All Natural

Ms. Hale �?the woman who brought alternative health to the masses �?extols 'breast enlargement through hypnosis�?and plans on living into her 120s.

Probably the best business decision ..... ever made was nearly 20 years ago when she chose 27 Park Crescent, near Regent's Park in London, as the address for her 'premier centre for complementary medicine'. In 1987, when we were all wearing shoulder pads and Lycra bodies and the stock market was near collapse, promoters of chakra healings and crystal therapies were considered charlatans and their purveyors spaced-out new agers or mad hypochondriacs.

  
At her clinic, an elegant, cream-stucco building, just yards from Harley Street, gives the Hale Clinic an instant air of respectability and class. This was boosted when the clinic was opened by the Prince of Wales, doubly so when his then wife became a regular visitor seeking colonic irrigations and acupuncture.

Quickly, the celebrity client list ballooned. The Duchess of York, Richard Gere, Tina Turner, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kate Winslet have all passed through the opulent Nash portals, to be ministered to by the 100 or so practitioners who work there, offering everything from ayurvedic healthcare to tui-na ( a form of massage).

Two decades on, thanks largely to their patronage, and Hale's pioneering, complementary medicine's image has been transformed. About 50 per cent of doctors now refer patients to alternative therapists. Friends of mine who ten years ago sneered at such practitioners now virtually all visit an acupuncturist, osteopath or chiropractor, and consider it as normal as taking Lemsip for a cold. Today Hale's clinic sees about 2,000 patients a week, who pay an average of £75 per treatment.

'We were considered rather crazy when we first started,' Hale agrees enthusiastically. 'But it's all changed. The Royal Family helped enormously; the Queen carries homeopathic medicines when she travels and the Queen Mother was the patron of the British Homeopathic Association. Now there are more complementary practitioners than "medical" doctors and the challenge is, how do you make sure people are going into this out of genuine compassion and not just because they see it as a good career move?'

A gentle, smiley person, Hale is the ideal figurehead for her business. She is 58 but looks at least a decade younger. With shaggy blonde hair, and a cuddly frame wrapped in a pashmina, she exudes exactly the right combination of glowing mumsiness (to reassure you she practices what she preaches) and businesslike acumen ....... The wariness is unsurprising. Hale's cause has, over the years, been the target of constant attacks. The most recent was in May when a group of doctors urged the NHS to stop funding 'unproven' treatments such as homeopathy. Hale certainly knows her stuff, breathlessly listing facts, figures and websites to support her argument.

It's long-winded but basically her line of reasoning is that while the drug multinationals pour billions into researching conventional medicines, few will fund studies into the alternatives. 'But there's more research than people think. There are more than 3,000 studies on Aids patients showing how alternative therapies can be beneficial, using control groups. I can give you the references if you like.'

After endless run-ins with medics, she is extremely careful with her phrasing, making it clear that there is nothing wrong with 'orthodox medicine' (she has 20 'medical' doctors working at the clinic), it's just that 'people are very scared of the side effects'. Every statement is couched in caveats: a treatment may have helped someone with cancer, but 'that doesn't mean it's the ultimate cure for cancer'.

When the clinic started, she points out, doctors thought it was 'crazy to make a link between nutrition and good health. Well, obviously that's changed. And who's to say they won't similarly change their attitude to alternative therapies over the next 20 years?' She agrees that most people can't afford her therapies, but hopes more GPs will start referring patients to her clinic on the NHS. 'After all, 60 per cent of depression has been shown to be a nutritional issue, when people are very depleted in magnesium and manganese. To me, it's worth having the test to check whether you are perhaps deficient in these before you are prescribed an antidepressant that costs £20,000 a year.'

But every now and then Hale's measured defence seems to lapse entirely. In terms of the therapies on offer, the clinic is a broad church, to say the least. Its menu consists of generally accepted treatments such as the Alexander technique and a variety of massages. But then you spot 'natural breast enlargement through hypnosis'. Does that really work? 'Oh yes,' Hale says with her fluttery giggle. 'You can't shrink your breasts but you can make them larger. A journalist tried it and her bust size did increase. I can find you the cutting if you like.'

