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Hypnotherapy in Bristol and Taunton to quit smoking

• Issues overview

• Emotions

• Confidence and self-esteem 1 - From self-doubt to self-belief
• Confidence and self-esteem 2 - How much do you like yourself? - a self-esteem test
• Confidence and self-esteem 3 - What causes low self-esteem?
• Confidence and self-esteem 4 - How everday-confident are you? - a quiz
• Depression 1 - How to overcome depression - key facts
• Depression 2 - The causes of depression of psychological origin
• Depression 3 - Therapy or anti-depressants?
• Depression 4 - Are you depressed? - a test
• Fertility and IVF
• Fertility and IVF - the evidence base
• Keys for transforming emotions
• Weight and eating 1 - Weight loss
• Weight and eating 2 - Bingeing and emotional eating
• Weight and eating 3 - "Have you got an eating disorder?" - a test

• Hypnotherapy

• Driving anxiety
• Driving anxiety - the RAC research
• Fear of dogs - keep safe with canine body language
• Fear of flying
• Fear of flying - reassuring facts
• Fears and phobias
• IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome)
• IBS symptoms
• Insomnia
• Insomnia - great tips for a good night's sleep
• Panic attacks
• Smoking - quit forever with the right type of hypnosis
• Smoking - the truth behind bogus "85% success rate" claims
• Stress
• Stress - a test: is this you?

• Relationships

• Relationship counselling

Have you had hypnosis to quit smoking - and you're still smoking?

I flatly do not believe the hype that surrounds quitting smoking via hypnosis. These are the honest, research-based facts as I see them.

Below on this page: The psychological secrets of stopping smoking successfully and My individually tailored approach to help you quit

To be clear, hypnosis-based programmes remain the best way for an individual to give up smoking. But not single session programmes! You'll see endless claims of "quit smoking with hypnotherapy - 85% success in a single hour - guaranteed!" The research shows that most people do quit after the session, but within a year, the great majority relapse. (See: what commercial stop-smoking clinics don't want you to know.)

Actually, it would be strange otherwise. I have worked with smokers in depth, and they form a spectrum. Some smokers who come to me 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 ...") Yet others have smoked daily for 40 years and view smoking as their only friend. In addition, a few people use smoking as a self-medication to deal with serious depression - they really feel the need to smoke. To complicate things, there are also a lot of people who can actually quit easily, but who imagine it is going to be impossible. (Stop-smoking guru Alan Carr was famously one of these - he quit a 40 a day habit with hypnosis.)

Out of all these, yes, some of these can quit in a single session. But all of them? Of course not. Hypnosis is powerful, but it's not that powerful.

As a result I treat smoking as an addiction like any other. As with any other issue, I make no promise of a cure in a session or two. It takes as long as it takes. Most people do indeed quit very quickly; the research shows excellent results from three-session programmes. And, some people take longer. That depends on you. As with any other addiction, you do the work of quitting, not me.

No matter how long it takes you personally, the research does show that a good multi-session hypnosis programme is the best way to quit. Patches, for example, have a one-year failure rate of 80% - 90%. But there are multi-session hypnosis programmes with a one year success rate of 80% - 90%.

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

My individually tailored approach to quitting smoking

To me, the only approach to quitting smoking which has reality and integrity it to treat it as an issue just like any other, one which often resolves quickly (two or three sessions) but can take longer for some people who have a troubled relationship which tobacco.

From studying what people really need to quit smoking , I've developed a flexible approach which goes rapidly for those who are on the brink of quitting, yet gives the maximum support to those who first need to get ready.

In my approach you continue to smoke up to the first session. After the first session, there some very simple exercises in between the first and second sessions, while you continue to smoke. When you can do these easily (and they are indeed very simple), you know in your guts that you are ready to stop. For many people that takes only a single week and they quit forever in just two sessions. This includes many people who really feel "quitting is impossible." The vast majority of smokers simply imagine quitting will be very hard. But for a few it is. I do not wish to mis-represent things that it is equally easy for everyone. Nor do I wish to take responsibility for the lives of others. It's your life, your habit, and you have to be the one who does the work of quitting.

