As I run training courses both in therapy and business communication skills all around the UK and Europe, I meet a lot of new people. And that’s a lot of curious people from a complete range of different backgrounds.

One aspect of my work that I really wanted to get across on my Website was the question I’m most frequently asked.

‘What happens in a Cognitive Hypnotherapy session?’

I’m not sure I’ve ever managed to explain it sufficently no matter how many years and edits the website can go through.

Sure, I could outline the basic format. We start with a conversation about what you’d like to change or improve in your life. Then, we’ll work through a therapeutic exercise together and the session will usually finish with some relaxation work.

This seems so vague though – and that’s the challenge. As the sessions are bespoke for the individual who comes to see me, no two sessions are the same.

There’s often overlaps – there’s certainly patterns and behaviours that some people repeat where i’ve seen many similar before. Yet, no matter how many clients I see and work with – there is always something new. And that’s what makes us so wonderful as human beings.
We don’t fit into a manual or a textbook. There isn’t a magic formula – it’s only through a process of engagement that is two ways that your life can really change.

I frequently get phone calls/emails ‘My friend came to see you and you did X and Y, will we do the same thing?’ And the most honest, congruent answer I can give is ‘I don’t know.’

It’s not until we’re in the therapy office, having a conversation in which you outline what you’d like to change and how you’d like it to be different – that I’ll be able to determine the best course of action that will help.

There’s not one magic formula for working with people with confidence issues or low self esteem, every phobia is different. Our anxiety or depressions are unique to us and we all cope with stress in different ways.

Cognitive Hypnotherapy takes the best elements of different therapies such as CBT, NLP, Pyschotherapy, Jungian Theory, Gestalt work and I find the right combination to get the most effective results at the fastest rate possible for you.

I believe strongly in a dialogue during our time together – to find out how you’re finding the experience both in and out of the therapy/coaching room during our work together.

So I’m still not there in explaining it quite as succinctly as I’d like – but I think we know why. It’s very much something that talking about can be limiting, but actually for the benefits – it’s there to be experienced.

Zack Polanski is a Cognitive Hypnotherapist and NLP Trainer working at 1 Harley Street, London. He works with a variety of issues ranging from building confidence to low self esteem.Dea ling with stress and anxiety, phobic reactions and performance improvement.
To find out more about his unique mix of formal therapy, a conversational style and hypnosis – please call on 07738088632 or email at info@zackpolanski.com

I make it clear on the site – and always whenever people phone me for an appointment – that Cognitive Hypnotherapy is not a magic bullet. It’s not a miracle cure yet it can do incredibly, effective things and has helped countless amounts of people move on in their lives within that parameter.

Often it can look like magic,and change can more often than not feel effortless and people are amazed at the results – it does require work from the client, though. Or at least their attention and effort in bringing about the changes they want on an unconscious level.

This might make it sound a little less cool or sellable – I have no problem with that, though. It’’s honest; and it doesn’t take anything away from the fact that it’s still an incredible tool for change.

This isn’t unique to Cognitive Hypnotherapy. In other areas I have worked, studied and researched – whether it be more traditional modes like pyschotherapy, counselling or CBT – there’s often this parallel between really great results emerging not from the therapist,but the client. The therapist acts as a guide to reach the areas that the client didn’t even know were accessible previously.

This is particularly prevalent with something like ‘Stop Smoking.’ People phone me up and want a success rate percentage. That’s easy,I say. It’s 100% of the time when the person is committed to the work, and 0% of the time when they’re not. It sounds playful -  I also think it’s fair, honest and ethical.

Cognitive Hypnotherapy is made up of truly effective principles and techniques to ensure that people get the result they want especially when it’s important to them. I don’t just not guarantee because it’s more ethical – I do it because it makes me life easier as well.

How? Well, I generally only want someone in the room with me during treatment who genuinely wants to make a change – and is willing to take responsibility for that change too. This is how truly transformational change happens.

