What makes Allen Carr’s Easyway therapists so special?

It sounds dramatic doesn’t it? Yet that is exactly what drives former smokers, drinkers or drug takers who quit successfully with the method to apply to train as an Allen Carr practitioner.

Membership of the Association of Allen Carr facilitators International is more than just a qualification.

It’s difficult to describe the passion that drives people, already successful in their chosen field, to go through the arduous recruitment process and the rigorous training programme that leads to MAACTI accreditation. But “the spark” that ignites that passion, and the overwhelming gratitude that fuels it, is the sheer thrill of being set free from an addiction that was undoubtedly going to kill them. The thought of dedicating their lives to helping others benefit in the same way is compelling.

How do I know? It’s a path I’ve trodden myself and I’m deeply honoured to have shared it with the hundreds of “Top Gun” Allen Carr’s Easyway therapists that help people in more than 50 countries worldwide.

Sadly, Covid-19 has prevented us from meeting together since 2019, a wonderful group of people sharing a common objective; to cure the world of smoking. We hope to have an online get together in May — but nothing can take the place of meeting in person, sharing experiences and best-practises, and having a “rip-roaring” great party. I’ve missed them all terribly — a year simply doesn’t feel complete without having our international conference. They are more than just my colleagues— Roll on May 2023!

So, who are these people entrusted to help people escape from the trap?

Well, if you’re a smoker, drinker or drug taker you’ll discover that they’re just like you! Except they had the great fortune to escape from the trap. One of the greatest qualifications for being an Allen Carr’s Easyway Facilitator is found in the years and years of smoking, drinking or taking drugs, more importantly attempting to stop, entirely without success. Most used every method under the sun in their attempts to quit before discovering Allen Carr’s Easyway to Quit Smoking Live Group Seminars, to Quit Drinking Live Group Seminars or to Quit Drugs Live 1-2-1 Seminars.

Most of them did the same and were drawn to attend a live seminar because they knew there was something within the method that could help them. They realised that something simply hadn’t quite clicked for them yet. There is something exhilarating for clients attending the seminars in the knowledge that the facilitator that stands in front of them isn’t just someone who likes the sound of their own voice, instead…they’ve been there, seen it, and done it!

Added to their own experiences of attempting to quit the hard way, trying every conceivable method — they have undergone the most amazing process of training that enables them to embrace, guide, and lead people to freedom in a matter of hours.

There isn’t a question or concern a person might express that an Allen Carr’s Easyway Facilitator hasn’t experienced themselves and provided highly effective guidance on — a thousand times before.

There are stories of people, desperate for the method to work for them, that read the book dozens of times before finally getting the message to click. Their advice to a person who has read the book without success is, “Read the book again! Read it as many times as it takes”. It’s possibly the worst advice they can give someone in that position…the feeling of hopelessness, of some kind of never-ending journey is enough for some to simply give up trying to quit. In fact, as well-intentioned as the advice is, it almost guarantees the poor person’s failure.

I take my hat off to those who read the book a dozen times before it worked for them — but with respect I wouldn’t want them to coach another person to do the same.

Who would you wish to emulate? Someone that took years to bash a nail into a piece of wood with a toothpick or someone who achieved the same result in a matter of seconds with the skillful use of a hammer?

That’s the difference that discovering the live seminars makes. Attending a live seminar, especially for someone who has tried and failed to quit smoking many, many times, and even read the book without success, is like having your own personal guide who directs every step of your journey, who takes you on the safest route, an easy, one way journey to freedom.

So, what is it that makes an Allen Carr’s Easyway Facilitator so special? Well, they are without exception, extremely talented, determined, dynamic people. A tiny proportion of those who apply for training are successful in obtaining a place and only 10% of those succeed in completing the course and gaining the qualification. It is not an undertaking for the faint-hearted.

They are warm, kind, compassionate, and generous — they spend hours providing free of charge advice to book-readers, some of whom wilfully ignore the option of attending a live seminar.

Of course there are some who perhaps cannot afford a live seminar but many simply won’t afford it. They would rather attempt to bash a nail into a piece of wood with a toothpick than use the skilled application of the Allen Carr’s Easyway hammer!

We do have to charge for the live seminars but Allen Carr’s Easyway Facilitator Team do more than their fair share of pro bono work. One such example is the donation of $1.3M of services to the World Health Organisation to help medical workers, key workers, and frontline workers to quit smoking in dozens of countries across the globe.

As a global team we stood shoulder to shoulder in making this significant donation — matching donations from corporations such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Amazon Web Services, and Johnson & Johnson. I know that Allen would have been proud.

What an astonishing gift from the Allen Carr’s Easyway teams across the globe — the most extraordinary, exceptional, talented, and generous group of people — who I am proud to call my friends.

If you smoke, drink, or take drugs, please do use a hammer rather than a toothpick to hit that nail.

You can find out more about Allen Carr’s Easyway Live Group Seminars here.

You can read about Allen Carr’s Easyway, WhatsApp, Facebook, & Johnson & Johnson’s donations to the World Health Organisation here.

You can read about the help Allen Carr’s Easyway is providing to the World Health Organisation here.