For hypnotist Mikaela Tingirides the lead up to the smoking ban on January 1 promises to be a busy tim
FOUR years ago I gave up smoking. It was my third attempt and this time I was determined to kick the habit. I didn’t care if it made me irritable, changed my personality or made me put on weight. I’d developed chronic bronchitis and was fed up racing for the smoker’s lounge at airports. This was it: I was going to quit.
And quit I did. Somewhere inside my head I found the magic switch. The magic switch in the subconscious that tells the conscious mind you’re no longer a smoker and no longer want to be a smoker. In fact you’re now a happy non-smoker.
Thing is I’d have preferred if it had been a bit easier and had involved a few less psychological side effects.
Then I met Mikaela Tingirides who told it me could have been much easier if I’d only tried hypnotherapy.
Yeah right, I scoffed. Isn’t hypnotherapy tantamount to hocus pocus? And even if it’s not, how do I know that when I’m ‘under’, or whatever the term used by hypnotherapists is, I’m not made to do something crazy like strip?
“Nooooooooo,” said Tingirides, 32, who is quick to set my mind at ease.
“Hypnotherapy is a deep relaxation. It’s safe and is a natural state, somewhere between a waking state and a sleeping state. A lot of people are scared because of stage hypnotism because it shows people losing control. That’s not hypnotherapy,” she said.
I find myself staring at her blankly. With her curly, dark hair, full lips and a glimpse of a tattoo visible through her top and another one on her foot, she’s the perfect pinup for quirky Aquarians. Can I trust this person? If I were a smoker would I really want to employ her services? Is she one of these charlatans you hear about?
Five minutes into our conversation and I not only feel safe but part of me wishes I still smoked so that I could give this hypnotherapy business a go. I feel very relaxed and comfortable. You can tell her almost anything and you feel she won’t judge you.
She said: “As an ex-smoker myself, I can sympathise with the person who wants to quit on a conscious level, but is fighting some deep-rooted beliefs. Despite all their attempts they find themselves lighting up again. ‘Just one last one’ or ‘when I finish this pack’ and so on.”
Tingirides said that while many people thought smoking was a physical addiction the greater habit to break was the mental addiction.
“Habit is far stronger when it comes to smoking. It’s this mental craving for cigarette smoking which has to be addressed,” she said.
Relying on willpower alone to kick the habit often proved too difficult for people, she said.
“All you need to do is to make the decision to stop smoking but when you give something up you often feel deprived. If you experience a stressful day you may wonder why you quit since you enjoyed it. At such stressful moments our subconscious and conscious minds are at loggerheads and your resolve may weaken,” she said.
Hypnosis worked because it worked on your subconscious mind and altered the way it managed habits, desires and cravings.
“Hence after a stressful day you will think to yourself ‘Wow that was a hard day. I’m glad I have more energy since stopping smoking to deal with the stress more effectively’,” she said.
Hypnotherapy “reprogrammed” how smokers felt about smoking so that they no longer felt as if they were “giving something up”, she added.
“There is no inner conflict, hence no desires or cravings. You don’t feel you’ve given up or lost something. Instead you feel positive, a happy non-smoker, and appreciate how your fitness has improved, how good things taste and smell now that your senses are no longer being damaged by the chemicals you used to inhale. You will notice how your breathing becomes easier and how much more energy you have gained as each day passes,” she said.
Tingirides said her smoking cessation programme involved two sessions of around 90 minutes each. The first session was preparatory where both she and the client looked at why they smoke, what they like about it, the benefits of becoming a non-smoker and why they want to stop. She also answers all questions a client might have, including concerns and reservations.
“I discuss the hypnotic state so the client feels comfortable with how it works and we discuss it together. Taking this information I tailor a personalised cessation programme to help the smoker give up with great ease and most importantly to prevent him or her from smoking again,” she said.
She said in a hypnotic trance the mind was like a sponge and open to suggestions and heightened inner focus.
“We experience this natural state several times each day: when driving a car on the motorway, watching a football match or a film on TV or reading a novel. Even passing into ordinary sleep is a type of trance state. The experience of hypnosis is similar: neither asleep nor awake, rather like daydreaming, with a pleasant feeling of deep relaxation.”
But what is it like? Will I lose control and do something I don’t want to do in this creepy sounding trance?
“First of all it’s not creepy. It’s a very relaxed state and always described as a pleasant experience. Second of all, you are always in control. You will hear everything which is being said, but do not need to listen. Everything you wish to take on board you will. You will not accept anything the mind doesn’t want to accept.”
She added: “It’s like having a driving lesson. You’re in control of the wheel and you’ve got an instructor next to you. If he tells you to drive off a cliff you’re not going to are you? It’s the same with hypnotherapy. The therapist guides you to the suggestible state to accept the suggestions you’ve discussed together.”
Tingirides said hypnosis did not interfere with your freedom of choice.
“If you want to start smoking again you can. It’s like when you go on a diet and lose weight. The diet works. If you decide to start eating all the wrong things again and put on weight, it doesn’t mean the diet didn’t work. It was your choice to eat the things that made you put on weight, just like it’s your choice to start smoking again.”
She explained that although most people managed to quit smoking after hypnotherapy, some made the deliberate choice to start again.
“I had one client that quit smoking through hypnotherapy six years ago and then decided to start again. He told me he was going through a self-destructive phase and just didn’t care. He came back to me and said this time he wouldn’t make the stupid mistake again and he hasn’t,” she said.
Tingirides said everyone could be hypnotised as long as they wanted to be.
“Nobody can ever be hypnotised against their will and, even when hypnotised, people can still reject any of the suggestions given if they are not appropriate.”
She said another benefit to hypnotherapy for stopping smoking was that you didn’t feel the need to substitute it with anything else because you were simply a non-smoker as opposed to an ex-smoker, hence it was a non-issue.
“It doesn’t change your personality in any way either. If someone comes to me it usually means they are not 100 per cent sure they want to stop but they are thinking about it and have their reasons and want some support and guidance. A skilled hypnotherapist will guide them through the session and reinforce their decision to quit so that at the end of the session they become someone for whom smoking is a thing of the past,” said Tingirides.
In the past week alone six people had come to her looking for help for stopping smoking.
“It’s because of the smoking ban
coming into force on January 1. A lot of people want to stop from now. Others have said they’ll quit at the start of the New Year. These are people who have always wanted to quit and now, in light of the ban, have made up their minds. But the thing is it’s not easy to do alone. So many have tried and failed before and can’t do it without support. All they need to do is make up their mind and make the first call,” she said.
Mikaela Tingirides has a BSc (Hons) Psychology, DHYP, CPMET, MBSCH, CPAMT. She is a Registered Clinical Hypnotherapist and Certified Practitioner of Meridien Energy Therapies – EFT.
For appointments contact 22-767776
