How to choose your stop smoking therapist/stop smoking counsellor…

With so many choices about which nicotine patch, nicotine pill, nicotine lozenge, or nicotine inhalator to use it’s no wonder that people become more than a little confused about how to stop smoking. With reference to the items I just listed – it reminds me how Allen Carr always used to joke about so called nicotine replacement products – he used to say “What will they think of next? A cigarette?”

So many smokers have tried to use these other methods and have either gone back to smoking, continued to smoke as well as use the products, or become addicted to the nicotine product that was supposed to cure them. No surprise then that more and more smokers are turning to stop smoking therapists, stop smoking hypnotherapists, and stop smoking counsellors to help them kick the smoking habit.

So with no shortage of candidates – how do you choose which one to entrust your next, and hopefully your last, stop smoking attempt to?

Here is a checklist that should help you:

It should not be someone who has never smoked. How can they possibly empathise with you, with your smoking history, with your previous attempts to stop smoking if they have never smoked, and more importantly, never escaped from smoking themselves?

It should not be someone who smokes. Many quit smoking therapists, hypnotherapists, and counsellors who smoke claim that they continue to do so because they enjoy it and do not want to stop. We all know they are kidding themselves. No part of addiction involves “choosing” whether you take the drug or not. No-one so deluded is going to be able to help you to be free. When you get free – pass on your stop smoking therapist’s business card to these counsellors. They need help as much as you.

It should not be someone who says how difficult and tough it is going to be. When there are tens of thousands, in fact millions, of former smokers who stopped smoking easily – you should always be wary of someone who claims that it is going to be hard. This type of stop smoking counsellor or therapist will always blame the poor smoker for their lack of success and their excuses include such gems as “you obviously don’t want to stop enough” or “you are just not strong enough” or “you really aren’t ready to stop are you?” If these people were car mechanics – they’d kick your tyres – tut-tut loudly – and shake their heads before telling you the extortionate amount they intend to charge you forNOT fixing your car.

It should not be someone who charges small or large amounts without any guarantee regarding results. If you paid someone to fix your car, fix your house, fix you laptop, or mend your garden fence and they failed to fix it – you wouldn’t expect to pay them – let alone pay them a lot!

It should not be someone who provides a guarantee that turns out to merely be more free sessions of the treatment. This is a misuse of the word “guarantee”. It would be like buying a razor which doesn’t work properly and when you complain – the razor company offer you a lifetime supply of razors which also do not work. That’s no kind of guarantee. BEWARE OF THESE GUARANTEES – they are extremely common and often provided by people who charge a LOT OF MONEY.

It should be someone who used to smoke and practises the method they themselves used. They will empathise with your smoking history, your previous attempts to quit smoking, and lead you gently along the path that they themselves walked towards freedom.

It should be someone who is successful enough at what they do – to charge based on their results. Anyone can charge you a lot of money and fail to help you stop smoking. Only a very special stop smoking counsellor, hypnotherapist, or therapist promises to cure you of smoking – and if they fail – agrees that they will repay your fee in full. If free of charge sessions are part of the guarantee – that is fine – as long as the guarantee includes GETTING YOUR MONEY BACK IF THEY DON’T WORK! You can afford to pay a little more – if the results are guaranteed.

If possible it should be someone who is recommended by friends or people who are happy non-smokers. There is nothing better than personal recommendation whatever you are paying for. If a stop smoking therapist comes recommended by friends or friends of friends who used the therapist to stop smoking successfully – it’s a no-brainer.

If possible it should be someone who is recommended by celebrities. OK – so not all of us can afford celebrity prices – but if you know of celebrities who have quit smoking using a particular therapist – you should make enquiries. Celebs often pay far more for their treatment because they prefer a private, one to one session. You may find that group sessions with the same therapist/counsellor are far more affordable and equally effective. You’ll still get the ROCKSTAR result.

You probably think that the above checklist is too tough and that it is too far-fetched to imagine that you could find any stop smoking therapist or stop smoking counsellor or stop smoking hypnotherapist who ticks all the right boxes. You might be surprised to know – that every single Allen Carr’s Easyway Therapist, in every single Allen Carr’s Easyway Clinic in the world – ticks every single one of those boxes. How about that?

The great news for smokers is that there is an easy way to quit smoking. In the UK Allen Carr’s Easyway has clinics in London, Reading, Staines, Bournemouth, Brighton, Birmingham, Southampton, Maidstone, High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Manchester, Lancashire, Nottingham, Derby, Coventry, Leicester, Milton Keynes. Newcastle, Stoke, Crewe, Bristol, Cardiff, Belfast, Glasgow, and Scotland. It doesn’t have to be hard to stop smoking – you just have to become a happy non-smoker rather than someone who thinks they have given up something. Allen Carr’s Easyway can show you how.

I would like to thank Emre Ustunucar at Allen Carr’s Easyway Turkey for providing the inspiration for this blog item. THANK YOU EMRE 😉