Two weeks ago, Nicki Sail, from Kettering, could not even be in the same room as a house spider.

But after volunteering to test a new technique called neurolinguistic programming, she has been cured of her phobia.

She is now even able to handle larger spiders such as tarantulas.

'Bad memories'

Ms Sail recalls: "I could not sleep knowing there was a spider in the room.

"It would take me 20 minutes to catch one because I would not want to go near one."

But now she is happy to have a spider crawling over her fingers.

Andy Gibney, a neurolinguistic programmer who helped cure Ms Sail, said the method helps take away the bad memories that often cause a phobia.

"You reprogramme the way the brain sees a memory," he said.

"For example if you have a bad memory you see it over and over again, we go in with the use of music and rewind it."

Neurolinguistic programming has cured an actor who had a fear of singing and has even proved popular with local schools as a way of motivating both staff and pupils.