How Hypnotherapy Works to Help People Quit Smoking (Part Two)

Perhaps not surprisingly, in hypnotherapy for quitting smoking, the very same methods that work for most people may not work for others. In choosing just what methods to use for a person, I offer various options and follow the person’s gut level response. This is because there is such a wide variety of personal tastes and belief systems among people seeking hypnotherapy and because a gut level response is much more indicative of subconscious agreement. The only way any method can work is with agreement by the subconscious mind.

Choosing methods by gut level reaction usually works, but occasionally the conscious mind intervenes and claims that there is no gut level reaction, or that there are intellectual reasons to choose a different method. Even if the first method tried does not pan out, persistence in returning for more appointments almost always results in tobacco cessation. I have had only one client who persisted for more than four sessions and did not quit smoking. Most of my clients quit in two sessions, some in three, and some, in one. The late great hypnotherapist Joanne Landa never had a single smoking cessation client who did not quit. She attributed this to the fact that she would tell each person about how she had once been addicted to smoking cigarettes, so there was no way anyone could fool her into thinking that he or she could not quit. If this idea fits with your personal psychology, it may be worth your while to find a hypnotherapist who was once a truly addicted smoker.

Another very successful hypnotherapist, Josie Hadley, founder of the Palo Alto School of Hypnotherapy, recommended using three to four sessions for smoking cessation. This indicates the seriousness of tobacco addiction. Deconstructing this addiction should not be taken lightly by either client or hypnotherapist. Setting aside the physical effects of the tobacco habit (stronger than that of heroin addiction,) tobacco addiction has the psychological effect of interweaving itself with the deeper levels of self-identity and social and physical survival instincts. Given all of that, what are some of the ways that people using my hypnotherapy practice have successfully quit smoking?

The way that most of my clients choose is the method of aversion. This means learning to hate cigarettes. The method used is taken verbatim from Dorthy V. Tyo, another highly successful hypnotherapist and director of the Palo Alto School of Hypnotherapy. This aversion induction has the tobacco in cigarettes transforming to something that the person receiving hypnotherapy would never, ever put in his or her mouth. The person being hypnotized chooses what this substance will be. It is a good indication that someone is truly ready to quit smoking when s/he wholeheartedly chooses this induction. This induction features learning to relax at will, so that people can relax without cigarettes. It also features replacing the cigarette habit with the habit of drinking water, linking a variety of personal goals to drinking water, and visualizing living the realization of these goals in the future. Dorthy V. Tyo can be reached through the Palo Alto School of Hypnotherapy at (650) 321-6419.

Sometimes the aversion induction works all on its own with no follow-up. However, Dorthy suggests following it up with another induction in which various poisons in cigarettes are rejected by the body. Dorthy’s wide knowledge and history of success in helping people quit smoking suggest that the follow-up is a good idea. Those of my clients who choose it receive a detailed induction in which the specific organs that would be most affected by each specific poison reject that poison. Since I am not a doctor, it includes information that I gleaned from literature for the layperson and no doubt leaves out a great many deleterious effects. Nonetheless, it is probably safe to say that whether we are scientists or laypersons, it’s obvious to most of us by now that cigarettes are unhealthy for any part of the body.

Because of this, making a complete inventory of all of the types of damage wreaked by cigarettes on each organ of the body would probably take hours, which might very well prove useful at a weekend intensive. However, since the induction I use based on Dorthy’s methods is designed for an hour long appointment, it lists only the highlights of organ damage and then suggests relief and good health for each specific organ and the entire organism.

