Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6

Original poster

The Speakmans? I don't get what they do.

137 replies

donners312 · 21/03/2018 11:52

Fears and phobias are irrational and they just seem to appeal to your logical mind to combat them.

I don't get what methodology they use and I'm sure people just go along and agree with them to get away.

What they do doesn't make sense to me what am I missing?

OP posts:

pinksplutterweasel · 21/03/2018 13:37

Funnily enough when I was working at a PR agency in a London 10/12 years ago before I left to have my daughter, we did a little bit of PR for them. They were bonkers!!! We got them a big double page spread in The Guardian and it was just nuts. Apparently the entire family wakes up each morning to to ‘Eye Of the Tiger’ to get them all pumped for the day. Here’s the piece. www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/media/2006/jan/07/tvandradio.theguide. As I say. Crazy. But Ctually lovely people
And they’ve done really well so can’t knock them.

cheesydoesit · 21/03/2018 13:40

I saw them on TV a while ago 'treating' a woman whose sister had been murdered and as a result the woman had agoraphobia and couldn't attend her son's wedding. The only part of the treatment shown on air was her telling the story of her sister's murder backwards. It just seemed like they were trivializing it but then I suppose it could be argued that it needed to be trivialized in order for her to participate in day to day life. They're not for me though.

Wintertime4 · 21/03/2018 13:44

They are kind of magic!

They look like they are fakes but I do think they just use simple techniques really well. I think they’ve helped lots of people who had very severe phobias. They also cork across as very caring.

YouOKHun · 21/03/2018 13:48

You can make entertaining TV or you can deliver ethically sound psychotherapy; you can’t do both. If they do lots of behind the scenes work then let’s hear about it. I really want people who tinker with often vulnerable people to be properly trained and accredited having first been put through the academic wringer and continuing to spend a proportion of their time in exacting clinical supervision (as one has to do to work in the NHS). Anyone can call themselves ‘a therapist’ and actually it’s quite dangerous because they aren’t trained to know when to leave well alone or to recognise when some needs a proper diagnosis.

Minus1 · 21/03/2018 13:52

I find them fascinatingly odd but whatever they do seems to work. I assumed they were hypnotising people off stage or something.

Tawdrylocalbrouhaha · 21/03/2018 13:54

They are apps odd as two left feet, and I wouldn't let them meddle with my mind for a million pounds.

However, I think with all counselling/psychology services the placebo element is huge. So if people can (bizarrely) look at them and think "These are the people to sort me out", then good luck to them.

Minus1 · 21/03/2018 13:56

I have tried various therapies over the years and can’t say I have found any particularly helpful so if this is something that seems to work quickly then whatever it is, I would be open to it.

SilentBob · 21/03/2018 14:01

I used to live near them. He drove a Hummer to the private primary school on the corner of my road with ‘LORD’ as the Reg plate.

They used to be ‘lifestyle gurus’ before they landed this gig- I’m sure I remember them lifestyle guru-Ing Martine McCutcheon. 😂

Saw Eva in Asda once. True fact. She was teeeeeeeeeeny tiny.

thecraftyfox · 21/03/2018 14:12

They're locals and they are bonkers. They also ruined that house. When they moved in they bought titles and introduced themselves to the neighbours. "You can call me Lady Eva..."
Yeah...nope. not happening love.
Their therapy technique is made up bollocks and indicates the problem that anybody can call themselves a counsellor or therapist as they aren't protected titles.

Roussette · 21/03/2018 14:15

I know this is rude but yikes aren't they odd looking. They just have to be married to each other because I have this theory... couples who look alike have very successful marriages (now I'm the odd one!)

I went off them when they started selling CDs on QVC not that long ago. I think they are amateurs who happen to have a method to marginally help people but without TV it wouldn't work, I think the one seeking help is buying into them because they're on TV.

I talk to lots of people with something I do, and I honestly think I could do the same.
I'm terrified of balloons
Since when?
Since I went to a party when I was 5 and someone sat on a balloon and it burst.
It's not the balloon's fault, it is the person sitting on it.

BelleandBeast · 21/03/2018 14:17

Well, if what they offer works, then why not?

