MORE COMMENTS ABOUT SMOKING CESSATION

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Permalink Reply by Doreen Cohanim C.Ht on February 12, 2009 at 11:02am

Hello Susan

I hear your frustration, but honestly why do you believe that people are laying about their success, either if it is a client or a hypnotist?

I have never had a client who said smoking wasn't an addiction, when I ask them that, it seems that they are aware of it, at list in my case and I always ask..

I believe who ever work with smoking cessations does know, that part of there success is to educate their client from A to Z, that goes with having the client deal with the nicotine/smoking addiction (physical withdrawal), habit, comfort smoking and the emotional part of it.

Smoking cessation can be as easy as one to two sessions, I have done it, It worked for my clients, some needed more, I never had a client who came for more then three or four sessions,they usually quit after the first or the second, but I do know what to do, if some will need up to six sessions, and my client are always happy and satisfied, I am not sure, what is it you thing that we have to lie about it? The only client who never quit after one to few sessions, was the only one who decided not to quit, because she didn't want to pay or to quit, but instead she wanted to challenge me that I can't make it happen for her, when at that time I have worked very hard to prove her she was wrong, and after the 4th session, I tolled her, she can stop coming, since she was not investing in it as I was, therefore it was like a two way street, each of us were taking on a different road, therefore it wasn't going to happen, No team work and agreement, no success!...

In the end she respected me more, four years later she contacted me to say hello and to tell me that she had become an ex smoker on her own, but she did inform me that the CD's I have prepared for her, did help her, in finally making the drastic decision, either she dies from empazima or quit, and this is the only reason she wanted to quit, because the empazima, since she truly loved smoking...therefore she was challenging and competing with her life...wanting to believe that she can smoke and still live, until she realised what will she lose when she is gone and how many love ones she will leave behind angry and resentful for her insisting on smoking. .

I am sorry Susan that you feel that some or most of us, the hypnotherapist, do let ourselves down or our clients... It seems that you are taking it too personal, when you are forgetting that your job and intention are not to fix, it is strictly to educate your clients by giving them the tools for a healthy life style, It is their responsibility to do the work, there choices and final diction... you are only the vehicle and the instructor/ call it the tool box :)... Just think about it for a moment, when a person learns to drive, he or she study's for the written test, then he or she will take the driving lessons with an Instructor who will educate him or her, step by step, by giving the new upcoming driver the tools to drive, once the driver practice driving using the tools that were given by practicing it over and over and over, until they feel ready...or almost ready, he or she will finally be able to drive on their own... make sense? OK.. so Stop Beating Yourself Up & Too Hard by blaming others for laying or maybe even being too hard on yourself... You are a great therapist Susan, don't let little doubts rune it for you.... trust me this is something we all do once in a while...

Although I don't have many clients right now and financially I am struggling like many others nationwide, I can proudly say that my success rate with smoking is 99%, because I don't work with the one who are not ready or want to challenge me..

Feel free to contact me and lets do some classes together...

Respectfully, Doreen

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Permalink Reply by the grumpy hypnotist on February 12, 2009 at 12:30pm

Although I do not do rigorous follow-up studies with smoking clients, I offer a free followup session for people who have been through the two-session program I offer. I can tell you that the majority (a little over half) of people stop completely after the first one, and in almost 2 years of offering that free 3rd session and working with hundreds of smoking clients, only 2 people have taken me up on that offer for the free followup.

I would not claim a specific "success rate", however, because statistically it is very unlikely that all those other people are complete successes. I am pretty sure that some of them probably just didn't want to bother to come back, or decided that smoking wasn't that bad after all. Who knows? However, 1/3rd success rate for individual work is not something that should be expected. It really isn't that hard. Unless you believe it is. Your beliefs about how difficult it will be will have a direct relationship on client success.

Key part: during pre-talk/pre-interview, prepare client for the belief that nicotine is not as addictive as they have been led to think. Do not reinforce the physiological aspects of nicotine addiction --- this simply feeds into their belief that it will be very difficult to quit. Why would you do that?

In fact, as part of pre-talk I use the belief that "nicotine is as addictive as heroin or crack cocaine" as an example of how the critical factor works. Some people have adopted that belief (because they've heard it from doctors, friends, etc) and that belief reinforces the idea that it will be next to impossible to quit. But in objective reality, there are many many times when people are simply not allowed to smoke (trans-continental plane trips) or situations like pregnancies, and the "nicotine fiend" just doesn't smoke, without having seizures, convulsions, etc. But the critical factor interferes with the ability to objectively view those facts, in order to support the "I'm hopelessly addicted to smoking" belief.

When this is explained to clients properly, they are ready to realize that it's not a "craving" or an "addiction"... it's just a thought. For the most part, even "hardcore" smokers do not report withdrawal to be nearly as bad as you might think if they are given this new belief. Why would you want to convince a client that it will be a "difficult intervention"?

That is one reason you should not reinforce the physiological aspects of smoking. Another reason is that as a hypnotist, you probably are not qualified to discuss physiological aspects, no matter how much reading or internet research you've done.

