How to quit smoking for good

Every year, as part of its No Smoking Campaign, the NHS asks you to commit to quitting. "If only it were so easy", I hear you say! The great news is that hypnotherapy can help you.

What hypnosis is and how it helps

Hypnotherapy can help you to quit smoking by reprogramming your mind. Hypnosis is a state of intense focus and brain training that enables you to be in control of your own thoughts and processes in a powerful way. When you enter the state of hypnosis, you will find yourself open to suggestions, new ideas and different ways of thinking. When you experience hypnosis, you will learn that it is not a different state of mind, but rather a focused, heightened state of extreme concentration.

Benefits of quitting smoking

There are so many positive reasons to quit smoking now and the benefits you will derive from doing so are huge:

• If you quit smoking today, by tomorrow, the carbon monoxide levels in your blood will be back to normal.
• As a smoker, you have a 70% higher chance of experiencing a heart attack. If you quit smoking today your risk of heart attack will fall before tomorrow.
• If you quit smoking today, by the end of the week your body will have removed all nicotine from itself.
• If you quit smoking today, your blood vessels will begin to repair themselves before the end of the month.
• When you quit smoking today, any coughing or shortness of breath will decrease over the next six months.
• If you quit smoking today, by the end of the year your lungs will start to repair themselves.
• If you quit smoking today, by this time next year your excess risk of heart disease will be half.
• If you quit smoking today, your risk of developing throat, mouth, bladder and oesophagus cancers reduces by half as does cervical cancer for women. And your risk of stroke is like that of a non-smoker.
• If you quit smoking today, you halve your risk of dying from cancer compared to a smoker.
• Incredibly, if you quit smoking today, in five year's time, your risk of heart disease will be the same as if you had never smoked.

What happens in a quit-smoking hypnotherapy session?

The number of sessions needed depends on the individual, but many people find it successful after around two sessions. To begin, there will be time allocated to explore your habit. You'll explore the reasons you feel a need to reach for a cigarette at the times you do and the reasons you smoke. Your hypnotherapist will work with you to formulate a plan, designed to help you change habitual patterns.

By the time you arrive for your second session, you will have dramatically decreased the amount you smoke and your desire to reach for a cigarette will change. I will guide you into a state of hypnosis and together we will challenge your brain and the way you think. We will use the power of your mind to stop the habit for good, so you finish the session as a non-smoker.

You have nothing to lose and lots to win by quitting smoking today!