Helping people to quit smoking was the first clinical problem David Stickels sought to assist with when he began private practice over 25 years ago. This followed successfully helping his then GP to quit using hypnosis.

Since the commencement of the group practice at DSA Psychologists in 1989, several of the psychologists working with David have completed their hypnosis training and are also offering hypnosis as a major component of treating people wanting to quit smoking.

While individual psychologists differ in their approach, the essential elements of assisting clients to stop smoking usually include:

• Four to five consultation sessions with some of the latter ones being half-hour follow-up sessions to ensure smoking cessation.
• Assessment of the client’s ability to use hypnosis during the first session - not everyone can be hypnotised to the same degree.
• A specific, most commonly the second, session is set as the time of quitting smoking. Sometimes a client presents having cut down their smoking considerably and is ready to quit at the first session.
• A recording of the hypnosis component of the session on an audio recording device for the client to use at home to reinforce their decision to quit.

It should be noted that quitting smoking is not rebatable under the new Medicare rebates, but may be covered by the client’s private health insurance. Successful clients will also recoup the cost of the consulting fees within about 2 months depending on their level of smoking.

Quitting cigarette smoking is a very difficult task and requires considerable commitment to the process, which thousands of people are successfully doing every year. However even with hypnosis, which we at DSA Psychologists have found to be the most helpful intervention, success cannot be guaranteed.