Stop Smoking, Manchester | Mind and Body Balance

STOP SMOKING TODAY!

Most smokers have a love-hate relationship with their smoking habit: it is occasionally enjoyable, it can sometimes be social, and it often gives them a break from the routine.

However, in this day and age smoking has become socially less acceptable. And of course, there are health risks: the increased risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, gum disease, and more. When you factor in the costs, smoking is more of an enemy than a friend.

As an ex-smoker myself, I understand the smoking habit very well. Over the years I’ve helped many smokers in Manchester to stop smoking.

Why do you smoke?

Habit

Sometimes, smoking is a simple bad habit; a fear to go through the detox phase (the 4 – 5 days of cravings associated with stopping smoking), and – perhaps – a fear of life without cigarettes.

In such cases, people smoke mainly because they are used to doing so at certain times or in certain places: the first cigarette of the day; ‘fag breaks’; the lunchtime routine; evenings, weekends, and after meals … And of course, when drinking with friends.

Where smoking is simply a bad habit, and where the cons have started to outweigh the pros, does not make it any easier to quit. The smoking habit can be far harder to break than the physical withdrawals on their own. For a lot of smokers, smoking is a part of defining identity and part of quitting is recognising a simple truth: a life without cigarettes is far easier than a life with them.

However, sometimes stopping smoking can be more challenging, and this is when we need professional help.

Emotional associations

Smoking doesn’t just associate itself with places, people, or certain times of the day, it can also become associated with our emotions. People find themselves dependent on cigarettes because smoking ‘helps’ when feeling stressed, unhappy, bored, or blue.

Without cigarettes, we feel bereft during difficult times, like having toothache without access to painkillers. We want to numb the emotion away, and only cigarettes will do.

In such cases, stopping smoking means dealing with the underlying cause(s) of your stress or unhappiness. Learning to cope with life without smoking is part of growing into our adult selves. Either way, well-delivered hypnotherapy can help with this. You can stop smoking and feel better – about your life and yourself.

Attachment beliefs

Smoking is both irrational and emotional. As a result, we come to believe some strange things. For example:

  • Smoking helps me with stress.
  • Smoking helps me socialise.
  • Smoking looks cool.
  • Smoking enables me to take regular breaks.

Beliefs such as these, which may have been true at some point, lock us into the smoking habit. Cigarettes then become a crutch, a toxic combination of habit, limiting belief, chemical addiction, and fear that is slowly killing you.

How to STOP smoking for good:​

I offer a one off LASTING smoking cessation session which will enable you to quit smoking permanently.​​

Whether your smoking is a simple habit or a reflection of other problems in your life, I will be able to help. I’ve worked with smoking cessation for over a decade, and I understand the addiction very well.

​Why work with me?

As an ex-smoker myself, I am well placed to help people stop smoking. I understand that smoking is often more than a simple habit and it is too hard to simply ‘just stop’. I quit using hypnotherapy myself and understand its amazing qualities in this field. I have practised hypnotherapy in Manchester since 2012, and use techniques that actually work!

Like most therapists, I am passionate about helping people. However, I’m also friendly, down to earth, and ‘normal for a therapist’! I’ve worked with people for many years, and I’m used to putting my clients at ease.