As most longtime smokers will concur, most people’s conscious minds are already aware that a number of poisons (over one hundred) have been added to nicotine in cigarettes. Yet, due to stronger subconscious drives, the conscious mind on its own is unable to act on that information. It is the realization of this mismatch between conscious knowledge and subconscious drives that causes people to seek hypnotherapy. The purpose of the induction listing poisons in cigarettes and how these poisons affect specific organs is to change subconscious drives by giving the subconscious mind a chance to directly absorb the idea that cigarettes are toxic. Subconscious acceptance of the reality of the toxic nature of cigarettes also works to reinforce the aversion reaction begun at the previous appointment. People who use the aversion induction followed by the poison-listing induction and are careful to listen to recordings of the inductions afterwards (one week of listening per each recording) often need no more hypnotherapy for smoking cessation.

A different induction that has been sometimes selected by people as a follow-up to the aversion induction is one that written for people who are drawn to New Age culture. In it, I have included induction of a fairly deep trance state and also modified the teachings from the professional manual entitled Pranic Psychotherapy, by Master Choa Kok Sui. (The manual teaches practitioners how to pull pranic energy into their bodies and pump it into energy centers of a client from a few inches away, through the palms of the practitioner’s hands. These energy centers are commonly called chakras.)

In the version which includes my modifications, the person being hypnotized simply visualizes having these chakras cleansed of nicotine and energized by ambient prana, without an intermediary. This way, the practitioner does not need to use hands. The rationale for this is that a person asking for hypnotherapy is there for hypnotherapy, not bodywork or psychic healing. The other reason for changing from hand-delivered prana to visualization-delivered prana is that a recording of the individualized induction can produce the same results that the person got at the appointment. It is recommended to listen to this recording at least once per day for a week after the appointment for maximum reinforcement.

Whether or not this modification from hand-delivered to visualization-delivered prana changes the effect that may be achieved, I do not know. On one hand, some clients have succeeded in quitting smoking using this induction, and on the other hand, I have never tried using my hands to help anyone quit smoking, so it is not possible for me to make a comparison. Using his method, Master Choa Kok Sui reports success with helping terminate several types of addictions. However, the method of utilizing prana for healing seems powerful enough to carry weight with or without using hands since the visualization modification for people has worked successfully for people with other addictions or painful conditions.

(For those interested in New Age healing techniques, it may be worth noting that my non-professional use of the hands-on method at home with friends and pets, in combination with a particular mantra has proven successful. It seems wise, however, to confine these experiments to private life in order to make sure hypnotherapy clients have as much personal space as possible, physically and psychologically.) However, any questions regarding experiences with either the public or private applications of Master Choa Kok Sui’s method will gladly be answered.

For those with no desire to pursue New Age options, an entirely mechanistic method that can be used is utilization and reframing. This is the induction of a trance state followed by direct address of the subconscious mind. There is then negotiation between the hypnotherapist and the subconscious mind in order to find a fitting replacement for the cigarette habit.

This method can be used for virtually any presenting problem. The most dramatic success with it from my practice was the reduction in a person’s pain level by 70%, and the ability to move where movement was previously restricted. These results occurred after only fifteen minutes of hypnosis. The pain had been the result of a chronic degenerative condition, and the reduction was still in place many months later, and, as far as I know, is permanent. People seeking smoking cessation have used utilization and reframing to success in combination with other methods. However, based on the case just cited, it seems likely that it could work all on its own.

Nevertheless, I prefer to layer a number of methods to provide more avenues for success. No doubt this makes for murky anecdotal research results. However, people can often point out later which of the methods did most of the work for them. In one case wherein we used utilization and reframing, the person did quit, but felt that the method that had really made the difference was the following: induction of a light trance state followed by externalization of an image of the client at the time that the smoking habit started. The two versions of the client, the present day person, and the person from the past, had a conversation in which the original reason for the smoking was revealed by the person from the past. After they discussed it, both concluded that the original reason was no longer valid in the present. Since the reason no longer mattered, neither did cigarettes, and after a few cigarettes that the person smoked on the way home just to test the results, the person quit smoking.

Sometimes, someone will be successful in quitting smoking, and then, perhaps a year later begin again if a life-threatening or otherwise extremely traumatic event occurs. Then, going back to hypnotherapy will often result once again in smoking cessation.