My approach is based on research results that hypnosis quitting methods with the highest 12-month success - well over 80% -

• are multi-session,
• individualised to each unique smoker, not one-size-fits-all
• incorporate behavioural tools (as in CBT) as well as hypnosis
• work with beliefs and self-talk (again as in CBT)
• make the person giving up an active, not a passive, partner in the process - you are responsible for quitting. You don't throw the responsibility onto hypnosis.

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

The psychology of quitting smoking

I don't just sit people down, hypnotise them, and send them away. That works short term with many people, but it fails long-term with the majority (that's right, it fails with the majority). I've worked with smokers in depth, and what follows is what they've shown me they need to quit easily and permanently. My life-change tools can profoundly empower you in each one of these areas. Though the list is long, with the right approach it can be very quick to achieve. You too can be delighted to be a happy, contented ex-smoker.

1. You have to understand that smoking is overwhelmingly a psychological habit. You have to accept responsibility for breaking that habit. As the director of Action on Smoking and Health is reported to have said, "Smokers have to be psychologically prepared to quit."
   
   (That's why smokers who rely on patches doing the work have up to 90% failure rate after 12 months.)
   
   
2. You have to believe in your guts that quitting makes a real, vital difference to your life. Quitting can't be just a neat idea. You have to be motivated and committed to it. I help you achieve that motivation.
   
   
3. You have to believe you can quit. Some people believe they are attempting the impossible. But as Henry Ford said 'Whether you say "I can" or "I can't", you are right.' You have to know before you quit that quitting is possible. With my approach, you know you can do it before you quit.
   
   
4. You have to be free from fear. Smokers are typically terrified of quitting, convinced they are condemned to a lifetime of deprivation. You have to know that that isn't so. Quitting needs to be a relief, not a torture.
   
   
5. You need to dissolve the horrible "will-power" fight which smokers get into. That's where one part of you says "I neeeeeed a cigarette" and another part says "No! it's unhealthy! you mustn't!" This fight is just painful, and the "bad" side always wins in the end. I use very advanced exercises which help dissolve that fight.
   
   
6. You have to play an active role in quitting. When quitting is done for you, it's easy to relapse. That's why I give you some very simple and easy exercises to do.
   
   
7. You have to be honest that smoking MAY be doing something for you that you value. You have to be willing to confront that. Of course, almost all smokers imagine they "need" to smoke to deal with stress, and I don't take this drug-fuelled delusion seriously.
   But a few really are using cigarettes to cope with stress, sadness, anger or depression. These "self-medicating" smokers first need better strategies to deal with those emotions before they quit.
   
   
8. Just a few smokers have unique reasons for smoking. For some, it is part of their core identity: "People like me smoke." These are often people who were very rebellious as teenagers, and the act of smoking, now increasingly deviant, is a statement to society and the opposite sex that "I'm one of the wild ones, you can't control me." And a (very few) smokers smoke out of self-destruction. These factors are not common, but can't possibly be addressed in a scripted one-hour quit smoking session. My method is tailored from the start to you as a unique individual.
   
   
9. You need to forgive yourself for the damage you fear you may have done to your health.
   A few smokers get into a cycle like this:
   (i) They have a cigarette
   (ii) They think of quitting
   (iii) That makes them think of the health damage they fear they have done
   (iv) They get so afraid and anxious that
   (v) They need another cigarette to avoid thinking about it all!
   When you forgive yourself, you can face reality calmly and do what is needed - quit forever.
   Remember: NO MATTER when you quit, the statistics show you are adding healthy years to your life.
   Also, you need to face up to, and resolve, any inner conflict whereby one part of you wants to stop, and another doesn't. Some smokers hate the fact that they smoke. But hating it and being ready to quit are not the same thing.
   
   
10. Once all that is in place (and it can be very quick) then you are ready to stop. Yet there is one last fight. You sincerely want to quit - but find you can't! You just … keep … on … smoking. This is where hypnosis is so powerful. The miracle of hypnosis helps align your conscious decision mind with your unconscious habit-mind. And you have quit - quickly, easily, with the deep conviction that you will never go back. You've quit FOREVER.

If you are ready to do the bit extra that it takes to have the best chance of breaking free from smoking FOREVER, call me now on 0845-351-0604. Leave a message (24 hours) and I'll call you back.

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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.