You were not born a smoker!

Smoking is a habit and not a very nice one at that!

Once considered a status symbol as film goers wanted to emulate their film star heroes, in today’s society smoking is becoming increasingly taboo. In recent years, the UK has seen smoking banned in pubs, restaurants and other public places, in the workplace and on school and hospital sites.

Concern has again turned to the effect of passive smoking on babies and young children. Both England and Wales are set to bring in a law with effect from October 2015 which will ban smoking in cars when under 18s are present.

So where can smokers indulge their habit? Well, at the moment, providing your partner is happy with it, you can smoke at home and that’s about it!

More and more people are trying to quit using a whole range of techniques from willpower to drugs such as Champix, phone apps, sports programmes, e-cigarettes and, of course, hypnotherapy.

Just like serial dieters there are smokers who have been trying to quit for weeks, months and even years, with varying levels of success; when smokers turn to hypnotherapy they have usually already tried many of these options.

At the consultation, the hypnotherapist will either ask you to complete a questionnaire or complete a series of questions. Your answers will give the therapist a detailed overview of your smoking habits, when you started to smoke, why you want to stop etc.

Your answers will determine how the therapist approaches the hypnotherapy session so please be honest.

If the therapist feels that you have genuine reasons and are committed to stopping smoking then you will be given an appointment and possibly instructions on when to smoke your last cigarette.

Many therapists offer a one or two session programme whilst others run a much longer programme of sessions.

Don’t just choose your therapist based on the cheapest and/or the quickest! Do your homework - speak to colleagues and friends for recommendations, check out their websites and speak to the therapist. If you don’t feel relaxed and in control then you probably need to look for another therapist.