About eighty percent of the people I hypnotize to stop smoking will quit after one session. That means that twenty percent don’t quit after one session. Even of those twenty percent, some will realize that something was starting to help them. They just feel like they need a little more help. Even of those twenty percent, some will be able to quit by doing a follow-up session. If a follow-up would ever be helpful, the cost for that session is at a reduced rate.

There are people who will not be successful. There are some people who really don’t want to quit. They are trying to plese someone else. Example: a wife who smokes and doesn’t want to quit and a husband who wants her to quit. That wife will not quit smoking with hypnosis. You can’t ever make someone do something they don’t want to do.

There are some people who are not committed to the idea of quitting.

When a person uses hypnosis to quit smoking, they should fall into one of three categories after the session is over.

1. The first category is what we call “Almost as though you’ve never smoked before”. If you fall into this category, when the session is over it is very easy for a person to be a non-smoker. There are no thoughts about smoking. There are no cravings, desires, urges or withdrawals.

2. The second category is called “Automatic Reaching”. Many of the cigarettes that people smoke are cigarettes that they aren’t thinking about. They are the habit cigarettes. When the session is over, if you fall into this category, it is also very easy not to smoke. Your mind has made the desired changes in your thinking but the message hasn’t made it to your hand yet. You may find that at certain times, for an initial period after the session, your hand still reaches to where the cigarettes used to be. If you get rid of your cigarettes, as I suggest, you can’t accidentally grab one. When you pull your hand back without a cigarette, some thought will go through your mind very quickly. “I don’t smoke anymore. What was I doing?” After just a few times of this happening, your mind will get the message to your hand and will break that reaching habit.

3. The third category is called “The Mind Battle Category”. If you fall into this category you have to put in a little bit of effort not to smoke, but it’s not like trying to quit on your own. In this category, you should find that many of the times that you used to smoke, it’s very easy not to. However, there may be a few times that the thought comes into your mind. If this is the case, there is a way to get past it. If you can make yourself say “No, I’m not going to smoke” and find something else to occupy your mind for a few moments the thought will go away very quickly. For people who do fall into this category, each person will go through this as many times as they need to. The maximum amount of times that people have told me they’ve had to go through it is 7 – 8 times. This also happens over any period of time. It could be in the first few days or it could be over a period of years.

When a person comes into my office to quit smoking, I always ask them if they have ever quit for any period of time or even attempted to quit. Some people will have quit for years and begun smoking again for some reason. Some people will never have been able to quit for an entire day, but can go for a couple of hours without a cigarette. There are people who will walk out of my office and call me the next day, telling me that “it didn’t work” because they smoked a cigarette as soon as they left my office. The first thing I do is ask them if they got rid of all their cigarettes as I suggested. They, of course will tell me they didn’t. Then I tell them that they were told they may have to put in a bit of effort after the session was over. If they smoked as soon as they left my office, or in their car on their way home, they really didn’t want to put in any time or effort to see if it worked. On their own they could have waited for at least a few hours, but they weren’t willing to take that time to see what would happen. This is not a case of hypnosis not working for them. It is a case of them not working with the hypnosis.