Sometimes someone has the absolute desire to change but doesn’t quite believe it can happen – this is completely different again. If the desire is there, then we can find the how and we can move to engage and work together. The belief is helpful, but not necessary for a positive outcome.

And those positive outcomes when they’re met are often far and beyond what the individual thought could happen in such a relatively brief amount of time – and it’s lovely because they’ve always been met in an ethical way, which emphasised not the skill of the therapist alone, but the autonomy of the client and the inner resources available to them.

Zack Polanski is a Cognitive Hypnotherapist working at 1 Harley Street. He works with a variety of issues including confidence, self-esteem, phobias, smoking cessation, addictions, public speaking, PTSD and body disorders. Sessions must be booked 7 days in advance. Phone: 07738088632 or E-mail: info@zackpolanski.com

Something that’s really struck me about the work I do with people is their bravery. There are very few universals in the clients that I see- and everyone is very unique and different- but there’s something deeply touching about people’s wants, needs and desires to change. Often when people have come to see me, they’ve given up in the past and that’s how they’ve let their problem(s)/issue(s) get to a level where they really desire to make a change or they’re so keen to improve their lives from the state they feel they’re already in- that they go at it with full force.

I was reflecting on this when I read a passage last night from Irvin Yalom’s “The Gift Of Therapy” and there was a short passage which really struck a chord;

“Heddeger spoke of two modes of existence; the everyday mode and the ontological mode. In the everyday mode we are consumed with and distracted by material surroundings- we are filled with wonderment about how things are in the world. In the ontological mode we are focused on being per se- that is , we are filled with wonderment that things are in the world. When we exist in the ontological mode- the realm beyond everyday concerns- we are in a state of particular readiness for personal change.”

The key phrase I believe is the latter. Clients don’t usually get through my door until they’re already ready to begin to make that personal change- and being ready to make a difference in any aspect of your life often requires bravery.

The Catch 22 is that i’m not wholly sure if it’s the bravery that creates readiness or vice versa or if actually they’re both just fueling along. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter- the important part is the decision. Are you ready, and indeed brave enough, to make changes in your life?

Zack Polanski is a Cognitive Hypnotherapist at 1 Harley Street, London. W1G 9QD

The Lewis Clinic is a clinic of hypnotherapists working from the centre of London at Harley St, but also includes many clients from North, South, East and West.

The most startling example is that of Relationships. I’m sure most people know someone, or have been there themselves, where they are in a partnership that doesn’t feel entirely equal. There’s the dangerous ground of playing a symetrical game of assuming that A does something for B, and then B has to reciprocate before A does something else.

This seems so cold and cynical, and rarely does the relationship operate like that in terms of what’s actually said – but frequently, much more telling is the deeper lying structure of how the dynamic organises itself.

I was struck by a small story printed in the Boston Globe on March 20th 1987. It’s about a lady called Susan Butcher. (With thanks to Mary Catherine Bateson for the story came to my attention in her marvellous book, Composing A Life.)

The Iditarod, the 1,157 mile dogsled race across Alaska has been won repeatedly by Susan. This gruelling course was originally set up to be run to save lives at a time when serum was desperately needed in Nome to combat an epidemic.  Now, as a  race, this mode of caring and service has been converted into a straight out compeitition. Yet it is clear that even in this competitive framework, Butcher excells at taking care of her dogs.

At every rest stop in the 1987 race, her rival Rick Swenson left early, while Butcher gave her dogs the full four-hour rest time; she was so busy caring for them that she had only fifteen minutes of rest for herself. By the end of each lap, her dogs were forging ahead of his. They seemed to gain in power the further along they got.

At the last rest stop, the rules of the race determined that you had to give your animals the full rest time. Butcher’s lead became unbeatable. Where he was willing to overtax his dogs, she was willing to overtax herself, organizing her efforts around caring for her dogs. After the race, care for herself: a glass of wine, a hot bath and a sleep. It has been observed that in womens’ athletics, the women will stop playing when a team mate is injured, until she has been attended to, while male athletes will more quickly resume their competitive combat. Slowing down for caretaking is obviously a losing strategy in the short run, but a winning strategy in the long run, whether in a two week race across Alask or the life and survival of the human species on a planet that must be cherished for it can never be replaced.

