Hypnosis for Smoking Cessation. A book by David Botsford

Contents of "Hypnosis for Smoking Cessation: An NLP and Hypnotherapy Practitioner's Manual" by David Botsford, Crown House Publishing, Bancyfelin, 2007 (x + 267 pages + 67 pages on CD-ROM; ISBN 978-184590074-8)
Acknowledgements		iii
Introduction: The hypnotherapist and the smoking habit		v
Chapters
1	The elements of transformation	1
2	The nature and function of trance	5
3	Fundamentals for success in smoking cessation	11
4	Preparing for the session	29
5	Starting the main smoking cessation session	43
6	Educating the client to gain control	67
7	The trance induction and after	93
8	A self-hypnosis CD for your clients	131
9	The follow-up session	137
10	A checklist for one-to-one smoking cessation	159
11	Various tips for one-to-one smoking cessation	165
12	Building a one-to-one therapy practice	171
13	Running a group smoking cessation event	181
14	Smoking cessation for the corporate market	221
15	A parting message: Life's journey	245
Appendices
1	Workplace smoking and the law	249
2	Benefits of smoking cessation seminars to organisations	251
3	The use of music for relaxation	253
4	Suggestions for further reading	265
Endnotes		261
Index		265
Accompanying CD-ROM
1	Client handout, short form
2	Client handout, long form
3	Complete transcripts of two actual sessions (four clients in all)

This book should be beneficial to all hypnotherapists and NLP practitioners, not just to help them to assist clients who wish to stop smoking but in all aspects of their practice. It is written in simple, everyday language and is full of sensible, practical advice, including hand-outs which can be copied and given to clients and a CD which can be played during the stop-smoking therapy session to further assist clients to achieve their aim. The author is obviously very experienced in the art of hypnosis and NLP and appears to have great success in helping smokers to give up the
habit.

Whether you are a newly-trained hypnotherapist, or a seasoned practitioner who has conducted smoking cessation programs for years, Hypnosis for Smoking Cessation, by David Botsford, has something for you. This book is the comprehensive manual for practitioners who want to become expert at helping people stop smoking and remain smoke-free.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are approximately 50,000 smokers in the U.S. alone. For every smoker who quits, another person is lighting up for the first time. Hypnosis has been shown to be more effective than many other smoking cessation methods such as nicotine gum or the nicotine patch. Smokers represent a lucrative market for practitioners, and smoking cessation can be a worthwhile skill.

Botsford gives the nuts and bolts on the clinical side as well as the business side. Following the advice of Milton Erickson, he encourages readers to tailor the hypnosis experience for every client; to utilize the client's achievements and successes as anchors for resourceful states, and to call on the client's values, beliefs, and spiritual development as motivating factors for quitting.

He shows how to enhance the client's resolve. He asks the client to see himself as a non-smoker and intensifies the submodalities of the image to make it compelling. He aligns his suggestions with the client's model of the world, having each client choose meaningful symbols, metaphors, words and images that can be woven into the hypnotic session. Botsford provides transcripts of his sessions as examples that tell readers exactly what he says and how he says it.

The book discusses several therapeutic strategies for working with smokers, such as reframing the need to smoke, educating the client about the effects of nicotine, utilizing the client's previous successes in quitting, eliciting the client's smoking strategy, asking about how the client finds ways to relax or meditate, and clearly establishing the client's outcome. Then Botsford demonstrates how all these aspects are covered in hypnosis to convince the client to stop smoking.

He devotes an entire chapter to teaching the client self-hypnosis as a means to control urges and to prevent relapse, minimize weight gain, and cope with stress. He also teaches his clients how to anchor a positive, resourceful state, in relation to the satisfaction of being a non-smoker.

For practitioners who work one-on-one in smoking cessation, Chapter 7 is the highlight of the book. This chapter contains a transcript of a complete hypnotherapy session. The approach combines Ericksonian utilization (via revivification of resourceful memories) and direct suggestions. It covers
various methods of induction, as well as how to bring about a learning set, suggestions for forgetting about the need to smoke, deepening, methods to promote abstinence, ego-strengthening, future pacing, and reorientation- even what to say and do after the hypnosis is done. What I found particularly useful is the information on how to help the client prevent relapse.

The author addresses the managerial aspects of a smoking cessation practice: how to set the fee, structure the client-therapist relationship, explain hypnosis to the client, develop a therapeutic communication style, respond to phone inquiries, book appointments, schedule the work day, -- even how to dress in a professional manner. The CD that accompanies the book contains pdf files that the reader can print and begin using in his or her practice immediately.

