Frequently Asked Questions

Will I be put to sleep?

Hypnosis is not sleep and does not involve losing consciousness. You are still very much in touch with your surroundings and will not at any time lose control – if anything, hypnotherapy heightens self control. Hypnotherapy cannot make you do anything against your will. You stay in control of your mind and are entirely free to think your own thoughts during the treatment.

How does it work?

Whilst you are in the relaxed hypnotic state you will be aware of what is happening. In this state your subconscious mind is open to suggestion to allow changes to your behaviour. You will be told how bad smoking is for your health, how much it is costing you, etc. These are things that you consciously already know, but because you are in hypnosis the information will go direct into your inner mind to help you become a non-smoker

If I stop smoking, will I put on weight?

Those people who stop smoking using willpower or nicotine replacement products often transfer the satisfaction they had from the smoking to something else. This may be to extra food, which will result in a corresponding weight gain. However using the Austin Technique the satisfaction of the smoking is transferred to something that is more beneficial to you, to allow you to have a change of attitude towards the cigarettes or cigars but without the weight gain.

What makes The Austin Technique different?

Many hypnotherapists only use suggestion hypnosis to help their clients stop smoking. However experience has shown that suggestion therapy, by itself, does not have the high success rate achieved by the Austin Technique. The Austin Technique use a combination of suggestion therapy, parts therapy, and positive visualisation.

How come different therapies have different success rates in tackling Phobias?

Some forms of therapy attempt to ‘get around’ the phobia, or make the sufferer feel better about ‘living with it’. Others try to understand intellectually what may be causing it. Advanced Hypnotherapy and NLP techniques can find the cause , and when they do, the phobia disapears – because there is nothing driving it anymore.