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Hypnotherapy in Bristol, London and Taunton to quit smoking

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The intelligent person's honest guide to quitting smoking with hypnosis

If you're thinking of using hypnosis to quit smoking, this page is likely to be different from anything else you've read

First, I know about smoking. I smoked for a while, I enjoyed it a lot, and I found it much harder to quit than I'd anticipated. I know how smoking pulls you back again and again. Secondly, hypnosis-based programmes are the best way to quit smoking - better than advice, patches, acupuncture or gum. Solid research proves it. But you have to choose the right type of hypnosis.

n the internet you'll find many vastly persuasive claims, backed by "research", that you can sit down for a single session of hypnosis, be hypnotised, and quit smoking forever. And yes, for some lucky people that does happen. But on average two people out of three who quit like that will start to smoke again within a few months. That's because when you look under the bonnet, there's a lot going on with smokers.

• Some smokers smoke only out of habit, only imagine they are addicted, loathe every cigarette and wholeheartedly want to be free.
• But other would-be quitters enjoy smoking a lot, or are giving up under duress ("My wife says ..."). Many smokers are very much in two minds about quitting.
• Others have smoked daily for 40 years and smoking is their only friend. They can't remember life without a cigarette.
• Some people use smoking for anger managment ("If I don't go out and have a cigarette I'll hit someone ...")
• A good few people use smoking as a self-medication to deal with serious depression, anxiety and vulnerability. These are a minority, and only these are true addicts.
• Far from being addicted, very many people can actually quit easily, but imagine it is going to be impossible. The excellent stop-smoking guru Alan Carr (who I like a lot) was famously one of these - when he quit his 40 a day habit (with hypnosis!) it was to his immense surprise.

No matter what claims are made to the contrary, a single hypnosis stop-smoking session cannot lock in long-term abstinence with all these people. Some, yes. But not all. Hypnosis is powerful, but it's not that powerful. I'm a very good therapist, but I'm not going to claim to deal with depression, anger issues and smoking in a single session! And unless you do deal with these things, people will stop smoking briefly, then start again within a couple of months, even a few days. If you read the fine print of stop-smoking guarantees, with honourable exceptions they almost all either set restrictive conditions, or run out ... after a couple of months.

The hypnosis quit-smoking programmes which are very successful long-term (ie studied at 6 or 12 months) are:

• multi-session
• not one-size-fits all, but tailored to you as an individual
• use behavioural and cognitive methods in addition to hypnosis
• recognise that most people can quit far more easily than they imagine, while a few people are genuine addicts and take longer.

My method includes all of that and much more. It deals successfully with the vast majority of smokers in just two sessions.

Would you love to have no dread of quitting and really know "I don't need cigarettes!" even before you quit?

You can. I hear my clients say that over and over again. Indeed one of the pleasures of quit-smoking work for me is to hear the wonderment they say it with ..."I don't need to smoke ...!" With just a few very simple exercises done before quitting day, I've helped them blow away years of dread about stopping smoking. From thinking it's impossible, to being confident you can do it - it feels like a miracle. That's before we even start the hypnosis.

Most people take just two sessions of (2 hours + 1.5 hours = 3.5 hours, a total of £192 at my current fees. My regular first session assurance applies, no charge if you find at the first session the work is not what you want.)

The first session is an in-depth exploration of why you smoke and why you want to quit. We set up some very simple cognitive-behavioural exercises, which you do in the following week while you continue to smoke. Therefore, DO NOT quit on your own before the first session - continue to smoke as normal until we meet.

I've worked with smokers in more depth than most hypnotherapists. Also, as I said above, I smoked for a while myself - and found it much harder to quit than I expected. I know how smoking pulls you back in. I use that experience to tailor these exercises precisely to why you smoke and how you can best stop. So they are exactly tuned to be maximumly powerful and motivating for you to stop and for you to stay stopped. People have told me me that "you really understand smoking, it's like your exercises read my mind."

The exercises put you in control of smoking, instead of smoking in control of you. Though powerful, the exercises are indeed very simple. The great majority of people succeed brilliantly with them. For those people, at the second session we do quit smoking hypnosis. The very small minority who find the exercises harder are the genuine addicts. These people need to do extra work to deal with their anger, depression or anxiety before they can quit successfully. So we take some more sessions for that, charged at my standard rate.

If you are ready to break free from smoking FOREVER, call me now on 0845-351-0604. Leave a message (24 hours) and I'll call you back. You ... can ... do ... it!

IMPORTANT - Do NOT quit on your own before the first session. Continue to smoke as normal until we meet.

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"Keep smiling, nobody's going to die."

Gung-ho sign-off in a letter to Benson and Hedges Cigarettes brand manager Lesley Stears, from advertising agency executive Simon North,
5 September 1995.

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