It’s a well-known fact that smoking is seriously detrimental to your health, and it can also have lasting damaging effects on the health of those around you. But it’s also a well known fact that it can be incredibly difficult to stop smoking.

The health benefits you can enjoy by quitting are numerous, and some can be near instant. Here’s a timeline of what happens when you stub out a cigarette for the last time:

• 20 minutes – heart rate and blood pressure return to normal

• 8-24 hours – nicotine and carbon monoxide start to leave the body and oxygen levels return to normal

• 24 hours – lungs start to clear out mucus and other smoking debris

• 48-72 hours – sense of smell and taste improve

• 2-12 weeks – exercise becomes easier and breathing improves

• 3-9 months – any coughs, wheezing and breathing problems are reduced as the lungs begin to repair

• 1 year – the risk of coronary heart disease is now half that of a smoker

There are many methods that can help you stop smoking, but one you may not have thought of is hypnotherapy.

We sat down with Connie Weir, YourGP’s resident Clinical Hypnotherapist and Psychologist, to have a chat about how hypnotherapy can help people quit smoking. Connie has been working with Smoking Cessation for 15 years and uses a tried and tested one-session technique that has proved highly successful. Connie has an approximate success rate of 75%. She explains the process here:

“The Stop Smoking Session first of all involves a good chat. I need to find out what your smoking routine is, why you smoke and, of course, why you want to stop! It doesn’t matter at all if you have had a number of failed attempts as I truly believe (as an ex-smoker of 17 years myself) that you need to get it wrong before you get it right. You need to know where the pitfalls are.

Also, willpower is not a requirement – it is a vastly overrated term! What I require from you is the desire to quit – you must really want to make the change and difficulties in doing so in the past are of less importance.

The second half of the session is the hypnosis itself.

Hypnosis is a completely natural state of mind and it takes the form of a lovely gentle relaxation and then the use of suggestion, so that you leave really feeling that you are a non-smoker. With the issue of habit-breaking, hypnosis really gets to the root of the addiction. You start smoking, you repeat the behaviour, it becomes routine. You decide to quit, you try to abstain, discomfort occurs. This is because your ‘habit’ part of your brain doesn’t realise you’ve made a change! Hypnotherapy gets that message into the unconscious so the whole process is much easier.

I offer a comprehensive session of up to 2 hours in duration. It ensures that everything is covered and an effective combination of smoking cessation counselling and hypnotherapy is included.”

Hypnosis offers a fast and safe method to help you stop smoking, with a high success rate.

To book an appointment, use our online booking form, email our reception team at reception@your.gp or call us on 0131 225 5656.