But surely Hale can see that a journalist enjoying a freebie does not make the most scientific case study. Anyway, how does it work? 'I'm not sure. But the mind has a huge influence on the body. And people undergo these huge operations to increase their bust size. Surely it's safer to go a natural route?' So are there any therapies to which she doesn't give credence?

'I'm not keen on rebirthing. It's a breathing technique, but there was a terrible case in America when a girl died because they were pressing down so hard on her.'

Now that centres like the Hale Clinic abound, how does Hale plan to stay ahead of the pack? 'That's a very good question,' she says with another breathy laugh. 'I'm very interested in how the body regenerates and renews. Scientists say we should live to be 125, but we're keeling over in our late seventies and eighties.'

But would you really want to live to be 125, I ask in horror. Hale laughs again. 'Yes, I would, actually. I've got so much to do. So many people say, "No, no, my eighties would be fine by me." I think the problem is that a lot of people are in a state of degeneration from 50 or even earlier now. But if you can regenerate and renew then you could get a lot of joy and energy from your later years.'

And how do we regenerate and renew, I wonder? According to Hale, the secret is a raw-food diet, which is to be the subject of her latest book.

'I've been doing the diet for four months and I have so much more vitality. Last night I soaked some linseeds and this morning I put them in the blender with organic bananas and kiwis. I had an avocado salad for lunch. Then there's a special machine that makes cheese from nuts, so I do that, or I might have something with seaweed for supper. I thought it would be hard now the weather's colder, but I've been using a lot of raw ginger, which is very warming, and I just feel so great.'

And what happens if she goes to friends for Sunday lunch and they produce a juicy leg of lamb? 'Well, most of my friends are vegetarian,' Hale explains politely. 'But I'd just ring up and say, "I'm bringing an avocado or some sprouts." You just get used to it.' 'No, it's easier because you don't have to cook and so you save a lot of time. You just carry an avocado in a bag. And you actually eat less, because you're not absorbing the enzymes of cooked food, so you feel full much quicker.'

'People think you're suffering or deprived, but I love the diet I'm on. Dark, organic chocolate used to be a passion for me, but now I'd rather have some fresh fruit. Though I read today that raw cocoa beans are actually very good for you, so I might be returning to them.'

Hale lives alone in Hertfordshire, and has no children. There have been several long relationships, but she has never married. 'I never wanted children like some women do and I'm very happy being single. I quite like spending a lot of time on my own. When I go home at night I usually like to be reasonably quiet. I think that if you have a relationship, you really have to have a lot of time for it, and most of my focus is on the clinic.'

Hale was educated at a private Catholic convent, and after her O-levels spent a couple of years in France before travelling round America. She ended up in San Francisco at the height of the peace-and-love era and lived in various communes. 'We must have been the only hippies who didn't smoke marijuana. I had a very strong intuition that it was not good for my brain. People thought I was crazy at the time but now there's been a lot of research into it that makes me feel quite vindicated. Otherwise, I loved it. It was the start of a whole new way of thinking, ....but it did lead to a lot of new ideas about meditation and yoga.'

Returning to Britain, she studied philosophy and economics at the University of East Anglia, which left her further disillusioned with Western thought. 'It was all about, "Is this a chair or not a chair?" It didn't look at the inner person.' After a postgraduate degree in education, she travelled to the Far East, before training as a yoga teacher. Once qualified, she found herself constantly referring patients to other therapists and the idea struck her that it would make sense to gather them under one roof. When the clinic opened she abandoned teaching for a managerial role. 'It's a different energy �?when you are teaching yoga you need to be laid-back; in running the clinic I need to push forward.'

It's impossible not to warm to Teresa Hale. You can pick holes in her arguments and think her vision a bit naive, but there's no questioning her sincerity. There have been offers to buy the clinic and turn it into an international franchise, but, not wanting to compromise its integrity, she has refused. Much as she has benefited from her stellar fan base, it has also reinforced her belief that there is more to life than money. 'Everyone seems to think now that, if you get the right car or house or boyfriend, you will be happy. But your inner world is missing. That's why so many celebrities end up in rehab �?because they appear to have it all, but it's not quite right.'

''Before you criticise someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticise them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.'