"A cigarette is the only consumer product which, when
consumed as desired, kills half of its regular customers".
That is a startling fact there from the World Health
Organisation, but it is true. Smoking is something that used to be considered
quite glamorous many years ago, but as time goes by and laws that restrict
where people can smoke come into force, more and more people are trying to kick
their habit.
The fact that more people are trying to quit smoking means
that there has been a big rise in the amount of people who are using
hypnotherapy to help them become a non smoker. As a hypnotherapist myself, the
main enquiries I receive are from people who do not want to smoke any more.
Some therapists even claim that it is the 'bread and butter' of their work and
so therefore specialise in that area.
So, why do people smoke? This is a question that a friend
once posed to me. He could not understand why people would smoke when they are
fully aware of the health risks and potential consequences of lighting up. What
he failed to see though was that smoking is mostly a habit or sadly an
addiction. For many individuals it is a case of peer pressure in their teenage
years. When a group of teenagers are together and 'egging' each other on to
start smoking it can be difficult to say no, especially when you want to fit in
with people at that age. I am personally guilty of giving in to peer pressure
as a teenager and smoking to fit in. However, I am now a non smoker. Another
reason that people may start smoking is because they feel stressed and think
that if they were to smoke a cigarette they would feel relieved of that stress.
Clients who want to stop smoking have come to me with many reasons as to why
they started smoking in the first place and therefore I would be here for a considerable
amount of time if I was to go through them all. But whatever the reason why
people start smoking, one thing that is a common problem across the board is
that it becomes a habit or an addiction. And that is where hypnotherapy can
come in...
When people contact me to make an enquiry about smoking
cessation therapy I offer them two options. The first option is to have about 5
weekly sessions which involve gradually cutting down the cigarette intake over
that period. The second option, which is a bit more hardcore, involves having a
one off 2 hour session that results (hopefully) in the person leaving as a non
smoker. Whichever option the client goes for there is a set list of things that
I will want to find out:
How many cigarettes the client smokes each day - this is
also important because in my experience somebody who smokes 40 cigarettes each
day requires deeper treatment than somebody who only smokes 10 cigarettes each
day.
Whether the person has tried to give up smoking before -
it's good to find out the methods that have been used by the person to give up
in the past and to ascertain what degree of success there has been.
If they have used hypnotherapy to try to give up before - if
the client has seen a hypnotherapist before to quit smoking then I will not see
them myself. If hypnotherapy didn't work before then what's to say it won't
work again.
What makes them want to quit now - this is an essential question because I will
only see people who say that they are wanting to stop smoking because it is
what they want to do. If someone was to say that their husband or wife wanted
them to stop smoking then I would question this and probably not end up seeing
that person for therapy.
Once those important questions have been asked and it is
decided that therapy can go ahead, I make sure that the process of hypnotherapy
not only involves the hypnosis itself but also a great deal of discussion which
utilises my counselling skills and provides the client with a great deal of
factual information about the risks of smoking and the benefits of becoming a
non-smoker. For the risks of smoking part of the session I may discuss the
following:
The many conditions that are caused or made worse by
smoking, which inlude: many forms of cancer, diabetes, premature ageing,
infertility, emphysema, and ulcers.
I would go through the chemicals that are in cigarettes,
such as nicotine, carbon monoxide, tar, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, and how they
can affect the human body.
The death rate of people who smoke and how smoking is one of
the biggest killers.
That part of the session can be quite emotional for some
people so to balance it out I also go into the benefits of being a non-smoker,
which includes the obvious financial benefits as well as the health benefits
too. It is that part of the session that tends to inspire people and give them
a bit more drive to succeed in reaching their goal.
The hypnosis itself will incorporate all of the information
that the client has provided me with. I make up the majority of the
hypnotherapy scripts as I go along and all of the hypnotherapy that I do is
tailored to exactly meet the needs of the individual client. Some tools that I
may use could be regression, inner child work, or visualisation, but whatever I
do it will be structured specifically for the individual.
So there you have the basics of what smoking cessation
therapy may entail. One final thing that I shall mention is that people making
enquiries often want to know how successful smoking cessation therapy is. This
is a question that I cannot answer in terms of giving a success rate, but what
I can and do say is that smoking cessation therapy is very valuable and
powerful, and that as with all hypnotherapy it will work if you want it to.
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