As a bonus, hypnotherapists working with groups and in corporate smoking cessation programs will find much value in Botsford's description of a complete corporate training seminar-how to market, conduct, and evaluate the seminar.

I like this book for its specificity, and also for the flexibility it gives to the reader in adapting the instructions to one's own way of doing business and practicing hypnotherapy. The tips, scripts, and checklists are very helpful and instructive. The approach is practical and marketable. Even as a hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner who has conducted smoking cessation for over twenty years, I still learned many things that are new and worthwhile from this book. I give it a five star recommendation!

Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D., Counselor, hypnotherapist, and NLP Trainer/Practitioner, Executive Director for the National Board of Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists and author of The Weight, Hypnotherapy, and You Weight Reduction Program

This is the most comprehensive, all-inclusive book on smoking cessation that I have ever read.

Encompassing Ericksonian therapy, NLP, cognitive therapy and much more, David Botsford takes the reader through a wide-ranging outline of the entire process involved, even to after-session situations to keep the client a non-smoker. Replete with helpful suggestions and tips for success this manual shows the practitioner how to build a profitable smoking cessation programme.

Included with the book is a CD containing transcripts of two actual sessions as well as client handouts.

This is essential reading for anyone involved, or wishing to start, smoking cessation therapy whether with individuals or groups. A highly recommended book.

David Botsford has written a book that like many others has a lot of useful information in it, but it is outstanding and unique for two actual reasons: 1) it is the first time (and I have read hundreds of books) that I encounter a so live, personal account of a professional growth of a practitioner, including his difficulties and plans to 'survive'; 2) the part about marketing is extremely good.

I don't think that it is enough clear what I have said. Thus I will be more clear. From page 171: "nearly 85% of people who train in hypnotherapy in UK go out of business within twelve months" (only a 15% survives). Well, Botsford gives what is needed to stay within that 15%. Point.

When I first came across this book, I was immediately sceptical - with the UK still adjusting to the public smoking ban and a number of other books on smoking already on the market, I wasn't sure there was room for another. However, this book, aimed at practitioners and written by a Hypnotherapist who specialises in smoking cessation, quickly captured my attention.

Starting with the basics of trance, the book covers every conceivable aspect of smoking cessation; from home visits to corporate seminars, satisfaction guarantees to self-hypnosis, marketing to marijuana, this book attempts to be the definitive practitioner manual on the subject. And a very good job it does too.

The author's central message is that it is not enough to simply hypnotise a client and give them suggestions to become a non-smoker; rather, the hypnotherapist must also equip the client to deal with situations they might face in the future.

In this quest, the author draws from a diverse spectrum of techniques - from Ericksonian Hypnotherapy, NLP, Stress Management and Cognitive Therapy to Yoga and the Hawaiian Kahuna. At times humorous, at times prescriptive, the book reflects the author's belief that success in Hypnotherapy depends on getting every detail right.

By the end, there is no doubt as to the author's approach, and the checklist chapter allows the reader to emulate it exactly. I was left feeling as if I had actually spent time observing the author in practice.

This book will appeal to a wide audience. Newly qualified practitioners will appreciate the detailed explanations and transcripts, which not only explain how a smoking cessation session should be structured, but also the reasons why. Practitioners who find comfort in scripts will find this book a real treasure trove of material. Experienced practitioners will enjoy dipping in from time to time to refresh their minds on the things that can make or break a session, and the opportunity to see another practitioner in action.

Rob Woodgate
Editor, The Hypnotherapy Journal (published by the National Council for Hypnotherapy)

David Botsford has produced a wonderfully honest and frank dissection of his approach to helping clients stop smoking that is as eclectic in its sources as it is in its appeal to hypnotherapists from all backgrounds. This book and its accompanying cd can be seen as a 'complete kit' for those therapists and students of hypnotherapy wishing to expand upon their knowledge, understanding and skills when working with smoking cessation as David covers every aspect of his approach by offering sound advice ranging from the personal preparation of the therapist through to working in the corporate arena. This excellent book should be welcomed with open arms.

Peter Mabbutt FBSCH, FBAMH, Director of Studies, London College of Clinical Hypnosis

David Botsford's Practitioner's Manual for smoking cessation is comprehensive, including a blend of NLP and hypnotherapy. His scripts combine both direct and indirect suggestions, although the therapist may wish to edit them to suit the client. Also included are some good ideas for group and corporate sessions.

