Most people already know the risks and dangers of cigarette smoking, how bad it is for you and that they “should” quit. Those individuals who continue smoking have likely developed a strong negative habit, an automatic response to a host of triggers that maintain their smoking behavior.
Hypnosis is a powerful tool to help change unwanted negative habits. When I use hypnosis for smoking cessation with clients, I employ a customized method to evaluate the role smoking cigarettes plays in the person’s life. I then develop individualized suggestions designed to help change and modify these triggers.
Hypnosis helps the individual change their response to stress, their coping strategies and their overall lifestyle. My self-help guide, “Freedom From Tobacco” provides an additional tool to educate and motivate clients to quit and as an aid in preventing relapse.
In the first session, I take a history of the client’s smoking habit, medical situation, and current lifestyle and explain hypnosis in some detail. The client receives a copy of the “Freedom From Tobacco” guide to read for the next session. In the second session, the client is taught how to relax (get into a trance) and reviews the customized suggestions I have prepared. In the third meeting, I combine deep relaxation with the suggestions (hypnosis!). Clients may just need a single session or require 2-3 additional sessions to strengthen and reinforce the gains. The last session focuses on relapse prevention – helping the client remain free of cigarettes once he/she has stopped.
The success of hypnosis for smoking cessation is based on a number of variables: the individual’s motivation, natural talent to be hypnotized and my skill as a therapist and hypnotherapist. While there are no guarantees on how successful each person will be, hypnosis provides a safe, fast and relatively low cost investment in health and well-being.
