My book, A Mother Apart: how to let go of guilt and find happiness living apart from your child, is a compassionate and reassuring self-help book for women living apart from their children, whatever the cause or reason.
A Mother Apart can help you if you are...
• A mum who has regular or sporadic contact or access with her children
• A mother who no longer sees her child due to family break up
• A partner, grandmother, family member, or friend who is supporting a mother apart
• A social worker, family court or legal professional working with Children Act Proceedings who would like to better understand mothers living apart from their children
It can also help if you are...
• A woman who is divorced or in the process of divorcing or separating from the father of your children
• A mum who has lost residency or custody and needs help with managing grief and trauma of separation
• A mother who has residency or custody and would like to know how to manage shared parenting more effectively
• A birth mother whose children have been adopted or fostered, a mum whose child has been abducted abroad or mother who been rejected by an adult child
However you came to live apart from your children, A Mother Apart provides understanding approaches to help you manage complex situations and strong emotions, including how to:
• Understand and free yourself from excessive guilt and shame manage difficult feelings connected with pain, loss, anger, grief and trauma
• Explore and find positive ways of dealing with circumstances such as being stigmatised, judged, rejected and excluded through parental alienation tactics
• Learn the art of big hearted mothering: deep love from afar, over time
• Build confidence to integrate your life as a mother apart from your child and independent woman
• Review and develop your relationship with your child
• Develop amicable shared parenting relationships with your child’s father, your ex husband or partner’s new partner and other family members
• Make decisions about your future, including having new relationships, remarrying, having another baby and being a stepmother, with confidence.
• Fully appreciate how the capacity to love deeply from afar makes you one of the most extraordinary mothers in the world
As a BACP Accredited counsellor with wide ranging experience in helping divorced and separated mothers, my dearest wish is that you will find plenty of experience, practical strategies, tips and above all, hope in the book.
You deserve a full and happy life!
A Mother Apart reviews:
“If you are newly apart or have been apart for a long time after family breakdown, whether your children or children have adopted or fostered, whether your child has been abducted abroad or whether your adult child has rejected you after a family row, you’ll find tender understanding, practical help and insightful advice from Sarah. Her compassionate tutoring will help ease your sorrow, enabling you to finally reach that place of peaceful harmony within yourself. With Sarah’s help, if you want to, you’ll acquire the skills and knowledge needed to find that happiness you richly deserve.” Penny Cross, Chair of MATCH (Mothers Apart from Their Children) and author of ‘Lost Children’.
“I just wanted to let you know that your book has been a smash hit so far with the women in my organization! They LOVE it. I will continue to spread the word! Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for such a wonderful resource!” Beverly Morris, President of the National Association of Non Custodial Moms (NANCM), US
“This was a very moving book, well organised and useful. Every chapter has a theme, and it can be read in sections, with examples of individual situations. The overwhelming impression of positive energy and making the best of a bad situation, coping with grief, change and loss. If the word “parent” or ”father” had been substituted for the word "mother", it would describe perfectly the experience of most FNF members and their families.” Andrew Casey, FNF Office (Families Need Fathers)
“A thoughtful and sensitive guide to a difficult issue” Psychologies Magazine
“If you are a woman living apart from your children, take this book as your companion and on the lumpy, bumpy journey toward a healthier life. Much more than a self-help book, Mothers apart is rich with insight, compassion and a practical focused plan for developing different patterns of self care. This book is also a superb resource for the practitioner who supports the growing and diverse range on non-resident mothers eager to write their healing stories” Diana L Gustafson, Associate Professor, Faculty of medicine, Memorial University
“An indispensible guide for mothers living without their children: profound, compassionate, realistic, hopeful and creative. A wonderful source for healing and reparation, it holds the wisdom of one who has come through this unique and rarely understood trauma. I wish it had existed years ago.” Rosie Jackson, author of ‘Mothers Who Leave’
“A much-needed perspective for women who are re-examining their roles and responsibilities as mothers.” Maria Housden, author of ‘Unravelled’
To read articles about my book and my story, use the links below:
