30. Smoking

PERSON: old man.
DESCRIPTION: smoker since more than fifty years, at least 20 cigarettes a day; absolute medical prescription to cease immediately in order to survive; alternative therapies useless; nicotine patches useless; throat extremely inflamed and source of worries for the patient; total unavailability to quit smoking.
APPROACH: conversational hypnosis and usage of double meanings ('throat lump', etc.) about the throat.
RESULT: radical habit change after three sessions, with a reduction to just half a cigarette per day.
UPDATE (2 years): phone call from his wife in order to know whether it is possible to give up that odious daily half cigarette.

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