Each year in January, I receive a flurry of calls from people who want to give up smoking. So why in January rather than any other time of the year? I suppose it is because people associate the New Year with a time to start afresh, and to move on. My clients tell me that they have put the last year behind them and it is time to start anew.
Maybe it is because people see more hope in the New Year – hope that this year will be better than the last. They decide that now is the time to get rid of that old smoking habit that has not served them well in the past.
There are some people who really struggle with quitting. They need some help and so come in search of an experienced hypnotherapist. There are others who seem to be able to just stop, without any effort whatsoever. My job as a hypnotherapist is to help the people who struggle to quit. I help them move towards that group of people who can just stop without any effort. They still need to put the effort in to resist, but it is a lot less of a struggle once they have had hypnotherapy.
I had a phone call last year. The voice said, “I don’t know if you remember me. You helped me quit smoking last year. I didn’t think about smoking all year, until I went to a party recently, got drunk and someone offered me a cigarette. The next day I was back smoking 20 a day. Can you help me again please.”
This experience has made me rethink my approach to helping people quit. I am now providing a follow-up session a week after the quit-smoking session – just to embed the messages and really focus on my client’s ability to recognise and refuse temptation in the years to come.
Around 90% of people in the UK over 16 do not smoke cigarettes. If you are struggling to join them, why not give hypnotherapy a go? I run my hypnotherapy clinic in Fleet, Hampshire as well as online.
Photo by Andres Siimon on Unsplash