Sounds like you found a hypnotherapist you had a strong rapport with, which I think is important to whether or not a session is successful.
I quit a 30-year, pack-a-day smoking habit by going to a hypnotherapist. Best $150 I’ve ever spent. Quit smoking that day and just celebrated my five-year anniversary on 11/11. My memories of the session are exactly like yours.. no “trance-like” feeling; just a deep state of relaxation and an ability to better understand certain thoughts. My husband still smokes and thinks hypnotherapy is a bunch of “hocus pocus“ despite evidence to the contrary - ME, his wife who hasn’t touched a cigarette since 11/11/14.
I always tell him the best that could come of trying hypnotherapy is he’d quit smoking like I did, and the worst would be “losing” $150. When I went to Joan (the hypnotherapist), I was very honest with her. I told her I LOVED smoking. It helped me with stress and I considered sitting down with a nice cigarette (always outdoors) as a “reward” upon finishing housework or work projects. I never had lung infections; not even so much a a chest cold with a cough. But taking care of my dad as he was dying and watching him continue to smoke right up until he died at 70 yrs old was the initial catalyst and then taking care of my mom as she was dying (and still smoked despite being on 24/7 oxygen; (she’d take off the oxygen tube and sneak out to her back deck for a few drags, then almost have to crawl her way back inside because she couldn’t breathe)) was what made my decision clear.
I KNEW no matter how lucky I’d been until then, I was watching my future unfold before my very eyes. No way I wanted to go down like that.
So Joan worked that information into her “script,” and even though there have been times I’ve really wanted a cigarette (ironically one of the hardest times to refrain was when my mom passsd of advanced COPD), I still haven’t smoked since the day I left Joan’s office. My husband has been all too willing to offer me one of his cigs when he knows I’m having a weak moment (but I’m onto his lame psychological mind-game; if I start smoking again, he doesn’t have to feel constant guilt because he won’t try to quit).
Anyway, I love hearing others’ hypnotherapy success stories. Have you made a decision about your career?
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