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Product reviews for Hypnosis for Smoking Cessation
Judith E. Pearson, PhD, Licensed Professional Counselor, free-lance writer, hypnotherapist, and NLP Trainer/Practitioner author of The Weight, Hypnotherapy, and You Weight Reduction Program: An NLP and Hypnotherapy Practitioner's Manual
Whether you are a newly-trained hypnotherapist, or a seasoned practitioner who has conducted smoking cessation programs for years, Hypnosis for Smoking Cessation, by David Botsford, has something for you. This book is the comprehensive manual for practitioners who want to become expert at helping people stop smoking and remain smoke-free.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are approximately 50,000 smokers in the U.S. alone. For every smoker who quits, another person is lighting up for the first time. Hypnosis has been shown to be more effective than many other smoking cessation methods such as nicotine gum or the nicotine patch. Smokers represent a lucrative market for practitioners, and smoking cessation can be a worthwhile skill.
Botsford gives the nuts and bolts on the clinical side as well as the business side. Following the advice of Milton Erickson, he encourages readers to tailor the hypnosis experience for every client; to utilize the client's achievements and successes as anchors for resourceful states, and to call on the client's values, beliefs, and spiritual development as motivating factors for quitting.
He shows how to enhance the client's resolve. He asks the client to see himself as a non-smoker and intensifies the submodalities of the image to make it compelling. He aligns his suggestions with the client's model of the world, having each client choose meaningful symbols, metaphors, words and images that can be woven into the hypnotic session. Botsford provides transcripts of his sessions as examples that tell readers exactly what he says and how he says it.
The book discusses several therapeutic strategies for working with smokers, such as reframing the need to smoke, educating the client about the effects of nicotine, utilizing the client's previous successes in quitting, eliciting the client's smoking strategy, asking about how the client finds ways to relax or meditate, and clearly establishing the client's outcome. Then Botsford demonstrates how all these aspects are covered in hypnosis to convince the client to stop smoking.
He devotes an entire chapter to teaching the client self-hypnosis as a means to control urges and to prevent relapse, minimize weight gain, and cope with stress. He also teaches his clients how to anchor a positive, resourceful state, in relation to the satisfaction of being a non-smoker.
For practitioners who work one-on-one in smoking cessation, Chapter 7 is the highlight of the book. This chapter contains a transcript of a complete hypnotherapy session. The approach combines Ericksonian utilization (via revivification of resourceful memories) and direct suggestions. It covers various methods of induction, as well as how to bring about a learning set, suggestions for forgetting about the need to smoke, deepening, methods to promote abstinence, ego-strengthening, future pacing, and reorientation"even what to say and do after the hypnosis is done. What I found particularly useful is the information on how to help the client prevent relapse.
The author addresses the managerial aspects of a smoking cessation practice: how to set the fee, structure the client-therapist relationship, explain hypnosis to the client, develop a therapeutic communication style, respond to phone inquiries, book appointments, schedule the work day,-”even how to dress in a professional manner. The CD that accompanies the book contains pdf files that the reader can print and begin using in his or her practice immediately.
As a bonus, hypnotherapists working with groups and in corporate smoking cessation programs will find much value in Botsford's description of a complete corporate training seminar"how to market, conduct, and evaluate the seminar.
Conclusion
I like this book for its specificity, and also for the flexibility it gives to the reader in adapting the instructions to one's own way of doing business and practicing hypnotherapy. The tips, scripts, and checklists are very helpful and instructive. The approach is practical and marketable. Even as a hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner who has conducted smoking cessation for over twenty years, I still learned many things that are new and worthwhile from this book. I give it a five star recommendation!
According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are approximately 50,000 smokers in the U.S. alone. For every smoker who quits, another person is lighting up for the first time. Hypnosis has been shown to be more effective than many other smoking cessation methods such as nicotine gum or the nicotine patch. Smokers represent a lucrative market for practitioners, and smoking cessation can be a worthwhile skill.
Botsford gives the nuts and bolts on the clinical side as well as the business side. Following the advice of Milton Erickson, he encourages readers to tailor the hypnosis experience for every client; to utilize the client's achievements and successes as anchors for resourceful states, and to call on the client's values, beliefs, and spiritual development as motivating factors for quitting.
He shows how to enhance the client's resolve. He asks the client to see himself as a non-smoker and intensifies the submodalities of the image to make it compelling. He aligns his suggestions with the client's model of the world, having each client choose meaningful symbols, metaphors, words and images that can be woven into the hypnotic session. Botsford provides transcripts of his sessions as examples that tell readers exactly what he says and how he says it.
The book discusses several therapeutic strategies for working with smokers, such as reframing the need to smoke, educating the client about the effects of nicotine, utilizing the client's previous successes in quitting, eliciting the client's smoking strategy, asking about how the client finds ways to relax or meditate, and clearly establishing the client's outcome. Then Botsford demonstrates how all these aspects are covered in hypnosis to convince the client to stop smoking.
He devotes an entire chapter to teaching the client self-hypnosis as a means to control urges and to prevent relapse, minimize weight gain, and cope with stress. He also teaches his clients how to anchor a positive, resourceful state, in relation to the satisfaction of being a non-smoker.
For practitioners who work one-on-one in smoking cessation, Chapter 7 is the highlight of the book. This chapter contains a transcript of a complete hypnotherapy session. The approach combines Ericksonian utilization (via revivification of resourceful memories) and direct suggestions. It covers various methods of induction, as well as how to bring about a learning set, suggestions for forgetting about the need to smoke, deepening, methods to promote abstinence, ego-strengthening, future pacing, and reorientation"even what to say and do after the hypnosis is done. What I found particularly useful is the information on how to help the client prevent relapse.
The author addresses the managerial aspects of a smoking cessation practice: how to set the fee, structure the client-therapist relationship, explain hypnosis to the client, develop a therapeutic communication style, respond to phone inquiries, book appointments, schedule the work day,-”even how to dress in a professional manner. The CD that accompanies the book contains pdf files that the reader can print and begin using in his or her practice immediately.
As a bonus, hypnotherapists working with groups and in corporate smoking cessation programs will find much value in Botsford's description of a complete corporate training seminar"how to market, conduct, and evaluate the seminar.
Conclusion
I like this book for its specificity, and also for the flexibility it gives to the reader in adapting the instructions to one's own way of doing business and practicing hypnotherapy. The tips, scripts, and checklists are very helpful and instructive. The approach is practical and marketable. Even as a hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner who has conducted smoking cessation for over twenty years, I still learned many things that are new and worthwhile from this book. I give it a five star recommendation!
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15/02/2008 00:00
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