Roy Hunter, M.S., FAPHP
Author of Hypnosis for Inner Conflict Resolution: Introducing Parts Therapy

It was with a certain amount of scepticism that I received the above book to review. We are in the age of smoking legislation and many books are appearing on bookshop shelves announcing that they can help the reader quit the habit once and for all. Their quality varies from moderate to pulp material. And here, through the post, came another one - a heavy tome at that.

I need not have worried. This book is written by an expert in the field, a passionate exponent of hypnotherapy and associated therapies. It is written with deep understanding and thorough knowledge and is an immensely readable book.

The author, a Harley Street Hypnotherapist, provides the reader with an extensive overview of the whole process of helping someone stop smoking. The most valuable insights that this book offers is in the development of how such therapy is essentially individual. Although we have great detail on how to approach the client during the actual therapeutic session, there is excellent material which shows the therapist how s/he needs to prepare individually for every single client. It is by no means sufficient to just be aware of how to enable the client to quit during the session, but there is much to do to prepare before the session and for follow up too.

I feel that this book honestly deals with basically every possible situation that can arise in stop smoking sessions and highlights how we need to approach a client at each stage of the proceedings from the initial contact right through until after the session.

The question and answer sessions and also therapy scripts are excellent. Indeed I have introduced some of the material into my own work and have been impressed by the results. The whole experience has become a more "rounded" one where clients have felt a deep sense of involvement and understanding at every step.

For the practitioner there will be many areas which have already been considered by them before BUT I feel that here the importance is that there is reinforcement and even development of ideas and thoughts and feelings. We all need to be open to change and varying our approaches in the view of new material that is described to us. David Botsford embraces not only Hypnotherapy and NLP but also other techniques from cognitive therapy, yoga and also stress management. It widens the variety of tools e have available within the therapeutic toolbox so that we can ensure that the client receives the fullest and most positive help it is possible to give. Indeed the word POSITIVE underpins every step of the process.

A section has also been included which endeavours to provide a practical outline of how to plan and develop your hypnotherapy smoking cessation service economically but effectively. Unusual to find this in a book and, I found, of great use and interest.

David Botsford has written a book here which is of superbly high standard. He challenges us to see the smoking issue against a wider backcloth and to see that our own work extends outside the actual session of hypnotherapy, something that may have been taken for granted by some.

The whole work is insightful and is one of the most valuable reference manuals that I have ever come across. Everything is very clearly explained. I actually enjoyed reading it and celebrated the fact that this was written in clear English and not masses of scientific jargon. It is a most useful book and I see this being essential reading and reference material for every practising therapist. The book is designed to familiarise the therapist with the skills and approaches necessary to work in an effective and efficient way. There is something in it for everyone, the young, starting therapist to the more widely experienced. It stimulates thought and makes one examine ones own work. I feel we all have the potential to learn something from this excellent book

I would say that I feel this is an essential addition to the bookshelf of every Hypnotherapist. However, on further thought, I feel that it will be so useful a reference source that it will seldom be on the shelf but will merit constant use.I feel that this will soon be regarded as the best book available in this field. It certainly deserves to be given this distinction.
I recommend it to you.

David Slater, BA, DHyp, MHA, DSC, MGSCT
Clinical Hypnotherapist and Counsellor

This book promotes 'go the extra mile' and in reading this book you will be well over half way there! The rest of the journey is up to you and the book even helps you with that!

From individuals to groups - to corporate training - this book provides the whole 'smoking cessation' experience, puff by puff, thought by thought.

There are bags of suggestions, pages of 'what if ...' answers and as many inspiring induction's as there are brands of cigarettes! There is even a 55 point check list for the therapy session and a tips for success list.

The Manual makes fabulous use of metaphors to demonstrate the smoking habit and the creation of a new habit of non smoking. It applies logic to an illogical behaviour and if you ever doubted NLP and Hypnotherapy for smoking cessation then you simply have to read this book!

Tom Barber - Principal Tutor, Contemporary College of Therapeutic Studies.

I think this is a fantastic book, written in a frank, easy to read manner. It has been presented as an honest approach to help clients to stop smoking. David has correctly identified that success with clients largely depends on "getting it right at every stage in the session". His book is filled with valuable information, like tips on preparing for the session, word for word trance inductions, how to educate the client to gain control and several useful hypnotic techniques.

