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Is NLP an effective way to stop smoking?

Usually Hypnosis is considered the first approach to smoking cessation, and in many ways hypnosis is a good approach. Smoking cessation can be a complex issue, and while NLP may provide a quick and effective solution, for some people the slow more considered approach may be a better one. Also its worth bearing in mind the value of someone whom you pay every week until you quit!

Compared to Hypnosis, NLP is better suited to dealing with very specific issues, but this doesn't mean that there are no good NLP stop smoking techniques.

So which NLP techniques are appropriate to quitting smoking?

In the companion article Stop Smoking with NLP, various NLP stop smoking techniques are used to cover the different areas that need addressing. These cover belief changing, changing habits using the swish pattern, and destroying the smoking compulsion with the compulsion blowout as expanded upon below.

Any well trained NLP Practitioner should be knowledgeable of these techniques and able to help if you wish to work with someone else, but there is no reason not to use these techniques yourself in the first instance.

How should I use the various NLP stop smoking techniques?

Beliefs are a good place to start - it's amazing how often someone is willing to pay someone to help them, but doesn't actually believe they can achieve the change necessary. Without the client believing that they will be successful there is a good chance that they will undo any change performer by an NLP practitioner. A client must believe that they can give up smoking for good. It also helps to believe that they can change quickly and easily.

The belief creator and belief disintegrator can be used to deal with beliefs.

Once beliefs have been dealt with, then it's a good idea to break those little smoking habits such as the usual times that someone lights up, or that habitual first cigarette of the day.

The NLP whiteout technique and swish pattern are both good approaches to changing such behaviors. You may also want to work on motivation to keep away from smoking. The article on using NLP for Motivation and related articles are worth checking out for information on this subject.

Finally it's worth using the NLP compulsion blowout to break the smoking habit completely.

As someone trained in hypnosis, I also usually use a hypnosis session in addition to the usual NLP stop smoking techniques, to plant a few hypnotic suggestions and ensure I cover all the bases as comprehensively as possible. It's also a nice way to give a client a convincer (if the practitioner can hypnotize the client then surely they can fix them), and ensure that the NLP work done is supported unconsciously going forward.

There are a couple of relevant articles on HypnoticPlanet.com related to smoking - these are: Hypnosis to quit smoking, and quit smoking through hypnosis, along with a hypnosis script to stop smoking.