The great claim of hypnotists: I only need ONE session to help a smoker quit forever. In fact, this great claim is also made in training programs with the admonition to potential students that if they don’t learn how to do it on one sessions, they must not be a good hypnotist! There is perhaps, nothing further from the truth in these claims. I will even go as far as to say if you only offer single session quit smoking services, you are actually doing your clients a disservice in many cases.
The QuitSuccess smoking cessation hypnosis protocol is the three session program I have been using with my clients since 2006. The reason I moved from one to three sessions is not because they can’t quit in one session. In fact, all my smokers leave my office a non-smoker after the first session. So people can quit in one session.
As soon as the first session concludes, and before they leave my office, I schedule the second session for 2-3 days later. And I do this because I actually care about my clients! I want them to succeed, I want to support them, and successful smoker need a place where they can return and get accolades and affirmations for doing a great job. In most cases, this is what the second session is about. Of course, some clients return and report that they did smoke. It is not very many, but there are some. And because I actually care, they give it another shot. In these second sessions, I have the opportunity to trouble shoot and redirect them, something I would not have the chance to do in single session offerings.
I think to some extent, hypnotists who only offer single sessions services are actually living in their own fear of “what if a client returns and has smoked?” This is not a fear that I have. Over the years I have developed many different ways of doing a powerful second session based on turning failure into success. In fact, I actually enjoy the few second sessions I get to do when people return and have smoked again.
Another reason I do multiple sessions is that even though you and I know that they will leave the first session a non-smoker, quitting is something most smokers have self-doubt about. To a 2-pack a day smoker who has been smoking for 35 years it just seems less than credible that they will do it on one session. Many years ago another hypnotist in my town offered discounted single-session services, I continued my 3 session protocol at twice his rate. My business thrived and I was always busy while he floundered and had a couple people a week. People who came into my office often told me they picked me because it seemed impossible to them that they only needed one session. From a purely marketing perspective, the three session program always wins out.
