Suzie Hayman

Counsellor

Hi, my name is Suzie Hayman. I’m a counsellor, agony aunt, parenting educator, broadcaster and author. I’ve been helping people deal with their worries and problems for almost 20 years - face to face, on the telephone, through letters, in newspaper and magazine columns and on the internet. Relationships are not easy, whether they’re loving bonds with friends and family or intimate bonds with a partner, which is why I offer my experience and training to help you explore what goes wrong, understand why and move on to make the changes you want. Being a parent can be even harder, which is the reason I do a lot of work with and for parents, either by running parenting courses, coaching on the phone and writing on the many issues. I’m a trustee and passionate supporter of the parenting charity ParentlinePlus. I worked on its parenting courses and on publications - in print and online - and continue to work with it to support parents by being a spokesperson in the media. I’m available to help you make your family life happier - not by telling you what to do but by supporting you in finding your solutions and putting them into practice. There are no judgements in my work, only answers.

I originally trained as a teacher, and later worked with Relate to become a counsellor, and with Triple P (Positive Parenting Programme), to be accredited as a parenting practitioner. I’ve also worked for the Family Planning Association and Brook Advisory Centres, and am also a trustee for The Who Cares Trust, for looked after children.

I’ve written 28 books on parenting, relationship and health issues. Four are in the successful Teach Yourself series: Be A Great Step-Parent, Be A Great Single Parent, Raise A Happy Teenager and Be More Assertive (Hodder Educational, 2010). I’ve written about coping with relationship breakdowns: Moving on; Breaking up Without Breaking Down (Ebury 2001), and on keeping relationships alive: Make Your Honeymoon Last (Hodder and Stoughton 2000). This is as well as writing about sexual relationships in books including Tantric Sex, Sexual Fantasy, and The Good Sex Guide Abroad (all Carlton - 2002/1995).

I frequently appear in the UK media as a counsellor and agony aunt, including:

• In a family column for Woman magazine

• As the agony aunt for Woman's Own magazine, BBC Health Online and the ‘Family’ supplement of the Saturday Guardian and The Times

• As the counsellor seen guiding five families through their family dilemmas on the major BBC1 series Stepfamilies

• Appearances on BBC Breakfast, Woman’s Hour, You and Yours, BBC 5Live, BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and many local stations

As a freelance journalist I’ve written features, mainly on parenting, relationship, sex, health and counselling matters, for a wide range of national magazines and newspapers, most recently The Times, Independent and the Guardian. I’ve conceived and written leaflets and website material for ParentlinePlus, the NSPCC, One Parent Families, the Family Planning Association, Parenting UK and Brook Advisory Centres including a Young Mums Guide for OPF and the magazine Hands Off for the NSPCC. I also contribute voluntarily to Who Cares?, the magazine for kids in care produced by The Who Cares Trust.

Oh - and I am a stepmother, a (very youthful!) grandmother and have been married for more years than I like to think.

As you can see, families and children are what motivates me. I think it’s important to raise the issues around parenting in public as often as possible. It is easy to feel incompetent and incapable when you run aground on the many difficulties parenting, and relationships, throw in your way. It helps to hear that so many of the issues that bother us are actually common and normal, and experienced by lots of other people, and are not because of your ineffectiveness or the wickedness of your children but are simply par for the course.