If you are having a lack of success in this particular area, perhaps you need to re-examine your beliefs about how difficult and complex smoking cessation needs to be, and reconsider your approach, instead of insisting that "your way" must be the "right way", and that other people who are not having as much difficulty are liars or deluding themselves.

I mean, think about it. If you are having a great deal of difficulty in this particular area (and I'm not saying you aren't good at the work in general) while others don't have much problem with it, why would you position yourself to be source of knowledge and truth on this topic?

Personally, I have difficulty working with certain issues, but I know others do great with those same things --- I accept the possibility that maybe I'm doing something wrong and not approaching those issues optimally. Simply put, I feel no need to claim to be the expert on issues that I suck at.

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Permalink Reply by the grumpy hypnotist on February 12, 2009 at 1:04pm

I wanted to provide an example of how important it is to not reinforce belief in smoking cessation being an enormous struggle:

I just worked with a veteran who has been through some pretty traumatic things and had to overcome alcohol dependence in a long and painful process years ago. During pre-talk, after I started to plant the idea that "nicotine is not as addictive as you believe", he mentioned that in his "staying sober" meetings, some people did tell him that quitting smoking would be harder than quitting heroin. When that belief is looked at in the context of the "model of the mind" in which the critical factor is depicted as unreliable, it makes it much easier to prepare to let go of the belief.

Since then, he has reported that he is doing very well and feeling great. But if I had approached this work with the attitude that it would be a "difficult intervention" because of his history of trauma and alcohol dependency, what do you expect the results would have been? Of course this is anecdotal, but this outcome is not uncommon, and my clients are often people with a history of addiction and unpleasant experiences. I hope this gives you a perspective which can be useful to you and your clients.

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Permalink Reply by Doreen Cohanim C.Ht on February 12, 2009 at 1:19pm

Hello Grumpy hypnotist,

As always, I always enjoy reading your replays... not bad for a grumpy hypnotis :) when I claim 99% success rate with smoking it is relative to my work only, since I only had one client in my six years hypnotherapy practice who didn't quit...so as of now it is 99%, maybe in the future the percentage will change or not, but I do my best to educate my client, and I don't even have to be an expert in nicotine or in psychology, just conman sense...also it is very important if we help others as a passion of what we are doing or for the sake of money... Money is good and I do it for money, don't get me wrong, but the passion I have for helping others, is what makes it worth the afford... I love what I do and I am passionate about it...it is like a sunshine and flower to me, rainbow and oxygen... I love it so much that I want to cry out loud from joy, happiness, and I do struggle at times like any human being, but my passion never ever dies.

Love Doreen

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Permalink Reply by the grumpy hypnotist on February 12, 2009 at 1:35pm

Hello Doreen, yes it is really great helping people give up this stupid smoking habit. One of the best letters I got from a client was him describing his little 8-year-old girl looking up at him and her being so proud that Daddy was a non-smoker now. I successfully resisted the urge to get all weepy about that, but it felt nice.

Re: claiming specific success rates, I respect your results (and I wasn't referring to you specifically in my previous reply) --- I just think that one of the best ways to attract people likely to succeed at this work is to avoid attracting people who want to hear promises and guarantees. That attitude "I'll only give it a try if I'm guaranteed to succeed" is the mindset of a loser and I don't want to spend my time working with people like that.

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Permalink Reply by Susan French on February 12, 2009 at 1:43pm

Dear Grumpy,

What I was saying is that we, as the facilitators, need to be aware of where some people get "stuck". Of course, I wouldn't suggest telling someone that it's going to be hard but by the same token, I don't ignore the fact that "statistics" in smoking cessation are widely variant and unreliable. Even if you "follow through" diligently, clients have been known to tell the hypnotherapist what they think s/he wants to hear...don't want to hurt your feelings, don't want you to bug me bc I'm smoking again and don't want to quit, etc, ad nauseum.

What I was saying is that client success frequently requires more than the 1 or 2 session miracle cure and that it isn't right for us to set that as a standard. Take each person as s/he comes but the fact is smoking cessation for SOME is often more difficult than promotional materials imply.

Some people are good after a session or two. Most require more, at least for reinforcement and support. I take your point that it would be counterproductive to suggest that it will be hard but it's also setting a misleading bar to say that most people quit easily after 1 or 2 sessions.

My experience, especially in talking with people who have tried hypnosis before, whether with me, self-hypnosis or another hypnotist, is that it is frequently not as easy as we would wish and that they don't always tell the truth about their success.

If it were not a problem, this question would not be posed over and over and over again no matter which forum or technique or years of experience. However, the truth is that it IS posed over and over and over again. My feeling: acknowledge what's in front of me and move forward from there.

Susan

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan on February 12, 2009 at 2:02pm

To note... I have had success with smokers without all the addiction hoo-ha, I actually spend a good deal of time debunking the myth of tobacco addiction... most of this research is meant to sell nicotine sans tobacco... still feeds the same monkey, but without the pleasures of smoking... lame.

