A Mother Apart has been written to relieve the isolation of the many women separated from their child who say, ‘I thought I was the only one’.

The number of mothers living apart from their children continues to rise. Women leave their children, lose custody, lose touch, choose part-time motherhood or find themselves with no contact at all, for a whole range of reasons. A Mother Apart: How to let go of guilt and find happiness living apart from your child moves beyond the stigma linked to mothers who leave their children and offers understanding and practical support to help mothers come to terms with their emotions as they adjust and come to terms with life apart from their child. This book provides insight and sympathetic approaches to help manage complex situations and strong emotions, including how to:

• understand and free yourself from excessive guilt and other difficult feelings
• grieve your loss and move on with an open heart
• learn the art of big hearted mothering: deep love from afar, over time
• find positive ways to integrate your life as a mother apart and independent woman
• fully appreciate how the capacity to love deeply from afar makes you one of the most extraordinary mothers in the world

The book’s primary audience is mothers who consciously choose to leave their children, and mothers who find themselves separated due to circumstances out of their control i.e. losing custody, children taken into care, mental illness or abduction. The secondary audience is new partners, relatives and friends with an interest in understanding and supporting the primary audience; counsellors working with women apart from their children; and services that support women going through divorce and separation.