Sabrina had given up smoking on a couple of occasions before but always drifted back to it. So our work to ensure a longer term success was to find motivations to end the habit once and for all.
Sabrina has teenage children and in the natural course of life, they were becoming more independent the desire to spend quality time with them when they were at home was paramount- no more sneaking off for a quick puff!
Also, she was very aware of how smoking reduced here energy levels and her ability to really enjoy her other habit – running.
And a further significant motivator was the recognition of how smoking was controlling her. She felt ‘like a slave to cigarettes’ with the addictive powers consuming thoughts and defining behaviours. “Thoughts of when I could have my next cigarette were constantly on my mind,” she said.
In our preliminary chat, we also uncovered a subconscious belief, “Smoking is always going to be my weakness.”
Such beliefs are powerful in defining our behaviours, but beliefs are just thoughts that have been repeated many times. Beliefs can be changed. And therefore, this became an important part of the therapeutic work.
The approach to stop smoking is a two part process. The first establishes all the reasons to stop smoking and all the potential barriers to success. I also give the client a really good understanding of what happens neurologically when we perform habitual behaviour. It creates the foundation we then build on in the therapeutic session.
This second session is a more intensive 2-2.5 hour session where we use a range of very powerful techniques to change the mental association with the smoking.
Sabrina was also given a personalised recording to listen to post the session that helped embed the work that we did and included a relaxation process that helps address the chemical addiction element of smoking progress more quickly too.
In a message from Sabrina a month following the therapeutic session, she said “Since our work, I am off cigarettes. Our work has been successful and I am really pleased.”
If people are to return to smoking, they will normally have done so within a 2 week period.
Whilst Sabrina is now a smoker who no longer smokes (she can never be a non-smoker) her chances of never picking up a cigarette again and potentially even higher as she is not using ‘willpower’ to not smoke, but has changed her deep psychological relationship with smoking.
Hypnotherapy is very effective at dealing with smoking cessation of all types. If you would like more information on this, or any form of addiction based habits, let’s have a chat.