Jane Robinson Associates, Hypnotherapy to help you stop smoking in Cyprus

Stopping Smoking

Have you condemned yourself to a lifetime of slavery?

Now is the time to free yourself from the shackles of smoking once and for all.

You have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain from quitting.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do I actually enjoy smoking?

2. What does it do for me?

3. How does it affect my life?

4. Do I really want to go through life being controlled by cigarettes?

5. Do I smoke out of habit?

6. Am I addicted to nicotine? (this is a very common belief)

So if you weren't addicted to nicotine it would be easy for you to stop.
Is that right?

So would it surprise you if I told you that nicotine is not addictive?
BECAUSE IT ISN'T.

About 5 years ago, the American government got the top chemists and scientists in America to do a study on nicotine. A million dollars and a 600-page report later, they found nicotine was NOT addictive.

In medical circles, much is made of smoking as an "addiction", and help for smokers is focused on relieving the "withdrawal symptoms". This leads to absurd remedies such as Zyban, which is actually a sedative, and Nicotine Replacement Therapy (patches) which work by continually dosing you with the very thing you want to leave behind.

Did you know that one day's supply of patches is equivalent to 120 cigarettes - that's 6 packets. With every patch you put on your arm you are getting ten times more nicotine into your system. Not surprising that clients will say they've experienced painful and swollen arms, or they've come out in skin rashes. No, the pharmaceutical route to smoking cessation is not a good one.

Now let's compare nicotine with something that is addictive, like heroin. When a heroin addict is coming off heroin, they are not given heroin to break the addiction, they are given a substitute drug called methadone which blocks the craving for heroin.

When a heroin addict doesn't get his fix, he will experience symptoms, shakes, sweating, heart palpitations, nausea and sometimes hallucinations. Now when you've gone without a cigarette in the past, when you've tried to quit, or when you've been asleep, or when you've taken a long-haul flight and not been able to smoke. You don't get any of these symptoms? Well, do you? No, of course you don't. You might get a bit bad-tempered, but that's all.

Now the so-called experts on smoking cessation are telling you that nicotine is addictive, and there is nicotine in cigarettes, and yes, there is. But the way they're going to get you off cigarettes is to give you more nicotine than you've ever smoked in your life. Only now you are not smoking it. It's like saying to the heroin addict, "Don't smoke heroin, it's dangerous, try injecting it instead". Try this with nicotine and it would kill you instantly. In any case, studies have shown that Nicotine Replacement Therapy is only 5% to 7% more effective than no help at all.

The only way that patches work is if you believe they'll work.

So why, when smoking is not a chemical addiction, do smokers find it difficult to stop?

Smokers will tell me about the terrible withdrawal pangs, which create thoughts of pain. Guess what? They don't exist. There is no physical pain. IT'S ALL IN THE MIND.

Anybody can stop smoking easily and permanently. But what keeps a smoker smoking is FEAR. FEAR that quitting will be full of pain. FEAR that life will never be quite as enjoyable without cigarettes. FEAR of being unable to cope with stressful situations. FEAR that your life will never be quite the same once you quit. THIS IS ALL AN ILLUSION.

In other words, it's all the effect of brainwashing. It's deluded you into believing that there's something inherent in cigarettes that you need. And that when you stop smoking, there will be a VOID, and this will be PAINFUL.

Cigarettes do not fill a void, they create it.

How many times have I heard, "I can't give them up, they are my friend" or "they are my prop, my pleasure" or "they help me relax". In actual fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. These are all illusions. Life is not just enjoyable without them, but it is infinitely more so in many ways once you become free of your shackles.

Ask yourself this question: "What will it cost me if I continue to smoke?"

Where will I be in five years, or ten years, time? What will my health be like? What will it cost me in my relationships, family, friends and my self-esteem?

What quality of life will I have if I continue to smoke?

Stopping smoking is easy. You have become brainwashed into believing that giving up will be difficult and painful.

If you believe that it will be difficult and painful to quit, then it will be.

Your attitudes and beliefs have to change.

I will go into this area in more detail in the smoking cessation session.

Virtually everything we do, we do out of either our need to avoid pain, or our desire to gain pleasure.

It is not actual pain that drives us, but our fear that something will lead to pain. It's not actual pleasure that drives us, but our certainty that somehow taking a certain action will lead to pleasure. It's not our intellect that drives us, but our emotions - the sensations that we link to our thoughts are what truly drives us.

Have you tried to quit before and failed?

When you failed to quit, is was really because you pushed yourself over the edge, causing yourself pain in the process of quitting. Using willpower alone never lasts, because you are still linking pain to giving up. For the change to be long-term, you've got to link massive pain to smoking, and infinite pleasure to life as a non-smoker.

