Hypnosis is a successful tool in smoking cessation because it helps access the subconscious mind to break a behavioural pattern, says Georgina Cannon, director of the Ontario Hypnosis Centre in Toronto.
BREAKING HABITS: All our habits are formed in the subconscious mind, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as "patterning." "Eighty per cent of what you do today, you did yesterday; that's patterning," explains Cannon. Lighting up a cigarette with your morning coffee, or whenever you feel stress, is a pattern you repeat without thinking about it.
HOW IT WORKS: To break the pattern, you need to access the subconscious mind, says Cannon. And hypnosis can help. In the case of smoking, the subconscious pattern that leads a person to light up when someone else does can disappear immediately after the start of hypnosis treatment.
HOW MANY SESSIONS: The number of hypnotherapy sessions necessary to kick the nicotine habit 'varies from person to person. For some people it's only one session, while others might need two to four. "Some people need to do it more gradually," says Cannon.
SUCCESS RATE: Almost everyone can kick the habit. Cannon cites a 95 per cent success rate at her centre, although that may be because she has a strict policy of who she takes in. She says she asks potential clients how badly they want to quit on a scale of one to 10, and if the answer is less than eight she won't take them. "All of the success of hypnosis is up to the individual," she says.
TAPES CAN HELP: Tapes or CDs help the process of changing the script in your brain that tells you to reach for a cigarette and are often used in conjunction with weekly sessions. You can buy tapes and CDs at most hypnosis clinics.
COST: The cost of hypnotherapy varies from clinic to clinic but usually costs about $80 to $100 per session.
INFORMATION: For more information about hypnosis, log on to www.ont-hypnosis-centre.com. To locate a centre in your province, check out www.hypnosiscanada.com and click on Hypnotist Finder.
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