Zack Polanski is a Cognitive Hypnotherapist working from 1 Harley Street, London. He also has a clinic available in both North and East London depending on your individual requirements. He works with confidence, self-esteem, depression, anxiety and stress. Alongside this work, he also has experience as  a business coach and a skills trainer.

I also work at several drama schools coaching actors 1-1 on things like confidence, performance anxiety or anything that might crop up in their personal lives (from depression to just wanting to be better at something.)

Similarly, I train therapists and practitioners, coach politicians and consult for various institutions (including a nightclub and a youth offending institution.)

My most common work is working with members of the public. Whether it’s preparing someone for their audition at drama school or working with someone who’s experienced trauma – 1 on 1 work is something I really enjoy.

I like to keep busy -  people who know  me are often bemused how many different hats this entails. I don’t really see it that way, though. For me – they’re all under one umbrella of  working with people.

So why this blog? It’s not intended to be an advertisement for ‘Zack Polanski Hypnotherapy Services’ – it’s intended to suggest a wider point about versatility.

So often I meet people who feel really stuck in their lives, their relationships or their careers. They can’t see a way out or they feel really tied up in their story. Frequently, learning a new skill set is a big jump.

I’d still encourage people to do it sometimes, even if it’s a leap – yet in the meantime, you may not even have to move off the spot. Sometimes you can look at your feet, turn yourself around and just face in a different direction. This alternative perceptual position can be enough that you can begin to see new angles and ideas upon your perspective – something that can have seemed so difficult or impossible, can come within your reach.

As a therapist, a communicator, a philosopher, a mentor and a coach -  guiding you to find that new position and encouraging you to take that leap is often my specialist area. I’d love to help.

Zack Polanski is a Cognitive Hypnotherapist at 1 Harley Street, London. W1G 9UD.  07738088632 or info@zackpolanski.com

Cognitive Hypnotherapy can be extremely effective in dealing with stress quickly and for long periods of time as it allows you to be in a space where you feel more focused and relaxed.

Facts about Stress that probably won’t surprise you

• 80% of workers feel stress in their job.
• 50% say they need help in learning how to manage stress.

• 14% have felt like striking a co-worker in the past year, but didn’t.
• 29% have yelled at co-workers because of workplace stress,
• 19% of workers have quit a previous position because of job stress.
• 62% routinely fi nd that they end the day with work-related neck pain.
• 34% reported difficulty in sleeping because they were too stressed-out.

Facts about Stress that probably will
• Stress is a sign your body is working perfectly.
• The difference between a stressful situation and a challenging situation is our perception of: Our ability
to manage it; the level of control we feel we have over it, and the meaning, signifi cance and consequence it
has for us. You can change your perception of all of these things.
• There are techniques available that are simple to use that can radically change your experience of stress
and quickly put you back in control.

Reprinted with Kind Permission from The Quest Institute.

Zack Polanski is a Cognitive Hypnotherapist working from Harley St, London.

Session Fees are £220 per session and need to be booked 7 days in advance. Discount sessions are available for Students and the unemployed. Please call on 07738088632.

When we’re approached by someone interested in hypnotherapy training this is the question that we have to answer most often. And it’s not surprising; the term clinical hypnotherapy is used by many hypnotherapy courses which teach very different syllabuses, and which operate from many different organising beliefs. We wanted people to be able to recognise what they’re getting from our hypnotherapy course that they couldn’t get from someone else’s, and so we called our approach Cognitive Hypnotherapy, because it borrows many of its principles from Cognitive theory, neuroscience and evolutionary psychology, and uses a very different idea about the nature of hypnosis and trance than the traditional approaches that commonly fall within the labels of clinical hypnotherapy or clinical hypnosis. But, because Cognitive Hypnotherapy is a synthesis of many ideas, describing that difference isn’t easy with just a brief phase.

