You would think that in these austere times, spending £50 for someone in a velvet-swagged corner of a department store to tell you your future might seem a bit of a frippery, but for Psychic Sisters, who run a booth in Selfridge's, business is booming.

"We started seeing more around the time it was announced that Britain was in a recession," says Vicky, who takes the bookings (she can't get hold of Jayne Wallace, the founder, and doesn't know where she is - this is because Vicky is a healer, not a psychic).

"People always want to know the usual questions about relationships, but more were starting to want to find out about their careers." Before the recession around 80% of their clients were female; now the split between women and men is around 60/40.

It isn't just the Psychic Sisters who are reporting a surge in interest. "The number of people coming for readings is going up," says Robin Lown, a palmist and president of the British Astrological and Psychic Society. He says he could see the financial crash coming, especially in the hands of his City worker clients - he claims he advised one man who worked for Lehman Brothers to get out because the bank was about to collapse.

Lown says that any time of uncertainty - global or personal - will send people to psychics. "We are purveyors of what I like to call 'hope therapy'."

As well as providing reassurance, psychics are working to drag us out of the economic crisis. In March, psychic Amanda Hart organised a day when thousands of people across the world agreed to send out positive thoughts.

Did it work? "Absolutely," she says. "When you are positive, it has a ripple effect."

I think we can be assured that the recession is officially over.