Shrinks are the new spas

Her view is that the past is past: it's the future we need to worry about. Most of her clients are stressed, scared and facing bleak futures. All need a strategy.

"When people's actions are out of synch with their goals, there is conflict," she says. "I try and work out what limiting beliefs people are holding onto. I also do a value elicitation and explore the options."

I have seen coaches before but never one quite as adept and sharp as Luther, who as an occupational therapist is skilled at handling strong emotions.

Within 10 minutes we had worked out what was blocking me (lack of motivation, fear) from pursuing certain goals, such as starting a book.

"To change, you need contemplation, motivation and finally action," she explained. I finished with Clare in a mentally excited state: I moved straight into another room where I was poked, prodded and manipulated wonderfully by Reece.

His theory is that a relaxed body absorbs deeper thoughts, in the way that open pores do with face cream.

"It's much more effective to integrate the information given to you when in a meditative state," he says. I left feeling calm afterwards, but more importantly, focused.

Cost: £120 for two hours. www.easterngarden.co.uk

The International Association of Yoga Therapists has already trippled its membership from 2003 to 2009 and in the US it's the big new thing.

Yet Heather Mason is presently the only qualified psychotherapist working specifically on mental health issues in her eight-week-long yoga courses.

The 32-year-old New Yorker treats depression, anxiety, trauma and stress using yoga poses, meditation, mindfulness and talk therapy in her two-hour class, with a half-hour group discussion at the end.

"You can get relief through therapy or through exercise. Both work, but the combination is twice as beneficial," she says. Psychotherapy lets you hang on to your "narrative".

"You tell yourself a story of how you suffer and you believe it. Yoga puts us back in the present."

Stress releases a plethora of chemicals into the bloodstream which leads to fight and flight.

Yoga (which means free from pain) helps regulate those physiological responses. Each posture has potential to teach us about ourselves.

"Just some of the ways people strike poses tell you a lot about who they are," she says. "One person will clench their teeth and force it, another will give up or refuse to try. I look at things like coping strategies during the class."

Students often quit anti-depressants after a few sessions. The next courses start in June.

Cost: £160. www.yogaforthemind.info

Trained Italian psychotherapist Stefania Piazzalunga calls her seven- day walking holidays a "spa for the soul".

Clients come with depression, anxiety, addictions or just to escape from the recession. Piazzalunga believes that walking, usually in silence, and talking are the two most natural forms of self-help. Do it for seven days and things rapidly unblock.

"It's when we walk that we reach the most depth," she says. During the stay in Italy or Switzerland, clients walk for up to five hours in the morning, then (feeling rather tired and emotional), sit down for 50-minute one-on-one psychotherapy sessions followed immediately by a massage. The combination of exercise, talk therapy and relaxation is a triple release cocktail.

"I believe when people are challenged a bit physically they are stretched. Nature is very important, too, for mood improvement. The energy starts to flow. We get amazing results," she says.

Cost: £2,900 for single occupancy, www.walkwithin.co.uk