We have been helping people quit smoking since 1997, and helping people quit vaping since it became a thing. We don’t use scripts or standardised programs, we offer a single, personalised session built around how you specifically relate to smoking, and what quitting will mean for you.
Most of our quit smoking clients come to us through word of mouth as we’ve been around for a long time! Although we see people for a broad range of reasons, quitting smoking is something we’ve always loved helping people do – it’s a great change to make, and we’d be happy to help you. Here’s what to expect.
Brisbane Hypnosis Centre was founded in 1997 by clinical hypnotherapist and hypnosis educator David Kennedy, who had been helping people quit smoking since the early 1990s. Throughout his career, he maintained that it was one of the most meaningful aspects of his work. When someone quits smoking, he said, they realise that they can make all sorts of other wonderful changes.
In 1996 David’s work was featured in the Sunshine Coast Sunday – a journalist who had tried every other method to quit documented her own experience of quitting with hypnosis, and how it compared to everything she’d tried before. You can read this in full, below.
David’s reputation was built almost entirely on word of mouth, and throughout his career he made significant contributions to the hypnotherapy profession in Australia. In May 2006 he was approached to appear on the Channel Nine program What’s Good For You, demonstrating his quit smoking work to a national television audience. We still have records of all the phone calls received after that show – at one point we had a waitlist for appointments that was nearly two months long. Glenn, Carol and Philip worked with many of those people.
Like David, Glenn Chandler recognised early that when people quit smoking it could have a profoundly meaningful impact on their – and their families’ – lives. Glenn joined the practice in 2000 and worked alongside David for the better part of fifteen years, developing and refining their single-session Quit Smoking approach together. Glenn and Rachel (David’s daughter, who has been part of the practice since it opened in 1997) took over the running of BHC in 2004. David continued working here until around 2014, and died in 2018 at the age of 86.
In 2017 Glenn wrote Freedom Calling: Nicotine, Habit and How to be Free of Smoking, a clinical resource drawing on things learned across three decades of this work. It is available below as a free download.
Carol Moore, who joined the practice after training under David, has her own connection to this work: she quit smoking with a hypnotherapist who had trained under David and that experience was what led her to become a hypnotherapist herself. Philip Hollingdale also trained in hypnotherapy under David – and spent countless hours documenting his training as a filmmaker. Whether you work with Glenn, Carol or Philip, you are in experienced hands — our practitioners collaborate closely and share the same clinical foundation.
Our approach combines two things many quit smoking programs treat separately: a conscious-mind plan and thorough hypnotherapy work.
The conscious mind is the part of you that worries – about stress, about cravings, about who you’ll be without cigarettes, or anything you feel is relevant. These worries can be different for everyone, and we take time to find out what it is for you. We address them directly, working with you to build a practical framework for the days and weeks ahead. Then the hypnotherapy works at a deeper level, targeting the automatic, subconscious associations that make smoking feel necessary.
The session is tailored to you, and that includes the hypnotic techniques and processes. What works for one person won’t necessarily work for another. Your therapist will listen carefully before any hypnosis begins.
The fee for a quit smoking hypnotherapy session is $295. If you’re booking with a partner or friend, the fee is $250 each when two or more people book together.
Sessions are available in-clinic at Everton Park (Northside Brisbane) and via Zoom anywhere in Australia.
Smoking and vaping are distinct habits with some similarities, and some differences psychological profiles, and we treat them as such. As with smoking, we continually refine our approach, informed by our experience. If you smoke and vape, both can be addressed. If you vape only, we have a dedicated approach for that too.
Weight gain after quitting is a genuine concern, and something people commonly worry about. The session includes specific work around stress eating, appetite changes, and the habits that sometimes fill the gap left by cigarettes. Many clients find this is one of the most valuable parts of what we do. If this is something you're worried about, please be sure to discuss it with us.
This is the most common concern we hear, and it's understandable - the association between smoking and stress relief is real, for most people. An important part of the session focuses on building genuine stress management tools to replace the habit. Quitting smoking doesn't have to mean becoming more anxious.
Some people experience emotional shifts in the early days after quitting - irritability, restlessness, or occasionally a heightened sensitivity to stress. We discuss this honestly in the session and prepare you for it. The conscious-mind plan we build together specifically accounts for the days and situations most likely to be challenging. This is why we need to focus on you as an individual, so we can give relevant help.
Hypnotherapy works with your own intentions, and it doesn't override them. The most important thing is that you personally want to stop smoking, even if part of you is ambivalent or anxious about it. That ambivalence is normal and something we work with.
For most people, yes. Our single-session approach is deliberate, and has been refined over time. The session is focused and comprehensive. It isn't about cutting back, or working towards some date in the future - your appointment day is your quit day! Follow-up support is available if needed, but the majority of clients who come ready to quit do not need us, and that's our aim.
Glenn Chandler, principal clinician at Brisbane Hypnosis Centre, is the author of Freedom Calling: Nicotine, Habit and How to be Free of Smoking (2017). He wrote this as a clinical resource, and draws on the first two decades of his career working with people who want to quit.
His book challenges the conventional nicotine addiction narrative and explains, clearly and without jargon, what is actually driving the habit – and how to be free of it. Whether you’re ready to book or still thinking about it, it’s worth a read.
You can download the book here, and you can also read the Sunshine Coast Sunday article in full by clicking on the image below.
If you’re ready to stop smoking or vaping, you can book online or call us on 07 3354 4555. Sessions are available at our Everton Park clinic (Northside Brisbane) or via Zoom anywhere in Australia or overseas.
Unless otherwise attributed, everything on our website was written by us and none of it was written by Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. This quit smoking page was edited and formatted with AI, but these are our words. It is important to us to know how to communicate about how we work so you can get a sense of the kind of people you are trusting to help you.
