What does a hypnotherapist do?

Here is a simplified account of a real stop smoking hypnotherapy client.

The clients issue was that he had managed to stop smoking in most situations except one: when the doorbell or phone rang he would reach for a cigarette!

Firstly we established what we call a “pattern interrupt” so that if the doorbell or phone rang he would do the prescribed behaviour instead to retrain the brain to not automatically stimulate a craving to smoke.

Secondly we needed to address why it was happening:

I regressed him under hypnosis to see where this first occurred.

Turns out that a friend was due to visit him and when the doorbell rang it was a policeman who told him his friend had been killed in a road accident on his way to see him. They had discovered his destination so came to tell him.

His go to response in times of stress was to have a cigarette so he lit up. Thereafter every time a doorbell and by extension a phone rang he assumed it would be bad news and reached for a cigarette.

We imagined some scenarios where the doorbell rang and it was the package he had ordered or the phone ringing and his aunt in Australia offering an all expenses trip to see her.

In other words we taught his subconscious that a bell ringing of any kind was most likely to be positive or at least reasonable and not catastrophic.

I also treated the anxiety that had been revealed and ensured that he could achieve his goal of stopping smoking.

This highly simplified account shows how I work WITH my client using techniques that are acceptable to his subconscious which enables him to stop smoking but also deals with a potentially life eroding anxious or even depressed mindset.

Graham Howes Advanced Hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner in Ipswich Suffolk

Mobile: 07875720623

Landline: 01473 879561

Email: grahamahowes@me.com