STRESS counselling in Zimbabwe right now is a bit like selling ice cream on Blackpool sea front on a hot summer Sunday afternoon - there are plenty of customers.

"It is impossible for anyone living in the UK to appreciate the situation out there," said Pamina Mullins. "It is beyond the bounds of what you would recognise as a structure for society. You cannot buy anything or sell anything, there is 80 per cent unemployment and when they say inflation is running at 160,000 per cent I think they're on the conservative side.

"Just simple tasks that people take for granted over here present major challenges. Like buying food or petrol. First you have to source the item, find out where it is being sold, then you have to find some money to pay for it and then you have to work out how to get there. It's quite common to queue two days for fuel for your car."

Pamina knows, because although she is currently living in Worcester, she is only on a sabbatical from Zim, where she runs her own highly successful stress management consultancy.

She has also written a book Stress Slaves, the promotion of which is another reason for her visit. "Someone has to send food parcels to the family back home," she pointed out. You could argue that if you want to earn a living in the chaos of Zimbabwe, stress counselling is as good a way as any. A shopkeeper or a garage owner might run up a bit short.

"With the situation there being what it is, plus the highest inflation rate in the world, there are a lot of stressed people," said Pamina. "So practising stress management on the front line' has been very challenging and rewarding. It's a training ground second to none. I've had an extremely busy practice in Harare for the past six years."

Although born in neighbouring Zambia, where her father worked in the mining industry, she has lived in Zim virtually all her life, right back to the days when it was called Rhodesia with Bulawayo as its capital and had several successful business careers.

Much less enjoyably, she has been through a divorce and seen a teenage daughter die through illness. "I've had some stress of my own," she added. She has also seen Zimbabwe go downhill fast.

"Things started to decline about 12 to 15 years ago, but in the past five they have suddenly got much worse. In such a situation any stress problems you have are magnified many fold.

"Lots of people suffer from stress, but it's how you handle it that counts," Pamina added. "You have to get the right balance between mind, body and emotions.

"The traditional factors causing stress are work environment, relationships, finance, health and attaining goals. But any problems with these in the UK are multiplied 10,000 times by living in Zimbabwe."

However she won't be drawn, probably wisely, into any criticism of the regime.

"I don't want to go down the political route," said Pamina. "I'll leave that to others."

She came over to England just after the millennium to train as a stress management consultant and once fully qualified, went straight back home. "I saw it as a positive way to help people in what was becoming an ever more desperate country. I'm a very pro-active person."

Pamina runs her practice from her home in Harare, but also counsels by e-mail and through personal or company visits, "where I will see the whole work force, from the chief executive officer to the messenger".

But wherever and whoever, the problems and the solutions surrounding stress remain pretty much the same.

"Basically you have to ask yourself Is it worth involving my energy in this? Is it going to be productive or not?'" she explained.

"You have a limited amount of energy and you must use it in the most useful way. Reacting in a certain way to a situation can be counter productive. So can arguing. Too much worrying will affect your health; 80 per cent of all illnesses are stress-related.

"We must learn to manage our stress and doing that will support our immune system."

Summarised, it might be "chill out". Which can be easier said than done. Although the next time you're tempted to put a fist through the petrol pump display showing 112p a litre, be thankful you are not in downtown Harare.

l Stress Slaves by Pamina Mullins (Kima Global Publishers) is available through Amazon on the internet or on order through local bookshops.