Hypnosis for Smoking Cessation

What If Quitting Was Easier Than You Think?

By Katerina Tsernou | Hypnosomatics

You were not born a smoker. Nobody is. You learned to smoke, which means somewhere inside you already know how not to smoke.

The cigarette was never really about the cigarette.

It was about the pause. The permission to step away. The one moment that was entirely yours. Something to do with your hands when anxiety arrived uninvited. Your brain is very good at learning. It practised the association between a cigarette and relief thousands of times, until it stopped feeling like a choice and started feeling like you. It isn't you. It's a pattern, and patterns can change.

Why willpower isn't the right tool.

Most attempts to quit use willpower to argue with a subconscious pattern. Willpower is conscious, and it gets tired. The pattern doesn't. If willpower could have done it, you would have stopped already. That isn't weakness. It's evidence that the tool didn't match the problem.

What happens in a session.

You stay awake, aware and in control the whole time. We go to where the habit actually lives. Not in your hands or your lungs, but in the associations your brain built around it. Then we work with those associations directly and they begin to lose their charge. My first hypnosis client, Jorge, had smoked for over twenty years and had tried patches, gum and willpower. We worked together for one session. Nothing dramatic happened, just a quiet sense that something had settled. He walked out and didn't smoke again. The majority of my clients stop within one to four sessions.

Common questions:

Does hypnosis work for quitting smoking?

The evidence is promising rather than settled. One randomized trial found 36.6% of patients still not smoking six months after a single hypnotherapy session, compared with 18% using nicotine replacement. Larger reviews describe the overall evidence as limited.

How many sessions will I need?

The majority of people who are ready, stop within one to four sessions. Others might need more time. I meet you where you are and work at the pace that fits you.

Can it work if it didn’t before?

Yes, and that history isn't a strike against you. Patches and gum work on nicotine and on the conscious mind. The craving runs underneath, where automatic behavior is stored.

You already know how to be a non-smoker. You were one for years before you ever lit your first cigarette. Sessions are online worldwide, and in person in New York and Miami by request. When you're ready to stop being someone who is trying to quit, tell me you're ready.

If now isn't the right time, this is the recording I give clients to use between sessions..

-Katerina

Hasan et al. (2014), Complementary Therapies in Medicine — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24559809/ Mayo Clinic, Hypnosis — https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/hypnosis/about/pac-20394405