Around about 5% of the clients that come to see me to quit smoking with hypnosis start smoking again. Why is this so? I have been doing some analysis of our clients and have come up with two main reasons why people who quit smoking with us using hypnosis start smoking again.
The first reason is that the client did not really want to quit smoking. You would think that if somebody came to see me they really did want to quit. Everybody that smokes needs to quit smoking cigarettes but not everybody wants to. There is a big difference between need and want, for hypnosis to succeed your want has to be bigger than your need. This is where it becomes difficult because sometimes the need can seem to be a want. I try to qualify my clients about this but sometimes they slip through. Bottom line is that if your want is not greater than your need you will start smoking again.
The second reason is that sometimes deeper in the unconscious mind is a belief that you are getting a benefit from smoking cigarettes. If this is the case it can be addressed by using a technique called a reframe. A reframe is literally what it says; it’s giving suggestions for quitting in a different way. This is highly successful and the client usually walks away as a permanent non-smoker.