Fiona Harrold is not a trained counsellor, yet she can attract fees of £100 an hour just for talking to you on the phone, writes FIONA TARRANT. The 36-year-old is being hailed as a 'mind coach' who stops you thinking negative thoughts and induces a bit of healthy narcissism.

"Have you never noticed how some people seem to be 'heavy' and are hard work, while others attract people with ease because everyone wants to know them?" said Fiona, of Whitchurch, near Goring, south Oxfordshire.

Fiona's clients are reputed to include several cabinet ministers and famous names from the world of showbusiness, although discretion means she won't name names.

She is fast becoming one of the busiest people around as her reputation as a self-esteem counsellor grows.

She pops up constantly in the press and the recent mind 'makeover' she did on two people on GMTV attracted more response than any other item in recent years. Fiona's approach is simple. If you need geeing up, convincing you're worth it and having that added confidence to be the belle of the ball, then she's your woman.

She's turned wallflowers into confident people and has groomed one woman - a single mum working as a waitress - into a glamorous guest at a stars' bash and has numerous other success stories to tell.

"I do all my counselling on the phone. It's perfect. Who wants to spend three quarters of an hour battling through traffic for a half-hour appointment, and then have to do the same on the way home? This way, we agree a time in our diaries and dedicate that half hour, or hour, to the issues."

But how does she stop the 'on the couch' syndrome, of people wanting to tell all about a damaging incident in their childhood and how it's scarred them?

"Basically, I don't treat people who are unwell. I coach well people who need encouragement. It's about people re-inventing themselves, identifying unique attributes and looking at themselves in a positive light," said Fiona. Her approach is, indeed, positive. She has a soft, lilting Northern Ireland accent, despite her upbringing in County Armagh.

"My dad was a self-improvement junkie. He believed anything I said was worth listening to.

"When I announced at the age of ten that I wanted to be a newsreader, he said it was a jolly good idea and encouraged me to have elocution lessons first, to get rid of my strong accent.

"I spoke differently to everyone in the school I was at and kept my dream alive."

Now she is on the telly - not reading the news, but making it. Newspapers, glossy magazines and TV stations are clambering for her time. And she loves it.

"I run my own public relations business too and that's where all this came from. I would look at clients' products and suggest they were tweaked here and there. Before I knew it, I was tweaking the people too, encouraging them to be more positive. Fiona doesn't believe in dwelling on the past. "I don't say it should be glossed over but I do think negatives can be reworked into positive affirmations. "I encourage people to discover their most damaging thoughts about themselves and turn them into positive affirmations."

She believes people are too ready to knock others down, but if we feel good about ourselves, others' comments won't be seen in a damaging light.

Walking around saying things like "I love and respect myself" in your head may feel silly but after a while Fiona's affirmations do sink in.

Her tape, Falling in Love...With Yourself, is a truly positive experience.

It may not give you instant charisma but it goes a long way to giving you extra confidence and helping you stand up against those who are all too ready to knock you down.

And the best thing of all is that the tape is £9.99 - that's a huge saving on the £100 bill!

*Falling in Love...With Yourself, by Fiona Harrold, is £9.99, plus £1 postage and packaging from: PO Box 4055, Pangbourne-on-Thames, Berkshire, RG8 7FB.

Story date: Friday 22 January

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.