Stop Smoking with Hypnosis
Hypnosis can help you quit smoking
Some studies have found that hypnosis is over 3 times more effective to help people stop smoking than nicotine patches or gum, and 15 times more effective than trying to quit smoking cigarettes with willpower alone.
Nicotine is addictive, but it's the mental habit that makes it challenging for most people to stop smoking. That's why hypnosis is such an effective way to stop.
I also provide help with vaping, chewing tobacco, and nicotine supplements.
What to Expect
Conversation
The Habit Pattern
Much of smoking addiction is a mental attachment to the regular routine of smoking. We discuss your daily routine and the associations you make with smoking.
Previous Attempts
I will learn what has helped or not helped you quit smoking in the past to devise an approach specific to you. If you quit previously then picked up smoking again, we will discuss that experience.
Nicotine Addiction
We will discuss key points concerning the effects of nicotine. While I believe the habit pattern is a much greater obstacle to quitting smoking than nicotine addiction, I find that understanding how nicotine really works helps most people to let go of it more easily.
During Hypnosis
Relaxation of general stress and anxiety
Hypnosis is deeply relaxing. I help you to enter and maintain a highly relaxed state of trance for a duration sufficient to trigger the parasympathetic relaxation response, which clears away stress, giving you the best possible starting point for success.
Imagery and Suggestive Therapeutics
In hypnosis the critical faculty of the conscious mind relaxes, allowing the unconscious to be influenced by imagery and suggestions. I use a variety of methods to free your thoughts and feelings from the smoking habit.
Avoiding Substitute Behaviors
Many people are concerned that they will replace smoking with another habit, especially eating. My goal is to help you quit smoking by feeling relaxed and in control without the restlessness that causes people to substitute other behaviors.
Tools
In hypnosis, and sometimes after emerging from hypnosis, I prepare you with quick tools to manage the acute stress of life's difficult situations, thoughts, and emotions without cigarettes. For many people these responses are immediately or soon become unconscious and automatic.
After our session
Will I quit smoking gradually or all at once?
Very few people ask me to help them reduce their habit gradually. I find that people who are really ready to quit smoking almost always want to stop completely.
When stopping smoking, it is best to get nicotine out of your body as soon as possible. Reducing smoking gradually is not easier than stopping at once. It only drags it out and causes you to focus on the habit even more. It is best to stop completely when you are feeling motivated to do it. Get it over with, and let hypnosis help you adjust quickly to feeling like a nonsmoker.
Does it matter how long I have smoked or how much I smoke?
I have not observed any correlations between duration or quantity of smoking and responsiveness to hypnosis. I see people who have smoked for thirty or more years succeed just as easily as those who have smoked for a decade.
Heavy smokers who smoke between half a pack and two packs per day can succeed just as easily as those who smoke only a few. In fact, some heavy smokers sometimes quit more easily than occasional smokers. In either case, I tailor the process to your specific behaviors.
Studies on Hypnosis to Stop Smoking
Hypnotherapy over three times more effective than nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation
A study compared smoking cessation rates between groups that used hypnotherapy (a 90-minute session), hypnotherapy with nicotine replacement and nicotine replacement only. Analysis of the results showed that the groups using hypnotherapy were over three times more likely than the group using nicotine replacement to abstain after 6 months.
Successful outcomes from hypnotherapy at 6 and 12 months
4 hypnotherapy trials (273) were included in a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials that reported abstinence at 6 or 12 months. Results indicated a positive association of hypnotherapy with successful outcomes.
Hypnosis compares favorably to behavioral counseling
A study of 286 smokers compared the effectiveness of hypnosis versus behavioral counseling when both interventions were combined with nicotine patches. At 6 months, 26% of the participants in the hypnosis group were abstinent compared with 18% of the behavioral group. At 12 months, the abstinence rate was 20% for the hypnosis group compared to 14% for the behavioral group. It was concluded that, for long-term quit rates, hypnosis compares favorably to standard behavioral counseling when used with nicotine patches.
Hypnosis patients twice as likely to remain smoke-free after two years
Study of 71 smokers showed that after a two-year follow up, patients that quit with hypnosis were twice as likely to remain smoke-free than those who quit on their own.
Intensive hypnotherapy for smoking cessation
Twenty subjects were given intensive hypnotherapy (8 sessions over 2 months) for smoking cessation, or assigned to a control group. Abstinence rates for the hypnotherapy group were 40% at the end of treatment; 60% at 12 weeks, and 40% at 26 weeks.
81% reported they had stopped smoking after hypnosis
Thirty smokers enrolled in an HMO were referred by their primary physician for treatment. Twenty-one patients returned after an initial consultation and received hypnosis for smoking cessation. At the end of treatment, 81% of those patients reported that they had stopped smoking, and 48% reported abstinence at 12 months post-treatment.
Texas A&M University, System Health Science Center, College of Medicine, College Station, TX USA. Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2004 Jan;52(1):73-81. Clinical hypnosis for smoking cessation: preliminary results of a three-session intervention. Elkins GR, Rajab MH.
87% reported abstinence from tobacco use with hypnosis
A study of 93 male and 93 female CMHC outpatients examined the facilitation of smoking cessation by using hypnosis. At 3-month follow-up, 86% of the men and 87% of the women reported continued abstinence from the use of tobacco using hypnosis.
Hypnosis most effective says largest study ever: 3 times as effective as patch and 15 times as effective as willpower
Hypnosis is the most effective way of giving up smoking, according to the largest ever scientific comparison of ways of breaking the habit. A meta-analysis, statistically combining results of more than 600 studies of 72,000 people from America and Europe to compare various methods of quitting. On average, hypnosis was over three times as effective as nicotine replacement methods and 15 times as effective as trying to quit alone.
Single-session hypnosis subjects smoked significantly less
A study involving 60 subjects assigned 20 to single-session hypnosis group, 20 to placebo control, and 20 to a control group receiving no intervention. In follow-ups at 4, 12, 24 and 48 weeks the hypnosis group smoked significantly less and were significantly more abstinent.