Is hypnosis for you? Bethlehem man quits smoking with help of hypnotist


  • Hypnosis has been proven successful to help ease anxiety and to help people quit smoking.
Hypnosis has been proven successful to help ease anxiety and to help people… (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO )
November 12, 2012|By Milton D. Carrero, Of The Morning Call

Jim Coffarelli lit up a cigarette minutes before he visited the hypnotist. He was seeking help to quit smoking.

That was one year ago. He hasn't smoked since, and he doesn't even remember what he did with that last pack.

"Smoking is the most ridiculous, absurd thing that society still allows," Coffarelli says.

Coffarelli had struggled with smoking most of his life. The Bethlehem man had his first cigarette at age 9, a Newport Menthol that he lifted from his mom. He had quit once before, also using therapeutic hypnosis.

"If you really want to stop it," he says, "whatever it is. I think that hypnosis is a viable and legitimate option to explore."

The Mayo Clinic recommends therapeutic hypnosis to control pain, reduce stress, cope with chemotherapy, alleviate allergies, overcome asthma, lose weight, quit smoking and boost athletic performance. It can also be used to ease skin conditions and gastrointestinal problems.

Last month researchers at Baylor University's Mind-Body Medicine Research Laboratory announced that hypnotic relaxation therapy reduced hot flashes by as much as 80 percent in menopausal women. Participants also reported lessened anxiety and depression.

It is not a magic potion, Coffarelli says about hypnosis. And he knows that he is still vulnerable to smoke again because that had always been his way of coping with stress.

"I know why I did it," he says, "it calms you down. I had a cigarette break, go into my back porch and slow down, deal with stress, deal with marital issues, whatever."

The reason that therapeutic hypnosis worked for him, he says, was that he was ready and willing to quit. It was affecting his relationships and, at age 52, his body could no longer afford the strain on the lungs.

Clinical hypnotist Jo Ann Schaffer gave him tools to ease the underlying anxiety that was causing him to smoke. She used a form of therapy known as Emotional Freedom Technique. It includes tapping along energy points that ease the nervous system, allowing the person to experience a sense of peace while still looking at their sources of emotional pain.

The fact that Schaffer is his neighbor was reassuring.

"I've only ever done it with somebody I've trusted," Coffarelli says.

Schaffer uses guided visualization techniques through which the person relaxes and begins to access key memories that might be linked to the behavior that the person wants to change. While the therapist guides the clients, it is still up to them to accept their problems and make the decisions and changes that would lead to a solution.

"I have a lot of techniques that really help get rid of pain," Schaffer says, "but people don't want to let go of it. You start getting too close to why they've got this chronic pain and they won't come back because they're getting something out of it.

"Sometimes you have a good reason to hold on to the pain. They don't want to look at it."

But if they do, Schaffer says, they would find out: "why I've got this or why am I doing this to myself?"

What Coffarelli took from hypnosis was straightforward: "We all have the ability to simply make a choice not to have a cigarette."

He is still tempted to buy a pack sometimes and to smoke just one cigarette, but he hasn't so far.

Cases like Coffarelli's, Schaffer says, motivate her to keep training and looking deeper into the possibilities that therapeutic hypnosis can bring.

"Really, what I'm hoping to achieve with hypnosis," she says, "is somehow finding that technique that allows people to connect with their source-self and that could help them start to regain their self-love."


Focus on breathing: Imagine a wave of calming energy. Allow thoughts to emerge and leave.

Focus on what you want to accomplish: Visualize the situation exactly how you would like it to turn out.

Use an affirmation: You may repeat positive instructions in present tense such as: "I am well. I am calm. I love and accept myself."

Source: Jo Ann Schaffer, clinical hypnotist


Here is a simple self-hypnosis tool to reduce stress:

Stare at a focus point: Keep looking at one point, allowing eyelids to grow heavy.

Count from 10 to 1: Open and close your eyes after each number and repeat the statement: "Going deeper with each number, feeling calm."

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