TV therapist's 'fling with dancer'

A celebrity therapist has been accused of seducing a lapdancer who went to him for help with an alcohol problem.

Beechy Colclough, whose clients include Sir Elton John, Michael Jackson, Sophie Anderton and Michael Barrymore, breached client trust, claims the dancer, Angela Harvey.

She says she had a romance that went on for months with the married therapist, who has had his own shows on ITV and is a regular on the chat show circuit.

'I went to him for help but he has just used me for sex,' said Miss Harvey. 'I feel humiliated and betrayed.'

The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy is due to investigate the claims because sex between therapists and their clients is strictly forbidden.

Yesterday Belfast-born Colclough, 58, was fighting to save his 17-year marriage to his therapist wife Josephine, 49, whom he credits with saving him from alcoholism.

Friends said Colclough was trying to shield her from the claims by Miss Harvey in The News of The World because she is ill.

Miss Harvey claims Colclough seduced her on her fourth therapy session with him.

'He was teaching me to relax and breathe in goodness, and I had my eyes shut,' she told the paper. 'I remember him touching me softly, making movements on my legs. He had calming music on and incense burning. He massaged my stomach and then my hips. I was under his spell and did what I was told.'

She said the sex continued at her next session and before long the pair had embarked on a full-blown affair with the therapist sending her steamy text messages and visiting her at her home in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire.

Miss Harvey, who has a young daughter, said she had decided to sell her story after discovering Colclough had been 'using her'.

She said: 'I feel so stupid. I really believed he loved me. Now I've told him it's over.'

Colclough, who grew up with an alcoholic father, became a down-and-out and woke up one morning to find a dog urinating on him. He married young but left first wife Josephine Carroll and two children, saying they were better off without him.

His second wife, also Josephine, weaned him off the addiction and before long he was learning how to become a therapist himself. He entered celebrity circles after treating Sir Elton John's then manager John Reid.

Colclough was unavailable for comment yesterday while Miss Harvey insisted she stood by her story.