An interview with Robbie Steinhouse

Sure. Five people attend a therapy retreat in the Devon countryside. They are made to face up to painful aspects of themselves – but how deep will this go, and will they be able to make the changes they need in the time available?

The therapy’s founder is on hand to help. He seems a wise, mature, calming figure – but he, too, has his own secrets, which events force him to face up to.

Firstly, that people who create great things can also be very flawed individuals. Often it is their attempt to atone for their past behaviour that allows something extraordinary to emerge.

Also that, beyond financial success, people have a universal need to discover meaning and purpose, which often coincides with a desire to heal their emotional wounds. I believe everyone wants to live a happy life but are often unsure how. I wanted to create something for readers that would provide some of these benefits without their having to attend a retreat like the Process, which can be costly and time consuming.

I wanted them to enjoy a cracking good read too!

Exactly. I found that many self-help books are repetitive, boring and over-earnest – basically hard going! I wanted to see if I could make a self-help book a fun, engaging and exciting read. I set myself this target: self-help in a pacy thriller.

I grew up with a godparent called Henry who came from Austria. He had escaped the Holocaust and came to England in his twenties in the 1930s. He retained an upper middle-class Germanic identity.

Jacob’s story is around identity and purpose. He survived the Holocaust as a Kindertransport, a child refugee. In 1930s Britain, the Chamberlain government agreed to let a quota of Jewish children in but denied their parents entry. This meant an almost certain death for their parents and survivor’s guilt for these children. Jacob’s father’s last words to him before leaving Germany aged six were, “You must survive, not just for you, but for the family.” Jacob initially believes it is his duty to survive himself, produce a family and earn enough to ensure that they can survive any potential future dangers from antisemitism. However, tragedy strikes him again and he tries various different ways to fulfil a sense of purpose, until he creates the Process.

Yes, but of course he has done other things before that, and these could come back to bite him…

The characters that attend the process have a range of psychological problems that I have noticed in many of the people I have worked with professionally. They have issues with things like self-worth, grief, belonging, relationships and work. I hope that many readers will identify some of these problems in their own lives, and have a vicarious healing journey – along, as I’ve said, with a pacy and fun read.

She is loosely based on my first therapist, Lois Evans, to whom the book is dedicated. She was also American and based in the UK. She had a no-nonsense sense of working with people. She was direct, creative and created great relationships with her clients. I felt she genuinely cared for me.

Of course. Nothing is as it first seems. I think that makes good storytelling. I’ve certainly found it true in real life!