Most people would be pretty miserable to wake up and find their car refusing to start because of frost.

But despite being forced into a flustered arrival at Bristol's Clifton Practice on a bicycle, Matthew Dyson remains visibly happy – with a grin from ear to ear as he bustles through the natural health centre.

"Good bit of exercise," he laughs, as he tries to catch his breath.

It's a good job he can keep chipper about the situation, as clinical hypnotherapist Matthew is preparing to lead a course in happiness at the centre.

He may not be the Maharishi, but Matthew believes he can lead even the biggest miseries back to the road of positivity. After six years as a hypnotherapist and psychotherapist, Matthew has dealt with most kinds of phobias, anxieties and depressions.

But, he says, the happiness course is not just for depressives.

"There are very few people who are entirely contented," he explains, "and I think the course will be useful no matter where you start on the happiness scale.

"We ran this course for the first time last month, and we had 15 people who were all very different in terms of their depression and contentedness levels.

"They all developed their own goals, worked out what they wanted to achieve from the course – and everyone went away happier.

"I try to measure their happiness levels before and after the course by asking a series of questions about their happiness which can be answered on a scale of one to 10.

"The last time we did the course, everyone's rating went up by at least two points during the eight weeks."

The course is a gentle mix of practice and theory; knowledge-based learning and group discussion and exercises.

"I start off by teaching philosophies of happiness," says Matthew. "These can be placed into two distinct groups – the Western philosophies and the Eastern ones. After all, before you try to make yourself happy you have to decide what you mean by 'happiness'.

"The Western philosophies are generally aspirational. They tend to suggest that happiness is achieved by working towards goals and ticking them off. The Eastern philosophies, on the other hand, deal more with simply 'being' – learning to enjoy the life that you're already living."

Matthew says neither set of philosophies is more important than the other. "It's about balance," he says. "Some people have hectic, ambitious working lives and no matter how successful they've been they don't feel happy as they haven't managed to sort out their ability to be happy with the goals they've achieved – that's where Eastern philosophy comes in."

The course also uses psychological exercises and group hypnosis to enable students to unlock their inner happiness.

"I'm a very practical sort of person," Matthew says. "I try to steer away from the fluffy elements of psychology and deal with things that will actually improve people's outlook on life.

"Hypnosis works very well because it's able to deal with your sub-conscious, which is often what stops you achieving your goals and finding your happiness.

"Dieting is a good example. If you know you need to loose some weight for your health or to make you feel happier about yourself, you know you need to eat less.

"But the subconscious kicks in and tells you that you want to eat simply because the subconscious likes to work with habits.

"If you can reprogramme the subconscious to think differently, you can crack most things.

"We all know there can be days when you feel generally happy for no obvious reason.

"If you can work out what gives you that feeling, you can make life much more enjoyable.

"It's all about positivity, learning to realise what makes you happy and knowing you're experiencing happiness when you get there."

THE next happiness course at the Clifton Practice in Bristol starts on Wednesday, January 28, and runs for eight weeks. Each three-hour weekly session costs £20. Call 0117 9733260 or visit www.happinessclasses.co.uk

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