The author has obviously devoted much time to research, and has even elicited strategies from NLP to ensure client success. In my clinical practice as a Hypnotherapist for over 35 years, I have realised that it is not only important to use such strategies and to get the details right, but also to know about marketing skills and techniques. The book gives valuable suggestions in building these skills, both for a "One to one practice" and also for the corporate market. His step by step guide includes funding, designing & preparing corporate seminars.

I Would highly reference manual for the beginner and the seasoned therapist, as it contains valuable information for both to help their clients succeed with their sessions. Moreover the accompanying CD gives it the final touch making it a necessary and useful kit for every Hypnotherapist.

A well set out and easy to follow format. David clearly covers the personal as well as the corporate market and how to approach each as clients. He has recognised the combination of situations and events in which people find themselves drawn / driven to smoke and how to bring these unconscious drives into consciousness. I particularly liked the way in which David recognises the pitfalls which can occur and explains how to circumvent them. His "ticklists" and charts are of great benefit as a guide to asking the right questions from your client. Having the CD is an added bonus.

What an excellent book. Every aspect of helping a client to stop smoking is covered in an intelligent and insightful way, and there is the bonus of the accompanying CD. The best book I have come across on this subject.

In one volume, David Botsford has managed to supply everything the practitioner should need to get started on a successful career helping clients to stop smoking. It is an easy and enjoyable read, written in a friendly style by someone who knows what he is talking about.

Even the experienced therapist will gain a lot from this book and find enough to hone their skills in this area. The methods seem to have been tried and tested and work well for David and there is no reason why they would not work well for anyone as you are led easily through the process from beginning to end.

As a professional therapist and trainer I found David's book to be a valuable addition to a therapists library. I feel that this supersedes all previous offerings on smoking cessation and will become the definitive text on the subject. As with all David's work it is well researched and presented logically. I have now added this book to my students study book list.

Hypnosis for smoking cessation: an nlp and hypnotherapy practitioner’s manual.

I had this book sitting on the shelf for quite a while, always with the nagging feeling that I did not want to get into it. Why? Because I am a lazy, lazy man. Yes, but I surmised eventually that actually my procrastination had sprung from not wanting to put in the effort of shifting my frame of thinking. I have, after all, been practicing successful smoking cessation using NLP and Hypnosis (in my South Manchester practices) for years. All very well for the newcomers to the hypnotherapy profession of course, but I did not need to read this or have time to mess with my paradigm, (what with the writing, my practices and other businesses.) How wrong I was, for the established professional and newcomer alike this book is required reading. Crown House has brought out a line of books (that can be identified by their plain white cover and colourful writing) that offer the definitive word in treating various popular problems that the therapist will face in their practice. So in addition to Weight, Hypnotherapy and You and Treating Stress and Anxiety, Hypnosis for Smoking Cessation makes up the three most popular complaints that a client is likely to present with. As I read the book I found it easy to put aside my own way of treating smoking and was if a newcomer to the subject, I would like to boast that this was a feat of objectivity through the application of my own will but I cannot. The book is written in such a way that, although it was not my initial intention at all, I was happy to throw away my old way of working in this area, I had avoided getting into the book initially out of laziness but the path to true ease in my practice (of what is the number one presentation in hypnotherapy), lay in opening the book and allowing my old protocol to fall away. Why had I made it so complicated in the past? Since qualifying I had been adding to the authoritarian direct –suggestion script I had inherited and that I knew to be less than sufficient. There are many books out there on smoking cessation – I know because I’ve got a lot of them and had tried to take everything of value from each as none I found had explained everything. This actually led me to comprise an unwieldy, complicated and lengthy protocol – let this stand as a cautionary tale to the newcomer.

But now here was a way of working that streamlined everything and so simple that I was looking forward to seeing my next smoking cessation client. David Botsford seems to know how to walk the fine line between preparing you for every situation and leaving no eventuality un-discussed yet providing simple, and only in retrospect, very obvious and logical solutions. He espouses a very content-free approach in as much as the therapist is not asked or expected to take a big life history, any issues are explored and very quickly dealt with as you stream through the process. For example if a client has in the past successfully stopped smoking for over two weeks, a certain ‘module’ is indicated in the ‘script’. If not then that’s another path, but after that modular diversion you return to the core process so no matter what it is dealt with and you continue. Another example, and this is more common than I thought it would be, how do you address the client who smokes cannabis and wants to quit that too, and what about a client who wants to quit tobacco but not cannabis? In the past I my have been tangentially thrown by this into a lengthy discussion that swallowed maybe half a session, but now these are just quick things – then back to the core work. And so in this way each client is not labelled or classified but can very easily be guided through the process as and when these points come up. Each client can be streamed through the process in a way that is still appropriate for him or her but very easy for the therapist. Each revelation as it comes is so easily remembered, the author takes us through every aspect, some things I had not even considered let alone got any answer to. What colour suit shall I wear? How can I dramatically drop the no-show rate? What will increase the likelihood of an answer to a speculative letter? Should I use one / two sessions? Should I offer a guarantee or back up session? Should I give out a CD?

