Quit Smoking with Hypnotherapy: What to Expect and How Your Body Recovers
If you’ve tried to quit smoking before, you’re in good company. Most people who quit for good make several attempts first. Each attempt teaches you something. My aim is to help you make this one count by working with both sides of smoking: the physical addiction and the habits, emotions and identity wrapped around it.
How I help you quit
- Hypnotherapy to rehearse being a non-smoker in the situations where you used to light up: with coffee, after meals, under stress, socially.
- NLP to change how cravings and cues feel, and to strengthen a compelling picture of yourself smoke-free.
- EFT (tapping), a simple tool you can use in the moment when a craving or stressful feeling shows up.
- Practical coaching: setting a quit date, planning for triggers, and deciding what you’ll do instead.
Hypnotherapy also works well alongside other proven support. Nicotine replacement, prescription medications and quitline counseling are all effective, and you can use them together with our sessions. Please talk to your physician about which options suit you.
What does the research say?
You’ll find dramatic success rates for hypnosis online. I’d rather be straight with you. A 1992 analysis reported in New Scientist ranked hypnosis highly, and I used to share it here. However, the most thorough recent review (Cochrane, 2019) concluded there isn’t yet enough high-quality evidence to say hypnotherapy is more effective than other forms of behavioral support. Some people do remarkably well with it, and it has no known harmful side effects, but it’s best seen as one strong tool in your quit plan, not a magic bullet.
What happens in your body when you quit
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the benefits begin almost immediately:
- Within minutes: your heart rate drops.
- Within 24 hours: the nicotine level in your blood drops to zero.
- Within several days: carbon monoxide in your blood returns to non-smoker levels.
- 1 to 12 months: coughing and shortness of breath decrease.
- 1 to 2 years: your risk of heart attack drops sharply.
- 5 to 10 years: your risk of mouth, throat and voice-box cancer is cut in half, and stroke risk decreases.
- 10 years: your risk of lung cancer is about half that of someone who still smokes.
- 15 years: your risk of coronary heart disease is close to that of a non-smoker.
What about withdrawal?
Cravings, irritability, restlessness and trouble concentrating are common in the first days and weeks and usually ease over time. Individual cravings typically pass within a few minutes, so having a plan for those minutes (a few rounds of tapping, a walk, a glass of water, slow breathing) makes a real difference. If low mood or other symptoms persist, check in with your physician.
Free support
In the US you can call 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669) for free coaching from your state quitline, and smokefree.gov has helpful tools.
Ready to begin?
Quitting is one of the best things you can do for your health. If you’d like support with the mental and emotional side, let’s talk.
Hypnotherapy, NLP and EFT are complementary approaches. They don’t diagnose or treat medical conditions and are not a substitute for medical care, so please also work with your physician on any health concern.
If you’d like to find out whether this approach is a good fit for you, I offer a free, no-pressure consultation. Get in touch here and we can talk it through.
