A few years ago, no professional woman worth her salt was without a personal trainer and an online career coach. Now, post-recession, we’ve realised that abs you can bounce peas off and a crib-sheet of office jargon aren’t going to make us happy. Perhaps that’s why increasing numbers of us are turning to personal gurus to work on our inner growth.
With organised religion apparently fading in favour of a pick-and-mix approach to spirituality, many women are choosing to put their faith in paid advisers.
“I don’t know whether it’s the uncertain times in which we live or the fragile economic climate,” says personal astrologer Lisa Gates, “but I’m definitely seeing increasing numbers of very ordinary people coming to me for help.”
The boom in 24/7 on-call gurus isn’t really surprising - we want our food, our music and our fashion immediately, so perhaps it was inevitable that the “inner you” industry would adapt accordingly. Whether it’s someone to reassure you about the future by studying the planets, or charm good things into your life by reciting mystical mantras, a personal guru will offer you their complete, undivided attention - for a price.
They exist simply to make you feel better about yourself, and the women who sign up for their services insist there’s nothing strange about it.
“I’m a completely down-to-earth professional with a masters degree in music,” says Lauren Carter, 27, an actress from Southampton. She regularly turns to Ali Campbell, a life coach and hypnotherapist who counts celebrities and royalty among his clients.
“This is the first time I’ve ever had a guru in my life,” she explains. “But I’ve been seeing Ali several times a month since I ended a relationship and had big decisions to make. I could chat to my girlfriends over a bottle of wine, but they’re emotionally attached to me, whereas Ali is an expert at making me think outside my comfort zone. It costs £250 (about R3 000) for an hour, which is a lot but I see it as an investment in my future.”
Despite the astronomical cost, Lauren is convinced that having her guru on call has boosted her happiness and given her a perspective she previously lacked. “Ali works to re-programme my thoughts and has helped me be true to myself,” she says.
“I had the opportunity to sing with an opera company last summer, which meant wrenching myself away from lucrative modelling work. Ali helped me to see that I should sing for long-term benefit rather than modelling for short-term financial gain.”
Ali also believes that his advice is worth the price. “Lauren’s typical of many of my clients,” he says. “She’s multi-talented, but with talent comes greater opportunity and greater dilemmas. I don’t make decisions for her, I help free up her mind so she can see what’s immediately in front of her, while also examining the bigger picture.”
While some would suggest Lauren could simply call a mate and talk it through for free, regardless of emotional attachment, other women are equally convinced their lives have been helped by their guru.
Ivana Lounova, 30, from St Albans, runs a bridal jewellery design company. She believes that her personal shaman, Dawn, has not only dramatically eased her chronic ME, but also enabled her to launch her dream business.
“A shaman is someone who works between the spirit and human worlds for the benefit of others,” explains Ivana. “Whereas a doctor works on treating an ailment using physical means like surgery or drugs, a shaman is concerned with the emotional, energetic or spiritual root of problems.”
She admits that at first she wasn’t convinced. “When I met Dawn two years ago at a conference, I was sceptical,” she says. “It sounded a bit spooky - but Dawn is so normal that she made it seem worth a go. I’d been suffering from ME for a long time and had to give up work as a PA in 2006. I was exhausted - even listening to someone talk was an effort.”
Ivana was also struggling with aspects of her childhood which she felt were causing her problems as an adult. “I didn’t know how to relax or be playful,” she recalls. She began to see Dawn regularly, explaining: “She spent a lot of time working on my subconscious, using special rattles to help ease away negative energies.”
While it’s easy to scoff, Ivana’s new-found happiness is testimony to the guru effect. She says: “I opened my jewellery shop last October, love to go out with friends and am no longer flat out in bed when my partner Damien arrives home from work.”
Dawn says: “I discovered shamanism about seven years ago and have been practising it professionally for five. It’s the oldest medicine in the world, predates religion, and works in harmony with nature.
“I diagnose what’s wrong before using shamanic tools like rattles to clear the chakras - energy channels in the body. Many people have a perception of it as scary, but it’s simply an ancient means of harmonising the body and mind.”
The new gurus, it seems, are willing to be judged by verifiable results - and their devotees are convinced of their life-changing powers; however off-the-wall they may appear.
Erdernay Tezel, 44, from London, is a full-time mother. She is also a committed follower of bio-energy healer Michael Cohen.
“After my mum was diagnosed with skin cancer three years ago, I was so upset that my GP prescribed anti-depressants,” she says. “I couldn’t get through the day without crying. Eventually, I sought help from Michael.”
Bioenergy healing is based on the idea that our bodies have “frequencies”, just as mobile phones or radios do. Healers “scan” the body’s electrical circuitry with their hands, to improve the functioning of your psychological systems.
“It’s hard to describe Michael’s treatments, as most of them are based on him connecting his body’s frequency to mine and working on my energy channels,” says Erdernay. “If he finds a blockage in an energy point, he’ll manipulate the area with his index finger. But most treatment is hands-off.”
It all sounds somewhat unlikely. But she says: “After a month, I felt much happier and stopped crying. I could feel energy and heat around me. I used to take paracetamol if I had a headache, but now I use a bioenergy technique to stretch the energy fields around my body and the headache disappears.”
Michael agrees: “We each have our own energy frequencies. When I connect to someone’s body, I can help heal them and also reset their memory patterns. Like a huge number of my clients, Erdernay came to me because she was suffering chronic anxiety. The change in her has been amazing.”
It can’t be denied that these perfectly rational women report enormous benefits from having a personal guru. But while some, like Ivana and Erdernay, report health benefits, are others just wasting their cash on false promises?
We all enjoy reading our horoscopes, but most wouldn’t go as far as employing a personal astrologer. Liz Villani, 37, from Grantham, runs her own management training company, Courageous Success. Every week, she consults astrologer Lisa Gates, 40, and is convinced that her advice is invaluable.
“I used to read my stars and was fascinated by the power of astrology,” says Liz. “I worked in management, leading a trading team for a major retailer in London for years. When I left in 2004 to set up my business I met Lisa and started using astrology.”
Liz spends around £500 a year with Lisa. “It’s worth every penny,” she insists. “She’s an astrologer and medium and to start with she provided me with a basic astrological reading, including my birth chart, together with a piece of karmic astrology that looks at lessons learned in a past life - the idea being that we come back to earth to learn.
“She told me I was here to be a communicator en masse and it changed the shape of my business. I began to target bigger audiences, wrote a book and have just been commissioned to write a second.”
Surely Liz could have found her business focus without her pet astrologer?
“My husband thinks it’s a load of rubbish,” she admits. “But whenever I have a big decision to make in my business, I consult Lisa.”
Lisa says: “Most of my clients are women over 30 who want to know more about themselves, their purpose in life and their business prospects. Liz was originally working on a one-to-one basis with her clients, but I could see from her charts that she should be getting her message out to a wider audience. I don’t provide the answers - I just use astrology to help people look at life in a different way.”
The gurus are happy, it seems, to admit they don’t provide answers - and their clients don’t expect it. What they do want, though, is a professional friend. Someone non-judgmental, who will listen to their woes, displays endless patience, and allow them to come to their own conclusions.
For many professional women, these pricey but positive personal gurus are the answer. For those of us with a little less disposable income, however, we might achieve almost the same effect by confiding in our endlessly patient dogs. - Daily Mail