suzie hayman

Biography

Suzie Hayman trained as a counsellor with Relate and volunteered with them for 5 years, is an accredited TripleP (Positive Parenting Programme) parenting educator, a broadcaster and author of thirty books. She writes an advice column for Woman magazine. She has written weekly columns in The Times and the Saturday Guardian, has been the agony aunt for Woman’s Own magazine and BBC Health Online and was the counsellor seen guiding five families through their family dilemmas on the major BBC1 series, “Stepfamilies”. She was one of the founding agony aunts in Kids In The Middle, an alliance of agony aunts and charities, lobbying for increased support for children caught up in family breakdown. She has worked for the Family Planning Association, Brook and Family Lives.

She is a trustee and spokesperson for Family Lives, the major UK parenting charity, and contributes articles and appears in a variety of podcasts on their website. She is a trustee of The Who Cares Trust, for “looked after” children and contributes to “Who Cares?”, and “Who Cares Junior”, magazines for kids in care produced by The Trust. She is patron of Unique Kidz and Co, which provides specialist services for disabled children and their families.  She makes frequent appearances on national and local television and radio on programmes such as BBC Breakfast, You and Yours, PM and Women’s Hour  and is a regular on BBC 5Live, BBC Scotland and BBC Wales as well as many local BBC and commercial stations. She has also been an occasional presenter on her local BBC radio station, BBC Radio Cumbria. She is a freelance journalist and has written features, mainly on parenting, relationship, health, sex and counselling matters, for a wide range of national magazines and newspapers – most recently the Times, Daily Mail, Guardian and Independent. She has conceived and written leaflets and website material for Family Lives, Drinkaware, the NSPCC, One Parent Families, the Family Planning Association and Brook including a Young Mum’s Guide for OPF,  “Hands Off” for the NSPCC and “Say Yes, Say No, Say Maybe” for Brook. She is regularly asked to give expert comment in national and local media and to speak at conferences and to give seminars on a wide range of issues to do with relationships and parenting.  

She has had 30 books published, helping parents, families and individuals to manage issues  such as stepfamilies, being a single parent, communicating with teenagers, having a happy family life,  managing family breakdown and assertiveness. She has also written on sexual fantasy and tantric sex.

Education

BA Hons Newcastle University 1972

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Having trained as a teacher and relationship counsellor her expertise covers anything that might appear in an agony aunt's mail bag or in a counsellor's counselling room. Parenting - from first time to separated, single to step.  Relationships - from friendships to marriage, straight or gay. Sex, from vanilla to fantasy and well beyond. From encouraging communication and assertiveness,  to enabling happy families,  to supporting people through breakdown and separation.

Personal Interests

She lives in a 300 year old farmhouse with Vic, her husband, and 2 cats. She has one stepson and one granddaughter, loves fine wine, good food, fell walking ..... and Vic! Her downtime reading tends to science fiction and fantasy. She loves film with a bent towards CGI and animation, and some tv with Game Of Thrones, The Big Bang Theory and almost all Scandi Noir as favourites. Her musical tastes are eclectic, from Mozart to The Eagles.

Books