‘Koumpounophobia’ may be one of the strangest phobias of them all, and not just because of its weird name. To a non-sufferer the fear of buttons may seem almost comical, irrational to the point of silliness, but to those afflicted it’s no laughing matter. We can all...

If there’s one single ‘problem’ that comes up time and again in consultations with clients, whether in the context of their business or their personal life, it’s this: motivation, or the lack of it. ‘How can I motivate myself?’ is a recurring question, and there’s a...

My mother’s name is Jacqui, and she has a very special talent. She’s a card player with a competitive streak that took her all the way to the Commonwealth Games, where she became a grandmaster. Her specialty was bridge, but she has always excelled in games of all...

If there’s one thing hypnotherapy has taught me over many years of study and daily practice, it’s that we humans are open to suggestion to a very large degree. To some this may seem like a trivial observation, even a cliché. To me it’s an absolute truth, one that I’ve...

I woke up with a pain in my lower back. I thought I’d soon shake it off but after my shower it was still hanging around. I knew I hadn’t slept awkwardly, so I tried to remember what it was I must have done the previous day to put a strain on myself. Nothing came to...

The answer is a definite ‘yes’. In fact I witness them most days. There’s nothing strange or mystical about that. It all depends on how you define a miracle. I have a scar on my hand from a nocturnal encounter with a door. I crashed into it one night while was...

   A couple of months back I had one of ‘those’ weekends. You know, the one that starts with an electricity bill so extraordinarily large that it could only be correct if you’ve been personally lighting and heating a small town. At the same time you’re having some...

Just over a year ago I took the family to Lapland to meet the ‘real’ Father Christmas, along with his elves, his reindeer and his very large sack of toys. Now right away, depending on a number of factors, you may think this kind of event sounds overly commercial,...

Let’s call him Andrew. As a young man he’d been in a car accident, and as a result had ended up in intensive care. All things considered he’d got off pretty lightly, mostly cuts and bruises, a broken collarbone and several fractured ribs. What was causing the doctors...

Lately I’ve become aware of a strange paradox in my daily routine, such as it is. I have, on the face of it, a massive workload.  My diary is maxed out, not just months but years ahead. I currently have commitments scheduled here and in the States, many of them...

Even before I boarded the plane the so-called ‘real world’ was already starting to flood back into my consciousness. There on a giant TV screen in the departure lounge a tearful man was recounting his horror at being caught up in the most recent terrorist attack, this...

The storm had been severe, off the scale, the worst in living memory, but now at last there was calm. The little tropical island had been battered for days on end by ferocious typhoon winds that had flattened hundreds of palm trees all along the coastline. They lay in...