The most difficult part of quitting smoking is making the decision that you want to stop.

So do you really want to stop?

It's no good just wishing you could stop smoking, or saying "I should" or "I ought". It's about making that decision which becomes "I will stop". And being totally committed so there's no going back.

Once made, that decision is easy, you've finally got off the fence. You're going to take action, and with action comes a tremendous relief. You are already starting to feel better about yourself.

How many sessions will it take?

It only requires one session, which takes between two and three hours. When you leave my clinic, it will be as a non-smoker.

Cutting down or cutting back is not the easy way to stop - it's like pulling off a sticking-plaster slowly!

What's my success rate?

I'm not able to give you a percentage as to how many people I've helped over the years, because I don't have the time to phone around and ask people "did it work for you", and besides, people wouldn't appreciate it. But what I can tell you is that I'm constantly getting referrals - my phone rings 7 days a week. And that's how I know hypnosis works.

A Clients Eye View
By Jean Lewis
I'm not crabby and I'm not smoking - but it's early days. It's been more than 48 hours - and I haven't had a cigarette. No big deal? It is for me. And I feel completely relaxed about it. That is the big difference.
Before this latest, and hopefully final effort to beat the habit, colleagues and family would have experienced the less attractive side of my nature - the short-tempered, unreasonable, sometimes hysterical side that has accompanied every other attempt at giving up.
When I arrived at Janes office, I was some what anxious to say the least . I was not convinced that I could be hypnotised, and thought the "hypnotherapy approach" would be, at best, ineffective. Jane was not weird, or wacky, I can spot both characteristics a mile off.
She was quite normal, no wild eyes, just a very charming and professional lady, and I soon felt very at ease with her.
Her statistics speak for themselves - a 90% plus success rate and very few clients needing a second dose of this particular kind of medicine. We chatted, I unwound. Jane was straight with me throughout. She said, she was able to weed out those she is unable to help, and that I was a perfect subject.
Jane sat me in a comfortable chair and used her voice to induce me into a state of hypnosis - this did not feel like anything I had expected. I knew I could open my eyes at any time. I could hear her. But I felt calm, warm, safe and very, very relaxed.
I came away with an impression of Jane as a favorite teacher. I liked her, I liked her approach, honesty and enthusiasm for her subject. And I liked the fact that she was real.

....and a word from Don
"I don't know what happened, but after I got off the phone to Jane I was already thinking of myself as a non-smoker- it felt really good. She seemed so confident that I would stop, and I believed her. And she was right!"

more testimonials

Smoking Cessation - Questions and Answers

Q. Will I be 'under', or 'out of control' during the session?
A. No. You will be relaxed, in a very light state of hypnosis.....fully alert and fully in control at all times. You can speak, move, open your eyes or do anything else you would like to do.... you do not have to be in a 'stage hypnosis' type of trance - just a very light, relaxed state.

Q. Is your Smoking Cessation therapy suitable for anyone?
A. When you come for your session, we will have an in-depth talk about your smoking habit and also broader aspects of your life. If it appears from this that you are suffering severely from anxiety, depression or stress, it is likely that you are smoking to suppress the negative feelings; I would then stop the session (without charge) and recommend doing some work with you on the condition before re-addressing the smoking issue. If you don't suffer from these things, we can proceed with the therapy.

Q. Do you offer any sort of 'Guarantees', or 'money back if it doesn't work'?
A. Of course I do NOT offer any guarantees - and no professional therapist should. You need to accept some responsibility for your smoking habit, and you need to put some effort in if you want to stop - nobody can do it for you. I can help you a great deal, but I CANNOT do it for you. There is no magic to hypnosis or hypnotherapy - it can help you to achieve many things in life, but none of these things can be guaranteed, because it depends on how much effort YOU, the client, puts in.

Q. Why do you, and other hypnotherapists, charge so much more for a smoking cessation session, than other symptoms you treat?
A. This is in fact the most demanding and time-consuming type of hypnotherapy session we run at our practice. It involves more skill, experience, character-assessment, insight and general hard work, than any other symptom or condition that we treat. That is why it costs more.

Q. What happens if I stop smoking, but start again in six months time?
A. This is very unlikely to happen, as when I help people to stop smoking, I help them to change their belief system about smoking as well - which means they become a non-smoker. If you did go back to smoking, we would have to have a chat on the phone about whether it was sensible for you to have another session. If we did have another session, another fee would be payable.

Q. Will I need gum, patches. placebos, zyban or anything else to help me?
A. No.

Q. I have been to another hypnotherapist before and it didn't work - would it still be worth it coming to see you?
A. Yes, we do the job properly.