Witches and wardrobes

Forget the witch's hat: have you brought out your inner goddess recently? Not sure where to start? Don't worry, the new breed of holistic image consultant will help you find her.

The founder of the Goddess Collection, Laura Berridge, dispatches some instructions before my first session with her. In order to dress my essence, I need to bring six complete outfits, any recent fashion disasters, guaranteed pullers, my make-up and - ulp, what's this? 'an open mind and a willingness to embrace your greatness'.

Rrright. I'm steeling myself for a Mystic Meg-meets-Trinny Woodall hybrid. In fact, what I get is the lovely Laura, ex-Savile Row tailor who draws from a great grab bag of alternative therapies (aura soma, visualisation, tarot), the better to let your true personality out of the closet and into the wardrobe. Laura doesn't believe in dressing just the outside (though she knows well enough how to).

Ninety-three per cent of our preconceptions about someone are based on appearance, made in the first 30 seconds. If you're a slave to last season's fashion, the true you will never be seen. Changing fashions, believes Laura, have a lot to answer for. In the 1980s, power suits and shoulder-pads almost strangled inner goddesses everywhere. This decade is kinder but she suspects we're still acting the evicted Eve - dressing to downplay our sensuality, femininity and power.

To 'out' the goddess, Laura sets an alternative assault course. You'll start with a questionnaire that probes you for your likes, dislikes, aspirations and fears.

Next you have a colour reading with aura soma (bottles of coloured oils that can reveal our colour-leanings). A spot of tarot; a splash of creative visualisation (a near hypnotic state in which you let creative imagination off the leash) and we're clear. If MI5 is looking for conscripts, look this way. By the end of the morning, this woman knows all there is to know about me.

The next hurdle? To make my wardrobe reflect it. Here Laura's Savile Row schooling comes into its own: in a blizzard of colour swatches, dressmakers' dummies, mood-boards and make-up demonstrations, she takes me through a wardrobe whistle-stop tour - getting me to step in and out of fashion hits and disasters, to really see which cuts, which accents, which materials suit and reflect me. She's got the intuition of a therapist, the eye of a fashion guru and, by close of play, her consulting room looks like a bomb hit it. She sees me off with my own colour wallet (a colour guide to take out shopping), a holistic personality appraisal and a great armful of clothes earmarked for the bin. Months later and my goddess is still stubbornly eluding me. But Laura's found hers. She's confident and bewitching. And not at all in the Halloweeny, Grotbags kind of way.

The Goddess Collection: Dressing the essence of woman. For a brochure, call 020 7372 8691, www.thegoddesscollection.co.uk