Does Hypnotherapy Work For Smoking
Today I am teaching one of my favourite modules in our four year hypno-psychotherapy training. The module is known as Brookhouse’s Three S’. The three are smoking, sliming and stress management. To my mind these are skills that every competent hypnosis practitioner needs to have in order to succeed in practice.
My favourite of these is smoking cessation. This is one of the tools which has made hypnosis as a therapy as popular as it is now. In one hour the goal is for a person who is a smoker when they come in to leave my office as a non smoker.
“Does this really work?” I hear you ask, well the simple answer is yes. The largest meta study conducted into smoking cessation showed that hypnotherapy was the most effective way to stop smoking. However, the hypnotherapy is not the only component.
For a smoker to become a non smoker, it is essential that the individual wants to be a non smoker. No one can be made to do anything that they do not want to when using hypnosis. Also, the individual has to realise that they should not go out and try to see if they can still smoke after the session because of course they can do. There is no powerful force compelling a person to stop smoking what is necessary is a desire to stop and hypnotherapy can enhance that desire into making the dream of being a non smoker a reality.
