the slippery slope of reinterpreting their upbringing in a much more negative light.”

Blake’s aim is clear: “To help people see that they are not alone in this. To help people who are confused by what happened in their family.”

For anyone affected by estrangement or wondering why families are being pulled apart, Cut Off offers a perspective that asks readers to look beyond the silence.

With a foreword by Ulrika Jonsson, Cut Off is published by The Book Shelf Press on 6th October 2026 and is now available on Amazon.

About Richard L. Blake PhD
Richard L. Blake, PhD, is a British psychology researcher and author based in Austin, Texas. Trained in psychotherapy, he researches mental health culture, anxiety, and breathwork, exploring why rising access to treatment has not brought falling rates of mental illness. His book, Cut Off, examines the role of therapy culture in family estrangement. He is Vice President of the ESMH Coalition and is working on his next book, The Anxiety Industry.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-l-blake-ph-d-86a96022/
Website: www.cutoffbook.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_breath_geek/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the_breath_geek

Notes to editors
• Review copies available on request.
• Author available for interviews.
• High-resolution author photographs available.
• Book cover images available.
• Additional commentary on AI leadership and relational intelligence available.

Book details
Title: Cut Off
Author: Richard L. Blake PhD
Publisher: The Book Shelf Press
Publication date: 6th October 2026
ISBN: 978-1066725007
RRP: £16.99
Available from Amazon and major online retailers

Ameesha Green
The Book Shelf Press
ameesha@thebookshelfpress.com
Visit us on social media:
LinkedIn
Instagram