They say that the eyes are the windows of the soul – but for life coach and counsellor Dr Elizabeth Ann Diamond, of Weston-super-Mare, they are also windows to health and well-being.

Elizabeth is one of the very few iridologists practising in the UK. Iridology is the art of reading the irises of the eyes to find out what is happening within a person's body – or mind – and detecting possible pathways to illness or disease.

"The eye is like a chart of the body," said Elizabeth. "I look at the iris and its structure. Each part of the iris links to a part of the body. I establish the constitution of the person from the iris and then I know how their body works, what would be good or not good for them, and what kind of illness or disease they could suffer.

"It's like preventative medicine – people can take action to help themselves and not go down that route. It's a diagnostic tool."

Elizabeth, who found out about iridology on a nutritional medicine course, and will be giving a talk and demonstration at next week's Mystic and Earth Spirit Fayre at Glastonbury, says she can read the eye in different ways: psychologically, physically or spiritually.

Iridology had its origins with the Hungarian homeopathic physician Ignatz von Peczely in the 1820s, and today, worldwide, there are a number of different schools.