Even if they haven't had conventional training, they have found a method which works for people. Good for them.

thecraftyfox · 21/03/2018 14:30

But does it work. Short term as a fix whrn you're being filmed or if you have signed a tv contract and are boosting your own profile, yeah there might be some results. Long term I'd love to know what happened to their clients. Years ago they claimed to have cured Holly Willoughby of her fear of ghosts. Except she seems to still have a fear of ghosts according to interviews from the past year or so.

Original poster

donners312 · 21/03/2018 14:58

yes maybe what they do does work and equally maybe they are working with vulnerable people and maybe they shouldn't be. Or maybe what they do is neither here nor there and they are not causing any actual damage either.

I love the extra gossip of people living nearby call me lady Eva is absolutely hilarious. I knew they were bonkers!!! Love it!

OP posts:

AdalindSchade · 21/03/2018 15:07

They don't need to be psychotherapists to deliver a bit of CBT. They are odd as fuck and they've obviously had plastic surgery hence the same nose, but that doesn't mean their methods can't be effective.

Gottagetmoving · 21/03/2018 16:42

They aren't treating serious mental health conditions. They are treating phobias.
They have helped some people with PTSD too.
They work with people who have developed a phobia based on an experience and not with those who are born with a condition.

Original poster

donners312 · 21/03/2018 16:48

I would have thought people who can't leave the house to attend their DC wedding would be considered to have a serious mental health condition?

It's not exactly a fear of a spiders??

And without having an understanding in psychology how do you know that someones phobia is based on a one off experience and not on something deeper?

And just because their method works it doesn't make it right, I could perform minor surgery on you, and it could all be fine but I haven't trained as a doctor so should i?

OP posts:

Crunchymum · 21/03/2018 16:50

I'm in Sparkly

They are creepy fuckers, there I've said it

CotswoldStrife · 21/03/2018 16:55

I don't watch This Morning so haven't seen them recently, but I did watch a TV series they did years ago and they seem to pick bits out of other people's work and put it together - if it works, fine.

Their two children were in the earlier series, and they used to dance around the kitchen and drink green energy drinks. They also had a DeLorean that they used.

Juiceylucy09 · 21/03/2018 16:59

No the lady treated for agoraphobia had not a serious mental condition, she was suffering a phobia as her sister was murdered outside.

I really like them, their happy positive people who look after themselves and family's and do help many people.

bigmouthstrikesagain · 21/03/2018 17:08

I would be interested in how they screen their clients and how they follow up. There are therapeutic techniques I could "study" google and use to cure selected friends and acquaintances of some irrational phobias/ behaviours. That wouldn't make me a properly trained therapist just like putting on a white coat and carrying a clipboard around in a hospital would not make me a Doctor. Even if I made some patients feel better simply by having a reassuring bedside manner. Just believing you are being helped by someone you have faith in can make you feel better.

AdalindSchade · 21/03/2018 17:10

Phobia is phobia. The impact on your life can be more or less severe depending on how likely you are to encounter the trigger - outdoors, very likely, snakes, not so much. The actual psychological process of developing a phobia is the same however so the treatment can be fairly standardised.

Original poster

donners312 · 21/03/2018 17:15

Is it though?

For example you see your mum scream when she see's a spider in the bath and you develop a phobia of spiders too. Not very complicated.

You are raped as a small child and during the rape a spider falls on your face and you develop a phobia of spiders.

Would the treatment for these two phobia clients be standardized?

OP posts:

ThomasHardyPerennial · 21/03/2018 17:24

I just watched the very creepy 'about us' video on their website - they say they are planning to train others in their methods, yet who the hell has trained them?! This kind of crap is so careless, and I can't believe people trust them with their mental health. The fact that anyone can call themselves a therapist is frankly terrifying.

Gottagetmoving · 21/03/2018 17:25

Irrational fears are learned behaviour so they can be unlearned.
They are an emotional reaction.
It would be interesting to know if there are any clients of theirs who were not able to be cured. Surely they would have spoken up?

ssd · 21/03/2018 17:40

I fucking love them

There's one clip where they cure Jeremy Kyle of his spider phobia, its interesting

they couldn't cure him of being a prick right enough

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6

Swipe left for the next trending thread