Head of family more distant, speaking after recurrent trouble (9)
I believe the answer is:
godfather
'head of family' is the definition.
(godfather can mean the head of a mafia family)
'more distant speaking after recurrent trouble' is the wordplay.
'more distant speaking' becomes 'father' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'after' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'recurrent' says the letters should be written in reverse (recurrent can mean turning back).
'trouble' becomes 'dog' (dog can mean to trouble or plague someone).
'dog' back-to-front is 'god'.
'father' put after 'god' is 'GODFATHER'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for godfather that I've seen before include "Religious relation, like Marlon Brando in movie" , "Mafia boss" , "Mafia chief or spiritual parent" , "Baptismal sponsor" , "leading exponent" .)