Product reviews for Hypnosis for Smoking Cessation

I had this book sitting on the shelf for quite a while, always with the nagging feeling that I did not want to get into it. Why? Because I am a lazy, lazy man. Yes, but I surmised eventually that actually my procrastination had sprung from not wanting to put in the effort of shifting my frame of thinking. I have, after all, been practicing successful smoking cessation using NLP and Hypnosis (in my South Manchester practices) for years. All very well for the newcomers to the hypnotherapy profession of course, but I did not need to read this or have time to mess with my paradigm, (what with the writing, my practices and other businesses.) How wrong I was, for the established professional and newcomer alike this book is required reading.

Crown House has brought out a line of books (that can be identified by their plain white cover and colourful writing) that offer the definitive word in treating various popular problems that the therapist will face in their practice. So in addition to Weight, Hypnotherapy and You and Treating Stress and Anxiety, Hypnosis for Smoking Cessation makes up the three most popular complaints that a client is likely to present with. As I read the book I found it easy to put aside my own way of treating smoking and was if a newcomer to the subject, I would like to boast that this was a feat of objectivity through the application of my own will but I cannot.

The book is written in such a way that, although it was not my initial intention at all, I was happy to throw away my old way of working in this area, I had avoided getting into the book initially out of laziness but the path to true ease in my practice (of what is the number one presentation in hypnotherapy), lay in opening the book and allowing my old protocol to fall away. Why had I made it so complicated in the past? Since qualifying I had been adding to the authoritarian direct “suggestion script I had inherited and that I knew to be less than sufficient. There are many books out there on smoking cessation ” I know because I've got a lot of them and had tried to take everything of value from each as none I found had explained everything. This actually led me to comprise an unwieldy, complicated and lengthy protocol ” let this stand as a cautionary tale to the newcomer.

But now here was a way of working that streamlined everything and so simple that I was looking forward to seeing my next smoking cessation client. David Botsford seems to know how to walk the fine line between preparing you for every situation and leaving no eventuality un-discussed yet providing simple, and only in retrospect, very obvious and logical solutions. He espouses a very content-free approach in as much as the therapist is not asked or expected to take a big life history, any issues are explored and very quickly dealt with as you stream through the process. For example if a client has in the past successfully stopped smoking for over two weeks, a certain “module' is indicated in the “script'. If not then that's another path, but after that modular diversion you return to the core process so no matter what it is dealt with and you continue. Another example, and this is more common than I thought it would be, how do you address the client who smokes cannabis and wants to quit that too, and what about a client who wants to quit tobacco but not cannabis? In the past I my have been tangentially thrown by this into a lengthy discussion that swallowed maybe half a session, but now these are just quick things ” then back to the core work. And so in this way each client is not labelled or classified but can very easily be guided through the process as and when these points come up. Each client can be streamed through the process in a way that is still appropriate for him or her but very easy for the therapist. Each revelation as it comes is so easily remembered, the author takes us through every aspect, some things I had not even considered let alone got any answer to. What colour suit shall I wear? How can I dramatically drop the no-show rate? What will increase the likelihood of an answer to a speculative letter? Should I use one / two sessions? Should I offer a guarantee or back up session? Should I give out a CD?

After reading the book, I expect the success of my practice in this area to increase of course, but even more so I am looking forward to continuing to enjoy the decrease in the time and effort expended on each case that has been my experience since adopting Botsford's method. The method is clear, everything is scripted, a “free' CD is attached full of transcripts, there are checklists too, scripts for follow ups and recidivists.

Whether it be for a car, a home, a job, a shirt, at a certain point in every search (and for me particularly with respect to a smoking cessation method) one has to move away from the ideal of the “perfect buy' that comprises everything, as one eventually off-sets the search costs against the choice of an effective and pragmatic product. For the newcomer now those variables have been all but taken out of the equation and for the established professional this may mark the end of long search.

Not only in smoking cessation have I found the value of this book, to be higher than it's nominal cost. Picking up the larger frames from Botsford's technique has taught me, or reminded me of, a lot; - the use of utilisation and validation at every point of the client's experience, the way one acts on the phone, before meeting, in the waiting room, when making a home visit etc. I believe those not familiar with Erickson or with NLP would receive a degree of de-facto training, in proxy, as the higher frames of these approaches effortlessly permeate every chapter of the book.