EXAMPLE ANSWERS: Q16

16. How would you address the following situation? A husband has paid for his wife to have a stop smoking session. The wife does not want to stop smoking however the husband is adamant because he discovered one of their young children trying to smoke one of her cigarettes.

Learning outcomes: 4.1

Student answer This is a difficult situation and in which the response will need to include the following considerations It is not appropriate to conduct a smoking cessation session with someone who does not want to participate. Unless the wife agrees to participate I would offer a refund as this is a compromising situation. Given the assumption that I am able to get some level of agreement to participate, I would progress with the focus on the wife as the client (not the husband who paid for it). I would then use meta-questioning to ascertain why she is reluctant to stop smoking and what perceived benefits she feels she gets from it At this stage I may reference research and public health information campaigns which are widely available but it is important to note that many people have developed selective perception around these – as an ex-smoker myself I know that I actively avoided or minimised ‘hard hitting’ adverts. I knew all of the reasons not to smoke but these did not apply to me! The occasion on which I stopped smoking (this time) was when I found the key arguments that worked for me – that I ran for a bus and couldn’t breathe. I was unable to balance that with my view of being relatively fit and started the non smoking process. Whilst I would not share this with the client I would see if a similar approach worked- has she seen the adverts and does she identify with them? What are the reasons for her continued use- how does smoking fit with her view of herself? Does she see herself as a smoker? Does she see this as a permanent state? How does this fit with her perception of herself as a mother? How would she feel in future if her child starts smoking? What were her own reasons for starting?.... It is important that there is a balance of perspective here rather than being accusatory or blaming. An open and empathic approach of curiosity is more likely to be effective. If there is a genuine and open acceptance to change at this point I would continue, but if there was not I would be declining the rest of the session and offering support in the future if she changes her mind. One possibility is that this might actually shock her into being open to change – there is nothing more irresistible than something which is not available. By declining to continue the hypnotherapy the idea of non smoking may actually become more desirable. (LO 4.1 Advanced thinking around difficult ethical issues, particularly those outside of codes of ethics and where an unambiguous and universally agreed upon solution is unavailable)

Tutor feedback (DO NOT delete/edit feedback. Write amendments, additional information & thoughts underneath this table) Correct. I appreciate your well structured and insightful answer here made all the more poignant by the addition of your own experience as an ex smoker. A good approach to a tricky customer.

Further Example Student Answer:  I would not choose to work with smoking issues.

The problem with this scenario is that:

1) you can not force someone to stop smoking on behalf of someone else,

2) the child’s interest is already there, therefore the mother stopping now will not change the child’s curiosity

3) the parents have other issues such as poor communication to work on rather than focusing on the wife’s smoking.

I would suggest the wife looks at the reasons behind the husband's position and suggest she might wish to consider stopping/reducing the amount of smoking in front of the child, I would also request they both had a talk with the child (dependent on the child’s mental age), asking why they wanted to start smoking, also potentially explaining that whilst smoking is bad for their health the mother is trying to stop and how hard that is whereas the child shouldn’t start as that’s easier.