And "recovering slimmer" Clare White couldn't agree more. She firmly believes the key to getting rid of unwanted weight lies in being happy and liking ourselves, which is what her new Forget Slimming programme is all about.

The 38-year-old mother of two came up with the programme after working for years as a manager with a healthy-eating organisation. She says losing weight is a tortuous journey for most people. But what really started to get her down was the high number of her members who lost weight only to regain it later.

She felt there had to be a way people, including herself, could address their eating habits and change their behaviour around food and keep their weight off. "I've always been interested in how the human mind works so I started looking at hypnosis and the Emotional Freedom Technique which Paul Mckenna sometimes uses. EFT is a bit like acupuncture without the needles and can be very effective for both emotional and physical pain and can help people overcome their fears," says Clare.

She is now a qualified hypnotherapist and EFT practitioner and uses her skills in these, coupled with her years of experience in the slimming industry, to tap into the powerful subconscious area of the mind. "The same subconscious mind that leads you to open the fridge in the evenings or rummage in the cupboard for snacks is equally as powerful when you work with it to creative positive behaviour," says Clare, who has just brought her programme to Calderdale.

The programme, which has been successful in other parts of Yorkshire, is based around four workshop sessions and gives those attending the tools they need to change their behaviour around food and eating and transform the way they feel about themselves.

"Over the past five years I have met so many people who want to return to a weight they were when they were most happy in their lives. What is ironic is that when people were this "magic" weight, the last thing they probably thought about was dieting. Perhaps then, it's the happiness that people want back as much as the what the scales said at the time", says Clare, who claims the programme lets you enjoy the foods you really want to eat in portions that allow you to arrive safely and naturally at your healthy weight.

She has now come to the conclusion that one of the main reasons people regain the weight they lose on diets is because their motivation is weight loss. "It stands to reason that as you lose the weight, your motivation disappears as well. When your motivation is to feel good about yourself, the weight will look after itself. Many conventional dieters can identify with the feeling that the more they try to lose weight, the harder it gets."

Being overweight is a symptom of eating more than your body needs and Clare believes that any system that persuades you to eat unlimited amounts of even low-calorie foods is not tackling this problem.

Aand until this behaviour is addressed, long-term change isn't going to happen.

She does not ask people to share their experiences with others or put them into a hypnotic state where they do not know what they are doing. "There is a lot of misconceptions about hypnosis. What I do is quite different from stage hypnosis. It's a relaxing and therapeutic experience and people have more control under it than they would normally have."

A free session to find out more about Clare's programme is being held at Halifax Central Library tonight at 6pm. The first session starts next Monday evening, June 30, and runs for the next three Mondays. It costs £129 for the programme, which includes a CD. Anyone interested who can't make tonight can turn up next Monday.