Hasseldine was born and raised in New Zealand by Dutch immigrants and started her career as an elementary school teacher in Christchurch, and earned a Bachelor of Education from the University of Canterbury.

Her first book The Silent Female Scream [1] was published in 2007 and cited in Melissa Shani Brown's doctoral research on silence.

She asserts that the relationships between mothers and daughters are entirely central to a healthy life not only for women but for society as a whole.” [4]In 2017 Hasseldine taught the Women in Leadership course as an adjunct professor at Paul College of Business & Economics at the University of New Hampshire and also founded Mother-Daughter Coaching International to provide training and resources for mental health professionals and relationship coaches on how to heal mother-daughter conflict and trauma.

These causes are represented in the hurt, jealousy, guilt and shame that clients experience and are made worse by the rise in the use of mother-blaming in society.

In this sense Hasseldine has followed on from and continued the pioneering work of Carol Gilligan, Lyn Mikel Brown, Jean Baker Miller, Paula Caplan and Susie Orbach.