MARY had an intense fear of water. She could not leave her home when it was raining and could only cope with a few centimetres of water in the bath.

After 18 months of conventional therapy, she could approach the edge of a swimming pool but would not look at the water.

Then one day, having attended a workshop on acupuncture points, her doctor had the idea of tapping under her eye while she concentrated on her fear.

It was a fear she felt in her stomach and he knew the stomach's meridian began under the eye.

Incredibly, it is said the fear suddenly went and Mary rushed to the side of the pool and splashed her face with water.

Thought Field Therapy was born.

Around 20 years on, Ildiko Scurr, who had been suffering from anxiety and panic attacks for years, read a leaflet on the therapy.

"I was at the end of my tether.

"I thought TFT sounded crazy. I couldn't work out how it could possibly work. But I thought about it for a couple of days and decided to give it a go."

She said she left the treatment room feeling happy and calm.

"When the opportunity came up to study TFT, I said 'absolutely'. I want to be able to help as many people as possible. It's mind-blowing what it can do," she said.

"Nobody has really heard of TFT in this area. I have been trying to establish it because I know what a tremendous difference it can make to people's lives.

"It's really dramatic sometimes. It's like liquid, it can work so fast.

"But you have to prove it to somebody before they believe what it can do."

The therapy claims to cure any negative emotion, be that fear, anxiety, trauma, phobias, anger, guilt, embarrassment, depression or addiction.

And clients are given their own personal tapping routine to use if the same problem arises.

Since 2001, TFT has been the number one trauma treatment used in Kosovo and practitioners were on hand in Central Park to work with the dazed and distraught caught up in the September 11 atrocities.

It is claimed that the simple procedure, which can take less than 15 minutes, has a 97 per cent success rate.

You don't have to believe.

You don't have to talk in detail about whatever problem has brought you through the door.

All Ildiko, who sees clients at The Inner Sphere Complimentary Health Centre in Boscombe, needs to know is what emotion she is dealing with and how upset on a scale of one to 10 clients feel when they tune into those thoughts.

"You just need your hands to tap and your mind to tune into your thoughts.

"Very often people lump emotions together, but when you break it down there is a bit of anxiety, a bit of anger, a little guilt and a bit of embarrassment. You deal with each one individually. It's like the skins of an onion, you take one off and the next presents itself.

"We do need negative emotions, but it's about whether it is appropriate or not, if you are hanging on to something that is making you angry and may make you sick. We don't need to live with the pain of traumas.

"There is no gain to living with that pain."

Sharron, who did not want her surname revealed for personal reasons, has been treated for anger and anxiety.

She moved to Bournemouth from London a year ago.

"I have always been a feisty person, but the move and the stress of trying to find work made me feel on edge all the time. The slightest little thing would upset me.

"You could feel it as soon as I walked in the room. I was a ball of negativity. But after about 20 minutes of tuning into those angry thoughts and tapping certain parts of the body, I felt completely different. I felt completely relaxed.

"I felt like I was floating when I walked out," she said.

"I still get angry at certain situations, but it goes after a while.

"It's great the way it just got rid of it. I feel like I have been released."

Treatments cost £40 per hour session. For more information contact The Inner Sphere Complimentary Health Centre on 01202 399602.