I could say “Cognitive Hypnotherapy is a brief approach which uses a modern understanding of trance to enable the client to let go of what restricts them, and create what would empower them.” But that doesn’t help that much, it needs more detail. So if you’re really interested in knowing what it is that makes this approach so different, read on…

Whenever I’m asked what Cognitive Hypnotherapy is I normally have to start with what it isn’t.

• It isn’t an approach that sees trance as a special state, certainly not one created by the hypnotist.
• It doesn’t believe that depth of trance is a significant factor in the success of a suggestion or technique, or that trance is necessarily a state of relaxation – some trance states are packed to the gills with fear, anxiety, panic and any others that can jam themselves in.
• It doesn’t believe that the therapist’s role is to come up with answers, only questions that guide the client to finding their own.

Let’s start with Orr’s Law (What the thinker thinks the prover proves) because it has such an important place. In many important respects the world is what we believe it to be. If our thinker thinks something is true then our prover will bring information from the background that confirms it, and leave in the background everything that contradicts it. This filtering of information is achieved by what Bandler and Grinder described as ‘universal modeling processes’, deletion, distortion and generalisation – how the mind filters information from the senses and fits it into its model of the world. I’ve suggested that these three processes correspond to the nine major trance phenomena – they are how the mind deletes, distorts and generalises. This places trance centrally in the normal spectrum of human experience. We spend much, if not most of our time in states woven from these phenomena and it is from these states that many of the patterns that form our belief systems arise.

Trance phenomena are a fundamental part of the problem pattern of the client, and a fundamental part of the solution. In many respects Cognitive Hypnotherapy involves waking the client up from the trance they’re in while they’re ‘doing’ their problem, or at least helping them create a more pleasant trance.

Much of our brain is devoted to identifying patterns of information from our surroundings. It uses our interpretation of our past experiences to give meaning to our present and to calculate the possible consequences to us in the future. I suggest that the mind uses three basic algorithms to perform these calculations: A=B (this is the same as that), C>E (cause and effect) and A=notB. In simple terms the purpose of these calculations is Freud’s pleasure principle – our unconscious seeks to move us towards pleasure and away from pain.

However, problems arise because our mind is modular, not singular. We have an executive module that we feel is our ‘self’, our authentic identity. This module lives under the illusion that it controls all of our actions and plots our course through life. It doesn’t, most of what we do is the result of unconscious processes and drives, our ‘I’ just spins a convincing story to itself (and anyone else who’ll listen) about why it’s spent its life the way it has.

The unconscious is part of this modularity, there is no single unconscious in conflict with the conscious, rather a host of ‘parts’ that perform a particular function or are triggered into action by particular circumstances. Problems are often caused by the inner conflict between these conscious and unconscious parts, or where a part is using a particular interpretation of past information that creates a limiting version of present reality. How they come to do so is explained by the tenets of Cognitive Psychology. It has two main organising themes:

1. Actions are caused by mental processes.
2. The mind is a computer.

Let’s look at both of these in turn, and if you are a technophobe, don’t panic because we are not going to mention gigabytes,googlebots or teraflops once.

1. Actions are caused by mental processes.

Psychology is the science of human behaviour. Its area is seeking why humans act the way they do. Cognitive psychology proposes that we are all psychologists, seeking to understand our actions, and the actions of others. From the earliest days we are trying to work out what’s going on and why.

As such we are creatures who seek meaning, and, just as we believe that everything that happens around us has a cause – I get wet because I walk in the rain, my dog barks because it has heard something outside – so we attribute our behaviour to our mental processes (thoughts) – ‘I got angry because I thought my girlfriend looked at someone else’, ‘I laughed because I thought someone falling over in front of me was funny’. For most people this is not news. It broadly corresponds to how ‘folk’ psychology has operated, probably for hundreds of years. What is different is the precision with which cognitive psychology describes these mental processes. It calls them computations, I tend to use the term calculations and use the idea of the three algorithms as the means by which the mind (or part of it) makes the calculation.

