Quit smoking
Extended one-off session
Natasha is in her late forties and had started smoking in her early twenties, when her father was dying. Natasha had been very close to her father. Her domineering mother, a smoker herself, had encouraged Natasha to start smoking to calm her nerves.
Generally, she smoked 10 to 15 cigarettes a day; more on social evenings.
Natasha had attempted to stop smoking on many previous occasions, and lasted weeks, months and, on one occasion, three years. She used nicotine patches and gum. But the patches would keep her off cigarettes until the end of the course; and the gum she became addicted to. In the past, whenever she had stopped smoking she missed it. It felt like a deprivation; and she maintained her identification as a smoker.
Stopping smoking was part of her aim to look after herself better and, instead of the imposition of cigarettes, to find her own rhythm.
The apparent desire to smoke is never truly a desire for a cigarette. All smokers smoke for the same reason: to anaesthetize the body against feelings the smoker doesn't want to experience. Every time these feelings come up, the smoker reaches for a cigarette – until these feelings become associated with smoking. The key to helping smokers to stop is to identify and resolve the underlying uncomfortable feeling which is mistaken for the desire to smoke. (See the section Stop smoking.)
A feeling in her solar plexus, associated with the desire to smoke, took Natasha back to the death of her father. As her father was dying her mother did not permit discussion with him about his condition or approaching death. This meant that Natasha did not have real conversations with her father, and always deeply regretted this.
Natasha needed greater courage during this period. We did EFT on this. Resolution of the issue required Natasha to have these desired conversations with her father. For this to happen, Natasha's mother needed to relinquish control.
In her imagination, Natasha stepped into the body of her mother and we helped the mother to relinquish control using EFT. Now Natasha was able to have the conversations with her father that she truly desired. She began these conversations, but felt this was an ongoing process.
Natasha still felt emotionally wobbly. Using muscle testing we learned that the spleen meridian required balancing. It was balanced using neuro-lymphatic and neuro-vascular reflex points.
Natasha now became very upset. She related how her mother had curtailed the grieving period for her father after just three weeks. Natasha from that point suppressed her grief. This grief was now coming to the surface.
We used Tapas Acupressure Techniques (TAT) as Natasha put her attention on all the feelings that were coming up.
It was clear that there was still quite a bit of processing to do, so we applied Eye Movement, Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). During each set of eye movements Natasha remembered details about her father's life and death, and realized that she needed to visit his grave more often and have the missing conversations with him.
Then Natasha was aware of the fury she held for her mother. We did EFT and the powerful feelings were dispelled.
The feelings in Natasha's solar plexus were now gone. After we returned to the present the desire to smoke was no longer there. We used EFT on the taste in her mouth and on the attraction of the cigarette packet. She also needed EFT on having the courage to do what's right for her, without cigarettes.
Now she was able to say, without any internal resistance, 'I am a non-smoker'; and she was looking forward to discovering her rhythm.
We ended up with 20 minutes of hypnosis, to call on her unconscious body to help her not to have any withdrawal symptoms; to help her body to heal quickly and thoroughly; and to help her to be free of any desire or temptation to smoke.