Smoking Cessation
Affirmative Alternatives can help you kick the cigarette habit in just one session! No matter how much you smoke, or how many years you have smoked, the most important ingredient for success is your desire to stop.
Smokers are at enormous risk - in more ways than one!
You've probably been concerned about the very real dangers smoking poses to your health and life. Smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer, the major cause of emphysema and chronic bronchitis and a large factor in heart disease. One out of seven deaths in this country is attributed to smoking-- and people who smoke just one pack a day can decrease their life expectancy by six years. The good news is that more than 30 million Americans have stopped smoking! You can too!
Smokers are made, not born
Smoking is learned behavior, and like all such behaviors, it can be "unlearned". You may have tried to quit and found that all your good reasons--concern for your health and family, social pressure, expense--were not strong enough to enable you to break the habit.
The truth is that however much smoking is hurting and worrying you, you are probably also experiencing some positive effects. Most of us don't continue behavioral patterns that cause nothing but pain. Fortunately, there are many ways to obtain these positive effects and good feelings--without smoking.
How the Affirmative Alternative method works
Our program is based on visualization and other hypnotic techniques. In one private session, we discuss the smoking habit and your smoking history, explain the process of hypnosis, and use visualization and hypnosis exercises to reach a deeper level of your mind--the level at which your smoking behavior originates.
Hypnosis is an everyday experience
You literally spend part of each day in a hypnotic state. Watching television, getting absorbed in a good book, jogging, sitting in front of the computer or lying in bed before you drift off to sleep--all of these produce a hypnotic state of being simultaneously relaxed and focused in your awareness. Your unconscious mind is most receptive to positive suggestions for change in this state. Having this state induced by a skilled hypnotherapist is a pleasant and completely safe experience, for no hypnotist can make you do anything you do not want to do. Your unconscious mind tends to accept only positive suggestions. Your conscious mind rejects suggestions that are not consistent with your beliefs and values.
Change is easier than you think
Many of us have been led to believe that any significant change involves large amounts of time, suffering, and almost superhuman effort. Our experience has been that 75% of the individuals we treat are able to stop smoking after just one session. The benefits of quitting start immediately. Twenty minutes after your last cigarette your blood pressure, pulse rate and body temperature return to normal. Eight hours later, the carbon monoxide and oxygen levels in your blood return to normal. In one day your chance of a heart attack drops. After two weeks circulation improves and your lung function increases by as much as 30%. After a month, fatigue and shortness of breadth decrease, and your lungs begin regaining the ability to cleanse themselves and reduce infection. And after five years of not smoking, your chances of developing lung cancer drops almost to the level of people who have never smoked.
WEIGHT LOSS
Affirmative Alternative's weight program emphasizes the importance of identifying where you are now and where you want to be. Diets don't work and do work depending on how you define "diet". Using visualization and hypnosis, Lois Koufman and the client work together to achieve specific goals for good health and fitness. A number of sessions are necessary depending on the weight loss objective.
We will utilize hypnosis each time and also employ self-hypnosis. There are typically homework assignments which provide the continuity for success. Keeping a food diary enables the client to develop increased self-awareness and allows an ongoing assessment of daily intake.
If the individual believes the program will work and wants to be successful, then this is for you. YES, you can take control of what you eat and the amount of physical activity or exercise you engage in. Self-discipline can be developed with Affirmative Alternatives techniques.
In identifying what the support resources are, one can successfully call upon these to insure positive results. Each day offers new opportunities for learning and growing awareness. The benefits of healthier eating and accelerated movement provide increased self-esteem and a sense of personal empowerment.
Anxiety and Stress
In various forms such as panic attacks and phobias, anxiety and stress adversely affect millions of Americans. Fortunately, there is relief for most people who suffer from these conditions. And the first step in alleviating these problems is to seek help.
How the Affirmative Alternatives method works
Using relaxation and other hypnotic techniques, we explore the difference between anxious behavior and non-anxious behavior. Simple techniques are taught to you which help you reduce tension and stress. In addition, your history of anxiety will be discussed to identify critical personal issues. This information provides the groundwork for future sessions to address specific needs.
Hypnosis is an everyday experience
You literally spend part of each day in a hypnotic state. Watching television, getting absorbed in a good book, jogging, sitting in front of the computer or lying in bed before you drift off to sleep--all of these produce a hypnotic state of being simultaneously relaxed and focused in your awareness. Your unconscious mind is most receptive to positive suggestions for change in this state. Having this state induced by a skilled hypnotherapist is a pleasant and completely safe experience, for no hypnotist can make you do anything you do not want to do. Your unconscious mind tends to accept only positive suggestions. Your conscious mind rejects suggestions that are not consistent with your beliefs and values.
Change is easier than you think
Many of us have been led to believe that any significant change involves large amounts of time, suffering, and almost superhuman effort. Our experience has been that most people can make needed changes in their lives when they truly understand the challenge they face and when they have solid support.