Mother left, getting therapy for cruel behaviour (12)
I believe the answer is:
maltreatment
'cruel behaviour' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'mother left getting therapy' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'mother' could be 'ma' (Ma is another word for mother or mum) and 'ma' is found in the answer.
'left' could be 'l' (common abbreviation) and 'l' is located in the answer.
'therapy' could be 'treatment' (synonyms) and 'treatment' is located in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'for' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for maltreatment that I've seen before include "Cruel handling" , "Ill-usage" , "Cruel behaviour" .)