I get the occasional client in Cape Town that says they tried hypnotherapy before and it did not work. Then they succeed with me. I would love to take all the credit, and of course sometimes I feel it is due, but let me tell you a story first.
I remember when I first watched a stop-smoking hypnotherapy video. It was by Paul McKenna and quite an interesting new experience for me. I loved his voice and the calm images. A colleague was noticing just how bad my health was from smoking and lent me his video. That was way back then in the days when videos were not yet DVDs. Anyway, I watched it many times and enjoyed it, but there was one phrase in it that would always get me out of hypnosis, because I could not do what it asked me to. So I concluded that the video did not work for me and returned it to my colleague. He was sad that it did not help, because it had helped him and his partner quit.
A year or so down the line, I had already cut down a little because of my worsening health with a smoking-related disease. Then one day, I was accidentally hypnotized to stop smoking. I say accidentally because it was by a business contact who was talking incessantly about the contents of the Alan Carr book, the Easyway to Stop Smoking, all this whilst the drink was flowing. So he managed to somehow get the message to my unconscious mind. I continued to smoke straight afterwards. But the next day when I ran out of cigarettes, I went up to the counter with my purse wanting to buy them and found that I could not. I opened and closed my mouth like a fish and no words came out. I left the shop an ex-smoker.
Years later when I became a stop-smoking practitioner, I was making small talk with a colleague whilst waiting for my next client. She asked what I did and then said “I I tried hypnosis once to stop smoking but it didn’t work.” I expressed my surprise, because she was a non-smoker. Then she explained that about six months after the hypnosis, she decided all on her own just to go cold turkey and succeeded.
So what happened there? What really helped us to stop? Well, I have my own opinion. Call it a hunch or an educated guess. I think that video I had first watched must have put some great suggestions in my unconscious mind. All I then needed was an extra push. That was it. I am now amazed that I had already cut down but did not put any of it down to the wonderful video I had watched! And I think that the colleague who quit “cold turkey” also had all those suggestions in her mind from her hypnosis session. And somehow after six months, something finally clicked for her and she was able to quit.
The more I think of it, the more it makes sense. That hypnosis that we first had did work. It just did not work when we wanted it to. A healing journey is just that; a journey. And the path to success is not always as straightforward as we want it to be. Sometimes we need to be on that path for a little longer than we first expect. And that is perfectly OK.
Suzanne Zacharia
Stop Smoking Hypnosis Cape Town
Call our out-of-town callcentre on 021 556 7088
Or call me direct in my City Centre studio on 072 700 5334
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