Quit Smoking

Because quitting smoking is only partly physiological and mostly social/psychological, our smoking cessation program goes far beyond prescribing patches and pills.  We do offer pharmacotherapy where needed, but we also provide structured accountability, counseling to transform the patient’s identity, and personalized problem-solving for the patient’s history and current situation.

We help the patient develop a timeline for quitting, including a specific date for quitting, and we keep in regular contact to encourage the patient to keep his/her own resolutions.  To help ease the transition through the quitting process, we provide in-depth education on the addictive and withdrawal process, the potential dangers of continuing to smoke, and the benefits of quitting.  We will help the patient decide whether pharmaceuticals are needed, what kind would be most effective and safe, and how the drugs should be used. 

Perhaps the most important part of our service is the identity counseling that studies have shown to be absolutely essential to any kind of habit formation or cessation.  Those who have been smoking for any length of time have built an identity for themselves, complete with unspoken schedules, unconscious reactions to situations, and a self-image that is reinforced by a community of other people with the same habit.  “I’m a smoker” becomes more than a statement of reported fact—it becomes a cultural manifesto. 

Therefore, if “smokers” are ever to really quit, they must work to get comfortable seeing themselves as “non-smokers.”  Our counseling tries to help patients see this necessary change and helps them navigate their way through it. 

Of course, we also help patients deal with the nuts and bolts of habit change through an analysis of their daily routines.  We help patients recruit their family and friends as co-laborers in the project.  We help them plan and execute the discarding of smoking paraphernalia, the cleansing of their living spaces, and the avoiding of smoking triggers such as beer and certain social situations.  We are available to help them restructure their lives so that it no longer has a hole that only smoking can fill. 

If you are thinking about quitting (and you should), call us to schedule an initial consultation.  We won’t quit until you do. 

Quit Smoking

Because quitting smoking is only partly physiological and mostly social/psychological, our smoking cessation program goes far beyond prescribing patches and pills.  We do offer pharmacotherapy where needed, but we also provide structured accountability, counseling to transform the patient’s identity, and personalized problem-solving for the patient’s history and current situation.

We help the patient develop a timeline for quitting, including a specific date for quitting, and we keep in regular contact to encourage the patient to keep his/her own resolutions.  To help ease the transition through the quitting process, we provide in-depth education on the addictive and withdrawal process, the potential dangers of continuing to smoke, and the benefits of quitting.  We will help the patient decide whether pharmaceuticals are needed, what kind would be most effective and safe, and how the drugs should be used. 

Perhaps the most important part of our service is the identity counseling that studies have shown to be absolutely essential to any kind of habit formation or cessation.  Those who have been smoking for any length of time have built an identity for themselves, complete with unspoken schedules, unconscious reactions to situations, and a self-image that is reinforced by a community of other people with the same habit.  “I’m a smoker” becomes more than a statement of reported fact—it becomes a cultural manifesto. 

Therefore, if “smokers” are ever to really quit, they must work to get comfortable seeing themselves as “non-smokers.”  Our counseling tries to help patients see this necessary change and helps them navigate their way through it. 

Of course, we also help patients deal with the nuts and bolts of habit change through an analysis of their daily routines.  We help patients recruit their family and friends as co-laborers in the project.  We help them plan and execute the discarding of smoking paraphernalia, the cleansing of their living spaces, and the avoiding of smoking triggers such as beer and certain social situations.  We are available to help them restructure their lives so that it no longer has a hole that only smoking can fill. 

If you are thinking about quitting (and you should), call us to schedule an initial consultation.  We won’t quit until you do.