Sarah and David Abell

Sarah started her career as a BBC news reporter before sensing God’s call to marriage education in 2000. After training in Family Ministry with YWAM, she spent seven years working on staff at Alpha International, helping to develop and produce The Marriage and Pre-Marriage Courses with Nicky and Sila Lee.

It was during this time that she met David, who was then working as a dentist, on a CWR Christian Counselling Course. He also had a heart for helping people build strong relationships and just six months after our first date, having been sped along mightily by a mis-sent text message, we were married.

Five years into marriage, Sarah was commissioned to write “Inside Out – How to have authentic relationships with everyone in your life” by Hodder and Stoughton and we also started fertility treatment. The book and our son Jed, came into the world in 2009, within a month of each other.

Shortly after, Sarah trained as a coach. She then became the Agony Aunt for the Daily Telegraph as well as a regular columnist for both Psychologies magazine and Christian Today. David was still working as a dentist but we coached couples and led relationship courses in our spare time.

Life became very exciting in 2012 when we managed to lose five jobs between us in the space of three months. It was an opportunity to seek God and re-evaluate what we were doing, which led to us moving to Bristol and deciding to work together full time. We set up Naked Hedgehogs and produced online courses designed to help people build more authentic relationships, whilst continuing to coach couples together. We also took on consultancy work for Care for the Family and the Family Stability Network (FASTN).

Shortly after arriving in Bristol, we were asked to head up the marriage ministry at Christ Church, Clifton and became the South West UK representatives for The Marriage Course. We also became co-facilitators of Love Family (the family sphere of Together4Bristol) which encourages churches to work with the council and others, to provide couple and parenting support across the city.

As well as the Marriage Course, we have facilitated or run the following resources and courses: Marriage by Design, Let’s Stick Together, Hold me Tight, Created for Connection, The Relationships Course, and The Marriage Sessions. We have also trained in EFT, Gottman Method, Robbins-Madanes, Freedom Prayer, FOCCUS, introduction to Sexual Therapy, Michele Weiner-Davis healing from Infidelity, Prepare/Enrich and Developmental Model training at The Couple’s Institute.

We regularly speak on relationships and have presented at Spring Harvest, Mulberry House, Brunel Manor, Way with Words, Trinity College and HTB’s Home Focus. Sarah has also given two TEDx talks on authentic relationships. Speaking vulnerably is a theme in all our talks. We are happy to share examples of our mistakes and the tough times we have had, because we believe it helps normalise the ups and downs of marriage for others.

Whilst we love working together, we realise that we bring different strengths and weaknesses to the marriage. David is great at detail but Sarah not so much. David is the consolidator and Sarah the expander. David prefers his back stage and Sarah is happy to be on the front stage.

Sarah is regularly featured in the media and has been interviewed or written for the following shows or publications on the subject of relationships: the Vanessa Show, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 5, BBC Ulster, UCB, TBN and Premier Radio, The Evening Standard, The Daily Express, The Daily Telegraph, Christianity, Woman Alive, Mumsnet, Good Housekeeping, Red, Easy Living, She, Woman’s Weekly, Pregnancy and Birth, Marie Claire, the Evening Standard and Top Santé.

David meanwhile helps Sarah with editing, robust research and pointing out areas for improvement. Together, we enjoy being a team (except for those moments, when we don’t!). And when we’re not helping couples, we can often be found playing board games or football with Jed (and Roxie the Cavapoo) or surrounded by Lego. Lots and lots and lots of Lego.