Hypnotherapy for smoking cessation - what to expect

After we have made an appointment, I send or email you a questionnaire which you need to fill in, and return it to me a few days before the appointment. This is so I can personalise the session to you, which can help enormously!

You then come along to the therapy room, sit in a reclining chair, relax, and just listen. You will be listening to my voice through a pair of headphones, through a sound recording system, which helps with concentration, and also means that you get a copy of the session on a CD, to take away with you.

I talk you into a Trance state. This is absolutely nothing to be afraid of, and you will recognise the sensation immediately, as it's just like those times when you drift away into a day dream. Very, very relaxing. In fact, its one of the most pleasantly relaxing experiences you can have, and a fantastic stress buster, just on its own! Your mind can wonder anywhere it likes. I usually go for a short holiday in the Maldives during Hypnosis. Some of the time you can be listening, but it is not necessary. I am talking to your unconscious, so it doesn't matter what your conscious mind does. If you are listening, some of the things I say may seem obvious, but remember, it may not be so obvious to your unconscious. Luckily, it speaks english.

Now, let's get a few things straight...
Hypnotherapy is NOT a miracle cure.
It is not the therapist who cures you.
If there is any curing, it is you curing yourself!
The Hypnotherapist is there as the "guide" for you to access resources in your mind that you already have.
You still need a certain amount of "will power", but it will be greatly enhanced by this method. Rather than use "willpower" we use "imagination power" which is MUCH more powerful.
Think of this. There is a plank of wood in front of you, ten feet long and six inches off the ground. Can you walk over it? Most able bodied people will have no problem with that. Put it fifty feet up between two scaffolding towers, however, and its a different matter. You imagine the consequences of falling off. Thats the "imagination" overpowering the "will". Thinking about this, your imagination may have just caused the palms of your hands to sweat? (Try using willpower to make your palms sweat!)
Your imagination can cause some pretty serious Physiological and Psychological changes in you, and does so many times, everyday.
This can be used to great advantage!
For example, pain relief. Even modern medical science acknowledges that hypnosis works in bringing down pain, that most drugs can't touch. If in Hypnosis I suggest to you that your hand feels numb, to an extent, it will. But, if I ask you to imagine holding your hand in a bucket of freezing, icy water for a few minutes, the temperature of your skin will actually fall, and it would be really numb! You could stick a large bore needle in without pain! This is what we call "Glove Anaesthesia", and it works. You can even "transfer" that numbness to other parts of the body.
There are many, many applications that Hypnosis can be used for.
But, back to smoking...

Basically, you and I "deconstruct" the behaviour patterns that cause you to want smoke, using your imagination. Sounds spooky? Yes, but it isn't really! You and tobacco created these behaviour patterns, so, with Hypnosis, you can easily un-create them. You are constantly changing your behaviour, either consciously or unconsciously. Maybe you decide to change your routine in the morning. Decide to have a piece of toast rather than cereal. Take a new route to work. You have that choice, and its not a problem. The problem with tobacco is that it is slightly addictive, with a half-life of about one our. This means that you suffer from the withdrawal effects quite quickly, many people less than an hour. This is where you lose the choice to make changes. The body "craves" the comfort of the status quo of the nicotine. There is a slight "hit" in the early days of smoking, but after a while, you smoke just to be in the same relaxed state that you would have been if you had never smoked in the first place. Sound familiar? Smoking "relaxes" you because the withdrawal symptoms cause you stress, alleviated by more smoking, but which is stress you wouldn't have if you didn't smoke! Vicious circle?
Smoke for the sake of it sometimes? Probably, most people do. This is to keep your nicotine levels up. The beast needs feeding!
This may sound scary and insurmountable, but the power of your nicotine habit pales into insignificance compared to the power of your imagination!
If you genuinely want to give up, then your imagination and unconscious mind will switch sides and allow you to. With the help of Hypnosis. Your mind will have set up new Neural Pathways, which in essence, are new thought patterns, bypassing the old ones. This is not new age babble, it is a physiological proven fact. These neural pathways are strengthened by repetition, which is where the CD comes in handy.

This method allows you to take control of your own behaviour, as opposed to the various drug techniques offered.
Some people have commented on the desire to take control of other aspects of their lives, once they realise that they can!

If you've got to this stage in the story, then you are probably motivated enough to be seriously thinking of giving up, but you are maybe;
a) afraid of failing, and/or,
b) afraid of succeeding.

a) You know, and have, the reasons for becoming a non-smoker. You will, if you want to. It is not as hard as you think. Lungs full of fresh clean air become more exhilarating than lungs full of smoke. Think of the buzz of taking back control, breath deep, and feel proud! In a short while, it will seem incredible to you that you ever used to smoke!
b) There is life without fags, most people survive very well without them (lets face it, considerably better) and you did at one time too! You were not born with a cigarette hanging from your mouth! Your mind and body are perfectly capable of living without your "crutch", as it did before you smoked. You will soon recognise this to be true. As above, breath deep and take back control!

Don't make any more excuses...

I know what its like, as I smoked twenty a day for thirty years. I gave up with Hypnosis, and if I can do it, so you can too. Having been a smoker and having given up this way, I reckon I'm pretty good at helping you. Even if I do say so myself!

© 2007 Martin Lancaster Hypnotherapy