Other methods, such as NLP and hypnosis, focus primarily on the unconscious mind. These methods are very effective at removing unconscious cravings, but, of course, they don’t remove the conscious motivation to smoke. And so, after hypnosis one can still decide to smoke, if that is what one wants to do.

The MINDCODE method is different from other methods. We work with both levels of mind, by combining the best of both approaches, to make your transition to a freer healthier lifestyle as easy as possible!

Firstly, the pieces of the smoking puzzle are revealed to your conscious mind, assisting you in changing your conscious perception of smoking, so that you are able to see smoking the way that a non-smoker does. The goal is to change your beliefs about smoking and increase your conscious motivation to stop smoking, so that you WANT to remain a non-smoker for life.

Secondly, we communicate with your unconscious mind. Using advanced NLP and hypnosis techniques that have been selectively designed, based on years of experience, to assist in making stopping smoking as easy as possible for you. We appeal to the unconscious mind’s prime directive, which is guarding your health and survival, to cease the smoking habit and adopt a healthier way of living.

Lastly, we practice a breathing technique. Unfortunately, most smokers that stop smoking experience a 3-day nicotine detox. The effect of the detox can include a sensation of anxiety. Fortunately, with the assistance of the unconscious mind, the detox effect can be completely overridden, or at the very least drastically reduced. And the breathwork assists in alleviating anxiety, within a few breaths.

Following the session, if you are not finding it as easy as you think it should be, you have telephonic support for a period of 7 days. This is to ensure that you do successfully make it through the detox period without smoking.

The stages that were identified are (1) Pre-contemplation – Not thinking about change (2) Contemplation – Thinking about change (3) Preparation – Planning the change (4) Action – Making the change (5) Maintenance – Keeping the change.

The behavioural scientists found that those that complete each stage in a more thorough way are more successful at maintaining the change than those who don’t.

When one fails to maintain the change in their lifestyle a relapse takes them back to an earlier stage. It will either take them back to pre-contemplation, where they just go back into the old behaviour and back into denial. Or it takes them back to contemplation, where they learn from the relapse.

And this cycling through the stages continues until decisional balance is finally achieved. Decisional balance simply means weighing up the cost of making the change versus the cost of not making the change.

So if a person is stopping taking a drug like cocaine, for instance, the cost of making the change might be that they will no longer enjoy the cocaine high and no longer see their cocaine-taking friends. But if they don’t give that up it will cost them their job and their marriage, or whatever it might be for that person.

Simply put, for someone to stop smoking permanently the cost of continuing to smoke must, at least in their own mind, outweigh the cost of stopping smoking. And similarly, the benefits of stopping smoking must outweigh the benefits of continuing to smoke.

When decisional balance is weighed in favour of stopping smoking the whole process of stopping smoking becomes a lot easier. Methods such as NLP and hypnosis have an affect on only the fifth stage, which involves the unconscious work of forming a new habit. They don’t affect the first four stages, that involve the conscious work of achieving decisional balance and convincing oneself that the change is something they want to do.

The MINDCODE method affects all five stages and is designed to assist you to achieve your decisional balance in favour of stopping smoking and staying stopped.