When most people think of exorcisms, the first thing that comes to mind is a little girl strapped to a bed, her head turning 360 degrees as she vomits green sludge.

It's enough to put you off pea and ham soup for life.

And while demonic possession might not be something that most of us spend a lot of time worrying about, there is a growing market for people who believe this is the cause of what is wrong in their lives - and a number of people who claim they can help.

Hally Rhiannon-Nammu is a behavioural therapist and shaman, and she is one of these people. She runs Creative Balance Healing, a service she describes as"the place that can help when no one else can".

So how do you know if there's an unwanted spirit hitching a ride in your body? Hally says the signs can start off subtle at first.

"Eye issues, ear issues, throat issues - demons can cause all kinds of physical problems," she explains. "They can also cause stomach and muscle issues.

"Another sign of something sinister is the feeling that there is someone blowing in your ears all the time," Hally says. "That is someone speaking into your ears. Heavy sleeping and low energy but not feeling rested after sleep - these can all be symptoms"

"Some [demons or spirits] are dormant for 30 years before they actually become active. I had a lady in her 60s and she'd been possessed for 30 years. That was a physical possession where she was being violated every day. She wanted to have children but the possession was too full on. She finally got in touch with me because the demons had started attacking her cats. That was the final straw for her."

"Thankfully, I helped her and the demons are gone now," she says with relief.

"While I don't call what I do an exorcism, technically I suppose it is," she tells whimn.com.au. She hastens to add, however, that it's nothing like the religious version of the rite.

"The belief around exorcism is simply that an unwanted spirit in a person is removed," she explains.

"However, in the religious version - the ones you would have seen on tv and the movies - the process is very painful for the person and it can actually result in death. And you don't wanna know what happens to the person's soul afterwards."

What Hally does, she says, is far more gentle - and far more effective.

"Generally the first thing I do is try to take out as much of the spirit as I can. So I would first have a consult, and figure out where a person is at."

"There is a tipping point," she cautions, "and when the tipping point comes they are too far gone. Once they're too far gone it's about getting their mental health up, and then once they're stronger, getting rid of the spirit. It's always about figuring out where a person is at. It takes more than one session. Generally we're talking around five sessions."

And just what do these sessions entail? While she can't give away too many trade secrets, Hally reveals the trick is working in partnership with the possessed person. There's even homework.

"Ideally I'd do three days apart or weekly. It all depends on how they can adjust and I give them homework to do. If they stick to what I say and follow my instructions to the letter of the law, they'll go back to being completely fine in a month or two, and they'll be healthy and happy."

And what of the bad spirits? Does she 'send them up to the light?'

"That's the absolute worst thing you can do," she advises.

"They adjust to the light, and then they just come back. I send them somewhere else, depending on the demon. If we're talking about biblical hell, there are about a thousand different versions of that. It all depends on where you want to send them, and to what extent. If it's a really nasty demon, well I have really nasty places I can send it."

Best of all, Hally's work comes with a lifetime guarantee.

"The main thing is that they can never be repossessed," she says, "what's the point if they can be possessed again? I raise their vibration, heal them and then make sure they're feeling good and give them protection. I go old school. Old school is really the only thing that works."

"It sounds out there, I realise," she says.

"But there are times when you have to go interdimensional. You just realise, 'I need to be able to see through different dimensions, I have to be able to communicate here, I have to be able to communicate there, in order to really help this person'. In the moment, it's extremely real. When you sit back, you think 'OK, from a logical point of view this sounds ridiculous', I realise this. But when you're there, and there is this black thing swinging around, you have to deal with it. And it's very real."