2. The mind is a computer.
This does not mean that the mind uses the operating principles of a computer, like the use of binary code. We know it doesn’t. Basing themselves on the work of British mathematician Alan Turing, cognitive psychologists define a computer as a set of operations for processing information.

This is an important distinction to make, because it means that the computer is software, not hardware. The essence of a computer does not lie in the materials from which it is made, but in the programs it executes. You need a machine to run it on, but you could use many different types of machine. The mind is thus a very complicated program, which they seek to describe in terms of information processing, without needing to focus on how the brain (the hardware) actually does it. In the words of Dylan Evans and Oscar Zarate,”The key to behaviour is the program, not the materials out of which the machine is made.”

From this idea we could envisage the mind as a series of programs that develop from both a genetic base and as a reaction to experience. Wolinsky would probably describe these programs as trance identities, the followers of Fritz Perls would probably call them parts. My son would probably say, “Whatever!” And he’s right. The term we use isn’t as important as the idea it conveys; that our mind is made of different programs that have different agenda’s. There is more than one ghost in the machine. Sometimes these differences cause conflict. Trance phenomena are the means by which each program/trance identity creates the illusion of reality it requires to perform its function.

We look to Evolutionary Psychology for the basis of this conflict between different programs. The premise of Evolutionary psychology is that, if cognitive psychology shows us that the mind exhibits a very complex design (there are more connections between cells in the brain than stars in the universe), whose purpose is to process different forms of information, and evolutionary biology tells us that complex designs in nature come about only by natural selection, then the design of the mind must have evolved by a process of natural selection – i.e. each part of the mind has been created by mutation, and retained because of its usefulness in solving particular problems.

None of these mutations are likely to have arisen in the last 10,000 years. The brain and mind we have is adapted to solve the physical and social problems that arise from life in a small group of hunter-gatherers on the savannah. The most important adaptive problems in this environment are thought to be:
• Avoiding predators
• Eating the right food
• Forming alliances and friendships
• Providing help to children and other relatives
• Reading other peoples minds
• Communicating with other people
• Selecting mates

All of the abilities shown above are crucial for passing on your genes. That being the case, evolution should have designed mental modules to achieve these objectives in the ancestral environment.

These modules obviously continue to have a use within the modern situation, but, bearing in mind that their purpose is processing information, if the wrong computation is made then the behaviour the module generates as a result is likely to be wrong as well. Beside each module I have put a ’software fault’ that might be attributed to it.

• Avoiding predators – Phobia’s.
• Eating the right food – Eating disorders, weight problems.
• Forming alliances and friendships – low self-esteem, jealousy, insecurity.
• Providing help to children and other relatives – guilt.
• Reading other peoples minds – Paranoia.
• Communicating with other people – Alienation, social phobia’s.
• Selecting mates – Jealousy, insecurity.

I introduce them to you now only to get you thinking about the modular nature of the brain, and how these faults can be likened to software errors (like computer viruses). The purpose of Cognitive Hypnotherapy becomes one of de-bugging the programs that aren’t working for the client, and so enabling a greater sense of congruency in their daily lives. Each program has a pattern that contains information about context, structure, process and consequence. This is what makes up the thought the thinker has that the prover seeks to prove. Changing part of the problem pattern changes the operation of the program and may render its purpose completely redundant.

