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SINGER Kym Marsh has revealed how she cured her crippling panic attacks with bizarre therapy sessions - including sitting in the car from the film Back to the Future and "travelling back in time". The pop beauty and budding actress says she was able to go back and talk to her dead grandad after taking a seat in the original DeLorean driven by Michael J Fox in the 80s movie. As part of the treatment, Kym, 30, was also made to stand fully clothed in a shower and squirted with paint. The former Hear'Say star told how she suffered regular breakdowns and panic attacks for years as a result of childhood bullying, a car crash and the death of her grandfather.

The episodes were so bad that they threatened her career as Corrie barmaid Michelle, who will become a Weatherfield regular from next month.
But sessions with celebrity lifestyle coaches Nik and Eva Speakman have helped Kym shed her worries about the past.
She told friends: "I cannot believe it. I never thought I would shake off the condition."

Kym, who is married to former EastEnders star Jack Ryder, went Back to the Future when she sat in the car from the movie - now owned by Nik - and talked about her anxieties.
In another session, she put on a plastic cape and was squirted with paint. When it was rinsed off it symbolised washing away past troubles.
Kym said: "Some of the stuff was weird. I thought, 'how's that going to work?'
"It was great to sit in the DeLorean, to go back in time and speak to my late grandfather. I was able to tell him how much I loved him. I was crying tears of joy when I got out."

During therapy - at the Speakmans' Stubley Hall home near Manchester - Kym underwent the couple 's "watch treatment", where patients concentrate on a swinging timepiece then look away quickly and blink their eyes.
She was also ordered to draw a "timeline" in whitewash to ensure all her fears were behind her.

The sessions were filmed for the TV series A Life Coach Less Ordinary. During filming, she told, the couple how she had suffered panic attacks since she was 21.
She even had them on stage with Hear'Say but hid the effects.
The first came soon after the birth of her second child Emily, now eight.
She said: "My heart was pounding and I couldn't breathe.
"The attacks are linked to stress. A really bad one is frightening. I hyperventilate, feel dizzy and my mouth goes dry. It takes away my independence and dictates my life."

When Kym first had problems, a doctor told her she was suffering from post-natal depression but she disagreed and refused medication.
She tried to beat the affliction by having Paul McKenna hypnotise her, which helped for a while. Then a close relative's death saw the attacks return. The Speakmans believe the triggers lay in a series of highly emotional incidents in her life. She was bullied at school, was in a car crash at 15 and then her grandfather died unexpectedly.
Once she had confronted those demons, she was cured.

Kym - who lives in St Albans, Herts, with Jack, 24, and her children from a previous relationship David, 10, and Emily, eight - made her acting debut in the BBC1 daytime soap Doctors. She signed up with Corrie for four episodes as struggling singer Michelle but proved so popular she was asked back. Kym is already filming episodes to be shown in August. Nik Speakman said: "It's amazing that people suffer these debilitating conditions for years and don't need to. Kym was fantastic. She was a lovely person to work with."

A Life Coach Less Ordinary will be shown on UKTV Style in September.