Stop Smoking and Other Habits Using Hypnosis
We all have habits - good, unhelpful or even some dangerous to our health (smoking or over-indulgence of alcohol maybe). Although habits are not the same as addictions they can form part of an addiction (smoking). Hypnotherapy is a very effective way of helping to overcome those unhelpful bad habits. Usually habits are learned behaviours that over time become ingrained in our subconscious minds - this is where hypnotherapy can make beneficial change!
Stop Smoking / Vaping Using Hypnotherapy in Just One Session!
Do I really want to stop smoking?
If you don’t then no therapy, hypnotherapy included, will make the change for you. However, you may decide that you are going to stop smoking for a number of reasons:
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To improve your health
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So that your children grow up non-smokers
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To be more considerate to your family and other people around you
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To have more money to spend on better things (over £5000 a year for a 20-a-day habit)
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So you and your clothes smell fresh
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To be less anti-social
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To regain control of my life from an addiction
Why do I smoke?
Smoking is bad for you. You know it, and you know what it can do to you in the long-run – make you very ill and kill you. No point in mincing words here. So, why do people do it? Why do people, when they know the consequences, continue to puff on the old coffin nails? Probably because:
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Smoking is addictive. Nicotine is a drug that causes your body to become addicted to it. This means that after you have been smoking for a while your body gets so used to the nicotine coursing through your veins and invading your nervous system that in its absence your body misses it. Because your body is missing it, it throws a metaphorical temper tantrum and you experience the effects of withdrawal (cravings). To make yourself feel better you grab another cigarette, light it up and take a long drag and hey presto! You give your body what it wants and, just like a child, the tantrum subsides.
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Smoking is a habit. Every smoker knows about this. Every smoker associates their smoking with various activities they carry out during the day. It’s not that they need the cigarette at that point, it’s just that they always have a cigarette when they - talk on the phone, have a cup of coffee, get in the car, walk to the station, read a book, sit on the loo, watch television and so on. The list is endless. They do it for no other reason than this is what they have always done at this time. It’s a habit. And if they don’t do it at these times, they feel uncomfortable because they feel something is missing; they don’t know what to do with their hands and so on. To fill that missing gap, or give their hands something to do, they light up. If you ask a smoker to tell you which cigarettes they need to smoke during the day because of the addiction factor, you probably find that there are only a very few. All the other cigarettes are smoked simply out of habit.
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Is vaping a better option? Experts agree vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking but it is not risk-free. Vaping exposes users to fewer toxins and at lower levels than smoking cigarettes. However, vaping has not been around for long enough to know the risks of long-term use. While vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking, it is unlikely to be totally harmless. Ideally, if you are vaping to quit smoking, you should aim to eventually stop vaping too. The healthiest option is not to smoke or vape.
But I've tried everything to quit smoking!
How does stop-smoking hypnotherapy work?
Hypnotherapy removes the subconscious triggers which would otherwise perpetuate the smoking habit, and also allows you to be calm and confident in those situations where you used to smoke. The suggestions given under hypnosis change your relationship to smoking and give you access to inner resources when trigger situations occur. Using willpower alone can be mentally exhausting because you are in conflict with your subconscious mind. With hypnosis, the desire and thought to smoke will not occur (or will occur less frequently) because the triggers will no longer have the same effect in prompting you to smoke. Hypnotherapy also provides you with strategies to help you cope with stress and deal with unwarranted fears of weight gain and other withdrawal symptoms. Hypnosis is used in a similar way if you are looking to quit vaping.
How many sessions of hypnotherapy will I need?
The number of sessions required does, of course, vary depending upon the individual client and the type of smoking habit being treated. The cessation of a normal (moderate) smoking / vaping habit can usually be dealt with in a single session. The session will start with a client-focused discussion and then go on to talk about how the subconscious mind influences our habits. The process will include a number of self-help tools and self-hypnosis techniques to empower the client after the session and a 'Stop Smoking' mp3 can be provided to help maintain progress in the potentially difficult first month or so. Should the client require a 'booster' session during the first month, this will be offered FREE OF CHARGE!
Additional sessions may be required to deal with a heavy smoking habit or where there are other psychological factors maintaining the habit. A free telephone consultation prior to booking will allow us to recommend the most appropriate approach for each client.
Preparing to quit - what do I need to do before my session?
Okay. You want to quit. And you want hypnotherapy to help you. So, here’s some useful advice for you to think about:
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Plan the right time to quit. Think about a good time to quit. Make sure that you plan to quit at a time when your life is going to be reasonably stable – when you have no major events over the coming month or two such as getting married, exams, driving tests, holidays such as Christmas, and so on. On the other hand, many people find that quitting just before they go on holiday is a great time to do it, as the change of scenery and lack of all those familiar smoking triggers can reinforce their new non-smoking habit.
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Tell the people, who you know that are supportive, that you’re quitting. It’s always nice to have support and encouragement. These are the people you know you can turn to when your resolve is wavering, or who you know will give you those little words of encouragement just when you need them. If you are having hypnotherapy as part of a collective arrangement in the workplace then use the peer support network for mutual help. Avoid at all costs those who would delight in your failure!
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Get rid of all your smoking paraphernalia just before your hypnotherapy session. Throw out your ashtrays, your lighters, and your stash of emergency cigarettes. You won’t need them anymore. Once they are gone they won’t be there to tempt you from the straight and narrow. And ensure that your home becomes a strict ‘no smoking’ zone. Give your home a spring clean and wash your clothes to remove smoky odours.
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Do something that you know will increase your motivation to quit. You’re motivated, but what else can you do that cranks up that motivation? Half-fill a jam-jar with water and drop your old dog ends into it after you smoke each cigarette. Every so often, shake it up and smell the mixture. Nice! That’s what’s going on in your body each time you smoke. Or take another jam jar and each time you buy a packet of cigarettes put the equivalent amount of money into it. At the end of the week count it up and see how much you are spending on ruining your health. And then think how much you save once you have stopped. Plan to do something nice with that money – you deserve a reward for quitting.
It can be helpful to think about your smoking habits in advance of the hypnotherapy session. You can think about:
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Why you want to quit.
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How many cigarettes you smoke a day.
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The cigarettes you feel you need each day.
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The cigarettes you have just out of habit.
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How smoking affects you and your family.
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How you think being a non-smoker benefits you.
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How old you were when you first started smoking.
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Why you first started smoking.
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Why you haven’t quit before.
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If you have quit before, why you started smoking again.
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How much you spend on smoking each week and what you are going to do with all that extra money once you are a non-smoker.
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Any fears you may have about quitting. This last issue often proves to be a sticking point when it comes to helping people quit.
Ready to quit? Go to the Contact page and give us a ring or complete the enquiry form today!
Other habits can be helped using hypnotherapy
Habits are behaviours wired so deeply into our brains that we perform them automatically. The brain's prefrontal cortex, where most thought and planning occurs, is responsible for the control of which habits are switched-on at any given time. The good news is that the brain favours new habits over old ones - using hypnotherapy we can replace the unwanted habit with something inocuous and eventually the old habit will have been forgotten.
Here are just some of the other habits and unwanted behaviours that can be helped using hypnotherapy
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Stammering & stuttering
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Bedwetting (secondary nocturnal enuresis)
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Insomnia and sleep problems
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Thumb-sucking
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Hair-pulling (trichotillomania)
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Nervous 'tics'
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Sports performance improvement (e.g. golf 'yips')
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Tooth-grinding (Bruxism)
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Nail-biting (onychophagia)
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Nervous blushing