One formerly chain smoking client of mine was given the post hypnotic to completely forget to smoke for a day.. She came back the next week with this amazing tale of the day she forgot to smoke... in comfort, and that was the bridge to her belief that she could quit cold, in comfort.

Another was given the suggestion to smoke as many or as few as needed such that when we met the next week she would have 6 smokes left in the pack (which would have been odd for her). Next week, first thing I ask her how many smokes in her pack, she checks and it's indeed 6. She has an instant recall for the suggestion and is overcome with the realization that shes more than she thought...

If someone is there to quit... and I am still educating them about the "away froms" of smoking, then either they are not ready to quit, or I failed to screen them properly. A good prospect will already know all the education and miseducation... my job is to induce and verify trance, and offer effective suggestions...

J

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Permalink Reply by Doreen Cohanim C.Ht on February 12, 2009 at 2:41pm

Ok I understand :) Thanks for the tip....

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Permalink Reply by Doreen Cohanim C.Ht on February 12, 2009 at 2:45pm

Hi Susan, In my practice I never promise anyone to quit, especially not in one or two sessions, in in my case they did, but I always tell them it may take up to six sessions.

Respectfully, Doreen

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan on February 12, 2009 at 4:12pm

Hi Susan,

You said "no matter which forum or technique or years of experience." I agree the topic comes up. But I wonder if you have ever really sought out hypnotists successful with their claims... If you can't claim it, I would not... but is that to say that no one can?

If you could perform these kinds of fast interventions how would they go? What would you do, that may be different than what you do now?

In what way do you perform these sessions now? How do you verify trance, and then continue to build response? Do you feel that they can be "convinced" to become non-smokers by virtue of the drawbacks to the vice, or is that which craves the smoking behavior the target of your work?

J

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Permalink Reply by the grumpy hypnotist on February 12, 2009 at 5:19pm

Well of course, it's a simple fact that a certain percentage of clients will have a harder time than others, no disagreement there. But if your clients are only successful in this area 1/3 of the time, there is probably lots of room for improvement. You seem to be clamoring for truthfulness and solutions, yet at the same time denying the possibility that approaches which are different than yours may be more successful. If you insist on sticking to a less-than-successful approach which is based on your personal beliefs about the nature of addiction, why do you claim to be looking for an open and honest dialogue on this matter?

No one can deny your point that there is a repulsive amount of hype in the promotion of some of these smoking cessation programs. That stuff makes me want to puke (plus I subscribe to the belief that it is much better long-term to underpromise but overdeliver). But that doesn't contradict the reality that yes, some people can have much higher success rates --- which is probably based on a jillion factors including pre-screening, marketing, personality, etc. and thus difficult to duplicate and transfer (and practically impossible to duplicate if a practitioner insists on holding onto existing beliefs and paradigms).

"Some people are good after a session or two. Most require more, at least for reinforcement and support. I take your point that it would be counterproductive to suggest that it will be hard but it's also setting a misleading bar to say that most people quit easily after 1 or 2 sessions."

Well, that may be your experience. I don't disbelieve you. But if that is a misleading bar to set, would it be more accurate to say that most people need 6 sessions to quit? But that's not "true" either, and would be just as misleading, based on my experience and the experience of others.

You said: "I think it's harder for smokers to recognize that they are truly addicted." I have the feeling that this statement (and the belief underlying it) gets to the core of problem you are having in terms of low success rates. This statement indicates that you believe that even if a smoker doesn't think that they are truly addicted, that you know better? Well, then naturally (perhaps subconsciously), it's your job to help them recognize that they really are terribly addicted, isn't it?

Because you do realize, don't you, that even if you do not explicitly tell clients that smoking cessation is a difficult, complex issue, that your beliefs influence every aspect of the interaction with them, from your initial contact, to your intake, to your pre-interview, to your pre-talk, etc. You may need to adopt more beneficial beliefs yourself first, before expecting to take your clients there.

I understand the conflict you feel about the incongruency between what some people claim and what you personally observe. It's the uncomfortable feeling of a salesperson who doesn't really believe in what they are selling (and of course anyone who feels this way cannot do a good job of transferring emotions and beliefs). But you should realize that what you are "selling" are merely beliefs, which are only loosely tied to "reality" --- after all, as people who understand the role of the mind's critical faculty, you know it's possible to prop up any belief by looking for confirming data.

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Permalink Reply by Susan French on February 12, 2009 at 6:21pm

I didn't say 30 percent. It was a quote, made by another poster, from the Dental and Medical Hypnosis book...the one that's $75.

And once again, I'm talking about probabilities as opposed to possibilities.

I think that smoking cessation is harder for a higher percentage of clients than we as a group like to admit.

I don't believe that I'm selling "beliefs". That seems to imply that I'm pulling a benevolent "con" on clients. I believe that I'm teaching and facilitating clients' ability to change their perceptions and responses.

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