You should check with prospective hypnotherapists that they belong to a reputable professional body with a code of conduct and a complaints procedure.

Unfortunately, there is a bewildering array of professional bodies and qualifications for hypnotherapy. In recognition of this, government set up General Hypnotherapy Standards Council (GHSC). This body has specified minimum qualifications, and has a code of conduct and a complaints procedure. If you are thinking of seeing a hypnotherapist, make sure that they have GHSC accreditation as a minimum: letters 'GHR' will appear on literature of a registered practitioner and 'GHSC' for a validated practitioner.

Having said all that, word of mouth is probably most effective way of selecting a hypnotherapist, as long as it is someone that a friend of yours has seen, rather than someone that you have heard of in media.

Beware of hypnotherapist with one-size-fits-all approach; rather, look for someone that treats you as an individual, with warmth and respect.

Qualifications and experience are important aspects to consider. However, crucial factor is quality of relationship you have with your hypnotherapist; improvement is much more likely to take place if therapeutic relationship is right.

In order for hypnotherapy to work, you need an approachable hypnotherapist that will hear what you have to say, identify with your concerns, provide insights, tools and techniques to help you move forward, and keep you safe from harm.

Of course, you can't tell whether you will have a good therapeutic relationship until you actually meet your hypnotherapist…

The Initial Appointment The first appointment is an opportunity for you and hypnotherapist to get to know enough about each other so that you both can make an initial feasibility assessment. The hypnotherapist needs to decide whether they have skills to deal with issues you are presenting, and you need to make a decision about quality of therapeutic relationship.

The mind has two parts: conscious and subconscious.

And so when you tried using willpower method, you were in two minds whether to stop smoking or not - literally in 'two minds'.

For example, here is a typical dichotomy; you might want to stop smoking because it's bad for your health (conscious reason), but you're still aware that smoking makes you feel good about yourself (subconscious reason).

Do You Have Subconscious Reasons? When you try to stop smoking but get bad withdrawal symptoms, that's a sure sign that your subconscious mind is resisting change.

Here's an example of how it feels when your subconscious mind makes you do something.

When you were young, did you ever try and hold your breath for as long as possible? Do you remember feeling that your lungs were going to burst?

Well, that feeling was generated by your subconscious mind.

Your subconscious mind is capable of exerting incredibly powerful pressure on your conscious mind if it feels that its needs are not being met.

This where all extreme examples of withdrawal effects when people stop smoking come from.

"Climbing walls", "Tearing my hair out" and "Getting shakes" are all typical examples of withdrawal effects of someone with strong subconscious needs to carry on smoking.

Perhaps your subconscious wants to carry on smoking because it reminds you of a time of happiness or a time you felt powerful in your life; we all have fond memories of time we spent growing up, and emotions from our youth are vivid ones, and they stay with us all our lives.

Or perhaps your subconscious may feel that smoking represents your desire to thumb your nose at authority; everyone is saying you should stop smoking, and maybe you feel unwilling to let them have their way. Maybe your subconscious feels that smoking represents freedom, or it might be simply that your subconscious fears withdrawal of nicotine.

Whatever reason, point is if you want to stop smoking, both your conscious and your subconscious need to be convinced that they will benefit from you becoming a permanent non-smoker.

Does Your Subconscious Need Convincing? However, your subconscious mind doesn't work same way as your conscious mind, so usual line of reasonable argument isn't going to work.

The best way to convince your subconscious that it's a good idea to stop smoking is to tell it a fairy story.

I am being serious.

You could make up a story about this beautiful princess, and a wicked witch put a spell on her, took all her money away and made her dress in rags.

I'm sure your conscious mind saw straight away that wicked witch represents smoking habit, but your subconscious mind soaks stuff like that up without your conscious mind noticing.

If you don't believe me, try this little demonstration of how powerful this method is.