Our brain is an expensive investment by evolution – it consumes 30% of our daily calories. It doesn’t make sense that the reward of this investment would be behaviours less likely to help us survive – unhappiness isn’t hardwired. Our problems are simply mistakes based on the brains mis-calculations – usually when our computer is too young to make good ones. The young brain is only capable of a limited complexity in its calculations, labelled by the educationalist Piaget as ‘nominal processing’ – things are black or white, good or bad, right or wrong. As we mature we become capable of finer levels of rationality and understanding, but unfortunately the results of our earlier struggles to comprehend the world and keep us safe continue to provide the basis for later calculations – just like the programming errors of early versions of Windows continue to cause crashes in later versions – so problems that start as significant emotional events (SEE’s) to a juvenile generalise into debilitating adult problems. An important principle here is that the programs running these problems have a positive intention – they’re a program trying to help, just in the wrong way – remember Mrs Toothbrush from vol I? This applies with a wide range of issues, from phobias to smoking (why would we be motivated to do something that’s going to kill us unless at some level part of us thought there was a benefit?). Cognitive Hypnotherapy is constantly looking for better ways to assist the client in re-coding the programs that don’t work for them. WordweavingTM is a central part of it because it offers a model that utilises the trance phenomena that form the problem as a means of changing it.

Essentially what Cognitive Hypnotherapy seeks to do is identify what the thinker thinks that causes the problem. This is the problem pattern. We change it in any way possible with the many techniques we have available and then prime their mind using Wordweaving to link this change to a continuing movement towards their solution state – their world without their issue.

Whether it be a confidence issue, anxiety, a phobia, an addiction or something that you imagine i’ve never been asked before; i’m more then happy to have a chat to you on the phone or by e-mail and give you a realistic assessment of what I can do about it and how I can help.

Using hypnosis, NLP and cutting edge techniques from different therapies across the world, we can make huge difference and change in your life in a relatively brief amount of time.

Their trainings are always excellent and i’d thoroughly reccomend it to anyone who’s interested in learning more about the world of Cognitive Hypnotherapy.

Among the skills that were being developed were Dilt’s sleight of mouth patterns (A personal favourite), Eye Movement Integration (Particularly useful in working with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and various uses of working with Inner space in Outer Space.

NLP New Code often does the latter in various guises and forms, and it was interesting to see it put in a different context.

I love going on trainings; as much as I enjoy working with various clients and all the different issues and ideas that people bring into the room with them at Harley Street- I really enjoy the odd weekend in London around other therapists sharing ideas and progressing the advancement of the field.

I also think it’s really important to keep training. I attend at least five days further training every month to make sure that I’m keeping up to date with the latest advancements in new technologies and ideas around the therapeutic relationship.

Some of the things that were really interesting to me in January were phobias, anxiety, lack of confidence, canabis and stop smoking cessation arenas.

This coming weekend i’m assisting coaching on a New Code Neurolinguistic Programming Course in Regent’s Park with Peter Salisbury and Associates which is in a run up to an Advanced New Code training I’m participating in with Dr John Grinder in February in France.

I’ll keep the blog updated as we go!

Particularly struck me as I have an interesting mix of different clients who come to see me.

A lot come because they are trying to get away from something- like a phobia for example, or anxiety. They don’t like something in their life which they’d much rather be rid of.

On the other hand though, I see a lot of people who just want to be ‘better at something.’ Whether it be performance enhancement of their confidence levels, a sports performance or an actor- they just want an improvement.

Isn’t it interesting how we often find human beings who have certain skills already and didn’t realise it was a skill until someone went out of their way to write an article about it?

Following is the article; If you’d like to see Zack Polanski, please contact The Lewis Clinic, 1 Harley Street, London.

Other clinics also available in the Camden area,  Westminster and Bayswater.

Many of us struggle sometimes to put a name to a face, but what if you could recognise someone many years after seeing them for a moment?

You know the woman crossing the street. But where from?

Ah, she was one of the volunteers staffing the polling station where you voted several years before. You probably saw her for a couple of minutes. Several years ago.

Sound like the kind of face you would place immediately?

It is for Jennifer. She is a “super recogniser”, someone with a significantly above average ability to place a face.

In fact, she can almost never forget a face. She first noticed something might be unusual on holiday with her family when she spotted a very minor actor on a plane. Her family were disbelieving but she was proved right.

