HAPPINESS PERSONAL TRAINING: Benjamin Fry's Happy Hour

By Zoe Briance

When we want to shake off an enduring funk, there are a few quick-fixes we all turn to: Chocolate Therapy (resulting in an undesirable extra roll), Retail Therapy (resulting in dehydration and a stroppy bank manager) etc. Quick fixes, it's clear, don't work. Yet as the booming self-help book industry proves, we're determined to have a go regardless. The problem is that, as we all know from washing machines, just because you have an instruction manual doesn't mean you'll be able to fix it on your own. The problem with so many self-help books is that you end up inflicting a kind of patchy emotional DIY on yourself. What we all need, undoubtedly, is a little helping hand.

THE MISSION
Benjamin Fry, founder of the aptly named Happy Hour, has a philosophy that is simple and makes instant sense. "We're used to looking after our physical health and our looks. People are willing to spend time in the gym or money on a new dress in order to look better, but what's that really all about? In the end it's about making you feel better. So the question I ask is, do you have an hour a month that you could give up in order to be happier?"

The issue of mental health is a taboo subject, much more so here than, for example, in America where people talk openly about long sessions with their therapist. The notion that we ought to keep our private lives private seems to be a matter of national pride in Britain - there's something in us that sees any sort of therapy as the first step to being medicated for life and locked up in a padded cell.

But Benjamin has repackaged the idea of psychotherapy to make it more palatable. Happy Hour was conceived as consumer product, something that fits easily into a routine of work, family, gym and meeting friends for coffee. The therapists, for example, are known as Personal Trainers. "It's about not getting bogged down in all the issues that mental health professionals deal with. My challenge is to find the block that's stopping someone from making a change in their lives that they already know they have to make, and then take real action to remove that block. And it's amazingly effective." Famously, for Benjamin's recent series Spendaholics on BBC3, he even resorted to skydiving with his client.

One hour a month with a friendly, wise advisor? It's accessible, simple and well worth a try. For more information or to find a Personal Trainer in your area, visit happyhour.org.uk