THOUSANDS of smokers across the country are hoping to transform this October into Stoptober by rising to a Government-backed challenge to go without cigarettes for 28 days.

Quitting is big business. From nicotine patches and gums to e-cigarettes and prescription medicines, an entire industry has been built around the fact that smoking is one of the toughest habits to kick.

But there is one stop-smoking method that sounds too good to be true.
With its promise of permanently curing nicotine addiction in one, quick and relaxing treatment - with no side effects – could hypnotherapy be the miracle that smokers have been waiting for?

“Miracle” is one of the first words out of ex-smoker Lorraine Geoghegan’s mouth, on the one-year anniversary of her session with Ealing hypnotist Robert Matthews.

If anyone was an unlikely candidate for hypnosis, it was 37-year-old Lorraine. Not only had she been smoking since she was 15, but this cynical patient did not even trust her therapist.

“I was quite scared of the idea of going down a back alley at dusk to be hypnotised by some guy,” she recalls.

Mr Matthews, who has practised hypnotherapy in Ealing and Harley Street for 14 years, led Lorraine through a series of visualisations during the one-hour £120 session.

“Even as I was sitting there, I didn’t expect it to work,” she says.

“Every now and then, a child would appear and I thought, ‘oh right, this one represents purity’.

"I felt it was a really basic form of manipulation – and I thought ‘I’m not that silly’. So I thought, ‘sod you, I’m going to smoke as soon as I leave here, just to spite you’.”

Despite Lorraine’s determination to resist, when she left Mr Matthews her desire to smoke had vanished. “I just went home and walked straight past the shop,” she said.

This shop – the cigarette shop on her route home  – had come to symbolise Lorraine’s internal battle with her addiction. “My feet used to carry me in while I was still telling myself don’t go in,” she recollects.

“Once I managed to walk past and was so happy that, to celebrate, I went back and bought a packet of cigarettes.”

Lorraine spent years in inner conflict over her habit. During attempts to quit, she became constantly aware of not smoking, envious of those who did and fearful of anything that might cause her to re-start.

A year later, it is hard to believe Lorraine was once so hopelessly controlled by her addiction. 

“I’ll still go outside with smokers, but I have no desire to smoke,” she says. “I’m not repelled by it or anything. Smoking just doesn’t enter my thoughts. I don’t even know how to explain it.”

To shed light on this apparent miracle, I turn to smoking charity ASH.

To my disappointment, Amanda Sandford, ASH’s research manager, explains there is no evidence to suggest that hypnosis is ultimately any more effective than going cold turkey.

Apparently, even the most effective programmes rarely achieve a long-term success rate of more than 30%.

I tell Amanda about Lorraine.

“Well, a lot of people report that they’ve stopped through hypnosis and that’s fine – if they manage to stop then that’s great, whatever the method,” she says. 

“The problem with hypnosis is that it’s highly likely they’ll relapse and then feel like a failure – they get dispirited about quitting, when actually most smokers take several attempts, anyway.”

Amanda’s warnings about relapse resonate in the experiences of other hypnosis patients I talk to who have not enjoyed the same success as Lorraine.

One woman who felt she was rid of cigarettes for good after hypnosis took up smoking again a few months later to cope with stress. 

And Lorraine tells me of her friend who lasted only six months smoke-free before returning to his hypnotist for more therapy. 

“It works great the first time, but not so well the second,” he ponders.

I put it to Claire Gaskell, 29, a West London hypnotist who has treated Ealing residents, that hypnosis appears to have only short-term success. 

To my surprise, she agrees.
“Hypnotherapy, on its own, will have limited success.  The key is to combine it with a psychological approach,” Claire explains.

Claire’s 75-minute sessions (£145 if booked during Stoptober) are divided into halves.

The first is what she calls the “talky bit”, where therapist and patient discuss motivations and belief systems.

Claire focuses her patients on being non-smokers, rather than ex-smokers, and sets out to show them the tangible benefits of life without cigarettes.

“They'll be healthier, fitter, slimmer, and more full of life,” she says.

This psychological approach is based on the Thrive psychology programme developed by author and therapist Rob Kelly, which claims an impressive 92.5% success rate.

“After that I get them on the coach,” Claire says.  “But the hypnosis is really just the cherry on the cake.” 

While there is scant scientific evidence to suggest that hypnosis, on its own, is enough to permanently combat smoking demons, for some smokers it seems to provide the antidote they have been searching for.

It remains to be seen whether Lorraine will smoke again. Now, on her one-year smoke-free anniversary, she couldn’t be happier. “It feels like absolute freedom” she beams.

“Plus, if I start smoking again I’ll just go back for more hypnosis – it’s still cheaper than a lifetime of cigarettes.”