After reading the book, I expect the success of my practice in this area to increase of course, but even more so I am looking forward to continuing to enjoy the decrease in the time and effort expended on each case that has been my experience since adopting Botsford’s method. The method is clear, everything is scripted, a ‘free’ CD is attached full of transcripts, there are checklists too, scripts for follow ups and recidivists.

Whether it be for a car, a home, a job, a shirt, at a certain point in every search (and for me particularly with respect to a smoking cessation method) one has to move away from the ideal of the ‘perfect buy’ that comprises everything, as one eventually off-sets the search costs against the choice of an effective and pragmatic product. For the newcomer now those variables have been all but taken out of the equation and for the established professional this may mark the end of long search.

Not only in smoking cessation have I found the value of this book, to be higher than it’s nominal cost. Picking up the larger frames from Botsford’s technique has taught me, or reminded me of, a lot; - the use of utilisation and validation at every point of the client’s experience, the way one acts on the phone, before meeting, in the waiting room, when making a home visit etc. I believe those not familiar with Erickson or with NLP would receive a degree of de-facto training, in proxy, as the higher frames of these approaches effortlessly permeate every chapter of the book.

"THE CLIENT who visits a hypnotherapist to stop smoking is not coming to be hypnotised. The client is coming in order to become a non-smoker. The hypnotherapist's goal is to communicate in whatever way it takes to ensure that the client both becomes a non-smoker and knows how to stay one permanently. ... Hypnotic trance is an extraordinarily powerful means of bringing about the transformation which enables a person to stop smoking. Yet the hypnotherapist must actively work to optimise all the elements which influence the client, not knowing exactly when that breakthrough will take place:'

With these words, the author makes it clear that this is no scripted manual and that, as in the human givens approach, therapists must make use of everything at their disposal. Botsford, for instance, likes to strengthen the power of expectation by getting new clients to fill in, at the start of the session, a form which asks matter-of-factly, for "Name of non-smoker" and

"Address", three benefits of having stopped smoking and the amount of money saved per week, month and year. First of all, he gets them to sit behind his desk, to show them that they are the experts in this process, not the therapist. "This insight on the client's part that the expertise rests entirely within them is the first tremor of the earthquake which begins the session. The full earthquake takes place when the client sees the form." By putting their name next to the word 'non-smoker', even if perplexed to do it, the scept-icism or cynicism that many clients bring to the session is undermined or eliminated, he says, and they become active collaborators in the therapeutic process.

Botsford makes a point of telling clients that will-power doesn't come into stopping smoking. The aim, instead, is to enable the unconscious mind to carry out a process of learning that takes them into a future where they have ceased to have any interest in cigarettes, much as young children are delighted by wobbly, coloured jellies but then, as they grow older, simply lose interest in them. There is no will-power involved in resisting jellies. It is just that any interest in jellies has been left in the past.

Many useful ideas are offered for breaking through smokers' precious beliefs - for instance that they need to smoke in order to focus their attention. He shows them instead how to focus attention on a task by creating a mental spotlight around it. Because "smoker's logic" - the tendency of the unconscious mind to use any rationalisation, however, ludicrous, to justify continuing with the habit, despite a conscious desire to stop - is so powerful, he recommends that direct as well as more indirect Ericksonian-style hypnotic suggestions need to be used. Clients must be clear that they are to stop smoking and stay stopped, with no possibility of misinterpretation.

The advice in the book is extremely detailed and the examples of what Botsford says to clients in trance (these are copious) are very often inspiring. He starts by looking at the fundamentals for success, then focuses on how to influence clients before they have even arrived for a session. He then spends over 100 pages covering suggested content for first and follow up sessions, including dealing with relapses or some clients' belief that they still want to smoke and feel no different at the session end. Finally, there is practical guidance on the differing requirements for running smoking cessation sessions for individuals, groups or the corporate market. This book is definitely full of riches that can be taken away and applied or adapted and also comes with its own CD, containing transcripts from two real-life sessions.