Now that smoking is banned in public places, it is the ideal time to give up smoking.
The fact that you are showing an interest in the treatment of smoking by looking up the subject on this web site is the first step towards giving up smoking.
The great advantage of using hypnosis for giving up smoking is that it removes the craving for cigarettes. An important part of the treatment is learning to carry out self-hypnosis. This is taught to the patient during the treatment session and is used by the patient at home for ten minutes each day to reinforce the treatment.
Most patients find that they have stop smoking after two or three sessions. Highly motivated patients will often stop after a single treatment session.
You do not have to be a good hypnosis subject in order for this form of treatment to be effective in stopping smoking. However it is important that you really do want to give up smoking and that you make the appointment yourself.
Between 2005 and 2009, over 85% of patients treated at London Psychotherapy and London Hypnotherapy UK successfully stopped smoking in up to three sessions. So this year, 93% of clients have successfully stopped smoking in only one session.
Smoking cessation hypnotherapy
The approach that I use is called aversion therapy, and it is based on original work carried out by David Kraft in 2005/2012. For more information on this technique, please look at my two papers on the subject in the Publication Section of this website.
Smoking cessation hypnotherapy: the process
In the hypnotherapy, I pair the unwanted behaviour, which in this case is smoking, with an unpleasant stimulus. I do this for all the times of the day when the patient might want a cigarette. The patient then imagines walking down the road as a non smoker; this process is known as future orientation in time (or age progression). It is an important strand to the therapy because the patient is able to imagine being smoke free, perhaps for the first time in a long while. This is a complete abstinence programme, and it is highly successful.