My Approach

The Natural Stop Smoking Clinic was born out of the fact that, over the years, many of my clients have valued stopping smoking without using any form of Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) or medication. What could be more natural than using the power of the mind via hypnotherapy? 

In terms of nicotine, my view and extensive clinical experience have been that the role of the drug in stopping smoking is exaggerated. Over the years, most of my several thousand clients had previously tried some form of nicotine replacement or a prescribed medicine designed to alter how the brain responds to nicotine. These clients’ presence at my clinic in the first place speaks for the fact that NRT does not work for everyone.

Of course, people do stop smoking while taking NRT, which is fantastic. It doesn’t matter how a person stops as long as they do, and they stay stopped. There is free access to NRT via local smoking cessation services in the UK. If someone can succeed via that route, they should be applauded. However, for those who are not successful or don’t want to take a stimulant to try to stop taking a stimulant, this is where my service comes in.

Addiction vs Habit

I have found it immensely useful for my clients to understand the different roles that chemical addiction to nicotine and the power of the smoking habit play. Both are part of the smoking cessation puzzle. However, as I have mentioned, it is my view and experience that nicotine’s role in stopping someone from becoming a non-smoker is overplayed. The actual power nicotine has over an individual is often the suggestion that nicotine is highly addictive. This suggestion is reinforced by public health messages which put nicotine replacement at the centre of their stop smoking strategy. One brand of NRT even implies that stopping is “hell” – negative fear-inducing suggestion, anyone?!

The clients I work with have usually discovered through their previous attempts to stop that the habit is the most significant part of the puzzle. This situation is why, for example, NRT may have failed for them. They take the nicotine dose via one method or another and follow the guidance. However, when they have that first coffee in the morning, their subconscious mind prompts, “Time for a cigarette!”. When they have a stressful moment at work, their mind prompts, “Time for a cigarette!” When they get home and have dinner, they put their knife and fork down, and … You get the picture!

The feeling of nicotine withdrawal is often highly subjective. With the right expectations, planning, and management, it is typically a relatively easy part of stopping smoking for most people. From my experience, the few who struggle the most with the nicotine element of stopping smoking either strongly believe nicotine is highly addictive, have a low threshold for minor discomfort from novel experiences, or are generally prone to catastrophic thinking. As well as the hypnotic suggestions in my session, I will identify potential barriers such as these and suggest strategies to make the transition to non-smoker as smooth as possible.

Cure Your Bad Habit with a Bad Habit?

The clients who use my service usually believe that replacing a bad habit with another bad habit is, at best, unnecessary and, at worst, nonsensical. This practice is my core criticism of vaping as a smoking cessation method. Vaping is rapidly becoming a fashionable NRT tool for the government and its public health strategy. Most current research shows vaping to be significantly less harmful than traditional tobacco smoking. However, it is not harmless, and anyone vaping habitually now is effectively acting as a guinea pig for what the long-term health effects could be. We have been here before with tobacco smoking, which was once advertised as good for you! Vaping is frequently promoted and defended using a false dichotomy as the basis: “If someone is going to smoke, they should vape instead.” The apparent missing option here is simply not vaping or smoking at all. 

Explore a Different Way to Stop Smoking

The idea of stopping without replacements, pills, or potions is more than my opinion. It is a truth I have helped thousands of people to recognise and achieve using only words and the power of their minds. In a single 2.5-hour session via Zoom, I can help you change your mind about smoking at both the conscious and subconscious levels. Increasingly, clients looking to stop vaping or smoking cannabis with hypnosis also choose this approach to rid themselves of these unwanted habits.