‘There’s still an element of men choose and woman are chosen. If you’re not chosen, you’re a spinster’ – meet the heartbreak doctors

The brains behind the world’s first Heartbreak Hotel, Alice Haddon and Ruth Field, understand the psychology of the lovelorn

Clinical psyhologist Alice Haddon and Ruth Field, former criminal barrister, run the ‘Heartbreak Hotel’

Yvonne Hogan

What becomes of the broken-hearted? Well, if they have the means they can tend to their wounds at the Heartbreak Hotel, a four-day luxury retreat across the pond in the Peak District. It’s a stunning part of England that’s enmeshed in our very concept of romance through its influence on the works of the Brontë sisters and Wordsworth, to name but a few of the literary giants who found inspiration in its hills and dales.

The retreats are the brainchild of clinical psychologist Alice Haddon, who found herself musing on the lack of therapeutic support available for those whose hopes and dreams are dashed by romantic betrayal while listening to the radio one day as a woman recounted her experience of being defrauded by a man she met and fell for online.