Another quit smoking success story!
Penelope called me to tell me that she was pregnant but just could not kick the habit. She was desperate, so I made an appointment for her as soon as I was able.
During the interview, she told me that she was 41. She had been married for 20 years, had had 2 courses of IVF, and several miscarriages. Eventually, her marriage fell apart, and the smoking became serious. Then, when on Facebook one day, she came across an old boyfriend, and they started corresponding. They met up, found they had a huge amount in common and moved in together. One year later, to her immense surprise, she found she was pregnant. This is when extreme anxiety set in. Would she be able to hold onto this precious baby? She tried to cut back on smoking, but found it impossible. When she phoned me, almost in a state of panic, she was only 7 weeks pregnant.
In brief, during the interview when I explained the procedure, I told her that hypnosis was a state of extreme relaxation which many clients said was akin to a wonderful mental massage. I also explained that the reason I had booked her for two sessions was that she would kick the smoking habit very fast, and stopping the habitual behaviour would benefit from reinforcement.
I asked her to tell me the times of the day she usually smoked – with the first cup of coffee, after a meal, with workers outside during smoko etc… I also asked her what was holding her back from quitting, to which she answered that she found smoking relaxing and a friend. And she also told me that, on reflection, she only enjoyed at the most, two cigarettes out of the 15 she was smoking daily.
This gave me the information I needed.
During the first session, I asked her to settle herself comfortably. I then asked her to imagine a beautiful garden (she was a keen gardener) before starting the intervention.
First I gave her many suggestions, based on what she had said – that now, that she was a non-smoker, that when she was around smokers, she found herself disgusted by the smell on their clothes, their breath, their hair, and smelling them made her feel sick. I told her that smoking was part of the old her, that now she was in control.
I then asked her to go deep inside herself and find her ‘subconscious smoker’, the part which was responsible for the smoking habit, which masqueraded as her friend. I asked her to find out from this part what the benefits and payoffs were, and how smoking had helped her.
I asked her to go back times and situations where she has always smoked in the past (first cup of coffee, smoko, finishing a meal), and now by using new patterns of behaviours, to see herself having her first cup of coffee… and not smoking; To see herself finishing her meal …. and not smoking, etc….. Again, I gave her a few moments to come up with these various scenarios.
And finally, I asked her to thank that part for its help in conquering the habit. And once again, finished with many positive suggestions and affirmations, such as “I am now a non-smoker” and asked her to repeat this many times in her mind.
Finally, after counting from one to five, as she awoke and became aware but not fully awake, I straight away suggested that we should pop outside and have a cigarette together. She looked genuinely horrified at the thought. I repeated it several times as she became more and more adamant that never again would a cigarette touch her lips.
I saw her for the second session 1 week later. She had neither needed, nor wanted a cigarette during the week, and seemed quite bemused. Even when offered a cigarette at work, she had felt utterly nauseous – maybe morning sickness, of course, though I did not tell her that!
The second session was great. She was very firm in her resolve that she would never again smoke another cigarette.
As she became aware, I once again suggested we should go out to smoke, and received the same or even stronger reaction than last time.
When I followed up one month later, all was going well, the baby was growing satisfactorily, and she was adamant that she would never touch another cigarette. She said she had loved the ‘stories’ Rather touchingly, she thanked me for saving the baby’s life.
