The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 4 letter word AGONY AUNT
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
A
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More clues leading to the result AGONY AUNT
- Suffering relative who gives advice periodically?
- . Nato guy an awful problem-solver
- Soldier for instance carrying on, a guy trained to be an adviser
- She advises social worker to house a young criminal
- Columnist shot in a city in front of relative
- Writer of article about guy: an awful time without love?
- Anton, a guy in trouble columnist exposed
- Soldier shackling a young rogue, one solving others’ problems?
- In Guyana, not renewing a correspondent and adviser
- One like Madeley, e.g., ‘she’ could be a guy, not an …
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Columnist" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case columnist = agony aunt.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.