You are getting sleepy... and a job

An older volunteer takes part in a trial session

Young people who are considered too disruptive and disturbed to be employable are to be offered hypnotherapy to change their behaviour to help them to find and stay in work.

As part of the Government's New Deal jobs programme, the hypnotherapy and anger management sessions are to be offered on a trial basis by the employment service in Southampton.

Clark: nurturing lifeskills

The £90,000 scheme, believed to be the first of its kind in the country, is targeted at those with a serious social problem such as violent offenders, victims of abuse and drug addicts.

Initially, the help will be available to up to 100 young people, who have trouble holding on to work.

Hynotherapist Madeline Clark, who is taking part in the experiment, said: "If they have a problem with anger you can get them to visualise a situation where they are calm and then they can utilise that in an event where they might be angry.

"It's learning to deal with their emotions in a different way so that it can help them to perform in the outside world."

The project manager, Phil Tyler, said if an extra effort were not made to help these young people they would become increasingly marginalised from society and could drift into crime.

"If we are not prepared to deal with young people, what sort of a society are we?" he asked.