But it really hit home at college that she was different from those around her.

“I’d meet so many people in the first few weeks and I’d remember everyone no matter how brief the encounter. I’d then meet them at a party and they wouldn’t remember me. I’d think: ‘That person is SO fake, I can’t believe they’re pretending they don’t remember me when we met for 30 seconds in the cafeteria three weeks ago.’”

Chance meeting

It doesn’t matter if years have lapsed since seeing them.

She describes seeing someone she saw a few times as child, on the subway, now over 20 years older with greying hair and dreadlocks and knowing exactly who she was.

“People can get older but their faces look the same to me,” says Jennifer. “They don’t look different to me whether they’re children or adults. I don’t know why my mind is able to make the leap.”

It sounds like a neat party trick, or perhaps something useful in business, but it may mean more than that to scientists.

Jennifer’s ability may help scientists who are investigating people in the opposite position, those who suffer from the condition prosopagnosia, popularly known as face blindness.

Claire, a 49-year-old mother of four, has the condition.

She contracted viral encephalitis in May 2004 and as well as severe memory loss she has struggled to recognise faces.

“I was discharged home to a family I couldn’t recognise, I had to believe they were my family. I had to believe Ed was my husband and tell myself he was the man I loved and that the children were my children.”

Claire continues to have problems with faces. She still can’t pick out which are her children if they’re with their friends. But she describes a recent triumph – picking out her husband Ed in a crowd. Yet she still has to use different strategies to recognise friends and family by.

Even her own reflection can catch her out if it takes her by surprise.

Challenging condition

Learning to live with the condition and work around it takes effort, and life remains difficult for Claire.

“It’s not easy trying to re-find myself in what feels like someone else’s life and the more sociable I’m becoming, the more challenging the prosopagnosia is. We take all the knowledge and information you get from someone’s face for granted.

“You don’t think about it how you’d feel if all that information was whipped off you. I wouldn’t wish it on anybody’

It may not be the case that there are only three groups of face recognisers, those with prosopagnosia, those who are “normal” and then the super recognisers.

Instead, there may be a spectrum of face recognition, says Brad Duchaine, of the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience and University College London’s prosopagnosia research centre.

People like Claire have acquired prosopagnosia from damage to the brain. But there is another kind often less severe is called “developmental” prosopagnosia where someone has had the condition all their life.

And the condition is surprisingly common. As many as one in 50 people will be prosopagnosic but often they won’t know.

And at the other end of the spectrum scientists are beginning to study super recognisers, often establishing contact because of publicity about prosopagnosia.

They are just starting to understand the brains of the super recognisers by scanning their neural networks and working out what might be structurally or functionally different about their grey matter.

On standard tests of facial recognition, the super recognisers usually get full marks, but even if the faces are severely blurred they still get near to full marks, says recognition expert Prof Richard Russell, of Gettysburg College.

“One of the most exciting implications of this work is that while we assume we all see the same things, this work suggests that at least in terms of looking at faces we don’t see the same things.

“Super recognisers are looking at the world in a different way than other people and it could be that this isn’t limited to looking at faces but other aspects of seeing the world. And we think it’s going to be a very helpful tool in helping understanding of how the mind and the brain work.”

While not suffering difficulties, like those with prosopagnosia, the super recognisers sometimes still choose to modify their behaviour.

Jennifer admits lying when asked whether she has met people before. Some would find it unsettling that someone remembers their face and name after a momentary encounter many years before.

Just walking around in the city can produce a tissue of recognition.

“It’s not necessarily every single person who’s walking by me in a rush of people on the street but if I notice someone then I will remember them

“I really don’t have to have an important interaction with people.”

Significantly, even if the faces have changed considerably they are still recognisable

“People can get older – for some reason their faces still look the same to me. My mind is able to make the leap.”

And certain sectors of society should try to avoid the super recognisers.

“I do always tell people that I think I would be the perfect witness for a crime,” Jennifer says.