The first floor of a seafront hotel in Brighton was the scene for an eclectic market of worldly and spiritual services. There were lawyers and psychic healers, financial consultants and shoe retailers, chocolate makers and probate solicitors.

A debt consultant provided hard-headed advice on how to extricate oneself from the clutches of credit-card companies. He shared a stall with a woman who offered to redesign clients’ spiritual lives according to the principles of feng shui. A chiropractor stood alongside a lady selling activity holidays to Italy.

This was Britain’s first divorce fair, offering everything that a divorcing couple could possibly want and some things they might not have known they needed.

Some of the 300 or so visitors to the fair, for instance, may have known they would need to change their will as a result of their divorce. They perhaps did not realise that they may also need to change the colour of their clothes and their living space as part of the separation process. Four very friendly ladies, all trained “colour psychologists” were on hand to explain.

For those looking for a more spiritual end to their marriage, outside on Brighton beach three ministers of the Rhythm of Life non-denominational church enacted a “ceremony of separation”. The ministers frequently preside over weddings and funerals but they claim there is now a demand among separating couples for a similar ritual to inaugurate their divorce.

The Rev Lucy Wintle said: “It might begin with the couple lighting three candles, to represent the time they had together. We would have a fire prepared of twigs, to represent the couple letting go of their pain and upset in a ritualistic way. We would try to involve the children, forgiving the parents for arguments that had happened. We would also have music.”

Another Rhythm of Life minister, the Rev Estelle Williams, told The Times: “There are now 350 ministers, every year 50 more get ordained, and we are hoping to offer this service all over the country.”

The world’s first divorce fair was held in Vienna in 2007 to find out the needs and spending habits of newly separated couples. As well as getting legal and financial advice, divorcing Austrians could engage the services of private detectives. These were not present in Brighton yesterday because the organisers hoped the event would be run in a more positive spirit, though at least one visitor confided that she might like to speak to one.

The Starting Over Show was organised by Suzy Miller, 44, from East Sussex, who separated from her partner in 2003 and who now runs an online services directory. “I wanted the sort of exhibition that I would have liked when I went through it,” she said.

Her own research suggests that in the three years after a divorce, as well as seeking legal and financial advice, divorcees are more likely to spend money on themselves.

Divorce may be a painful business, but it can also be good business, and even something of a growth industry.

As well as the 140,000 couples in Britain who divorce each year, there are the separations of an increasing number of cohabiting couples and the breakdown of civil partnerships. The family law organisation Resolution (represented, naturally, at yesterday’s fair) expects the number of break-ups to rise during the recession.

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