Hypnotherapy for Changing Habits
Change the habit without fighting yourself
You may know exactly what you want to stop doing, yet find yourself doing it almost automatically. Drinking after a stressful day. Reaching for food when you're not hungry. Smoking or vaping when you need to relax. Biting your nails when you're anxious.
And then there are the habits you want to create — exercising regularly, eating well, sleeping better or taking better care of yourself.
Hypnotherapy for habits works with the unconscious patterns behind the behaviour, rather than relying on willpower alone.
What habits can hypnotherapy help with?
Hypnotherapy can be used for stopping habits such as:
Alcohol
Smoking and vaping
Nail biting
Hair pulling
Comfort, emotional & over-eating
Procrastination
Stress-related habits
It can also help you create positive habits around exercise, healthy routines, sleep, self-care and motivation.
The aim isn't simply to take an old habit away. It's to make the new behaviour feel more natural, rewarding and desirable.
For more information aimed directly at an alcohol habit, this link will help you:
https://www.dianajoy.com.au/alcohol-habit
For more information aimed directly at stopping smoking & vaping, this link with help you:
https://www.dianajoy.com.au/quit-smoking-hypnotherapy
Why can hypnotherapy work for habits?
Habits often follow an unconscious pattern:
Trigger → feeling → behaviour → reward
You feel stressed, so you drink. You feel uncomfortable, so you eat. You feel anxious, so you bite your nails.
The behaviour has become associated with something your brain wants — relief, comfort, distraction, pleasure or escape. This is why telling yourself "I must stop" isn't always enough. Your conscious mind may want the change while another part of you still believes the habit is useful.
Hypnotherapy allows us to work with that deeper pattern.
Stopping a habit is only half the process. The other half is creating a compelling picture of what you want instead. Hypnosis can help you experience your future self — the version of you who has already made the change.
How do you feel? How does your body feel? What do you do when you're stressed? What do you enjoy now? What are you proud of? What becomes possible when the old habit is no longer controlling your choices? The aim is to create pleasure in the change, rather than white-knuckling your way through it. You're not simply giving something up. You're moving towards something better.
Parts Therapy: understand the part that doesn't want to change
One of the approaches I use during hypnotherapy is Parts Therapy. Rather than seeing the habit as something wrong with you, we become curious about the part of you that is maintaining it – the part that blocks you from changing. There may be a comfort eater who believes food makes you feel better. A drinker who believes alcohol is how you switch off. A smoker who associates cigarettes with freedom or taking time for yourself. A part that bites your nails because it is trying to discharge tension. In hypnosis, we can work directly with these parts. What does this part want for you? What is it trying to achieve? What does it believe you need? And can we find another way to meet that need?
This can be powerful because you're no longer fighting yourself. You're working with yourself.
What happens in a hypnotherapy session?
We begin by understanding the habit and what triggers it.
We'll explore:
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When does it happen?
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What are you feeling beforehand?
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What does the habit give you?
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What would you rather do?
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What might be getting in the way of change?
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We can then use hypnosis and, where appropriate, Parts Therapy to work with the unconscious pattern. You'll also be guided to imagine yourself responding differently and experiencing the benefits of your new behaviour. Hypnosis is safe and is done lying on a comfortable massage table. You are guided into a state of relaxation and then taken on a journey working with your unconscious. Clinical hypnotherapy is nothing like stage hypnotherapy. You are aware of what is happening and where you are, you can hear the birds outside and my feet on the floor but you are in a relaxed trance state, similar to that feeling before you fall asleep.
How many sessions?
For a straightforward habit, I generally recommend three 60 minutes sessions. Sometimes habits switch quickly and one session may be enough, for others there are deeper emotional roots and it’s a longer process.
You don't have to fight yourself to change
The part of you that keeps repeating a habit is often trying to do something for you — even if the behaviour is no longer helpful.
Instead of fighting the drinker, the comfort eater, the smoker or the procrastinator, we can get curious about what that part is trying to achieve. And a future that feels better than the old habit.
Is there any evidence for hypnotherapy changing habits?
Research suggests hypnotherapy can help change habitual behaviours. A 2025 systematic review of 63 studies examining hypnotherapy for smoking cessation found that two-thirds of the studies assessing treatment impact reported positive effects. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39773364/
Research has also found that hypnotic suggestions can influence eating intentions and help people change habitual eating responses.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30226009/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
As a therapist, change and results matter to me. In particular I have guided many people through changing their relationship to alcohol, particularly middle aged men and women, where the daily drinking habit has bumped up and become a habit they can't change alone.
I also have success with vaping and smoking, nail biting (which can be an unexpectedly emotional journey).
Diana Joy
Clinical Hypnotherapist, Balmain, Sydney
Advanced Diploma of Clinical Hypnotherapy, Psychotherapy, & NLP 10501NAT
IICT Membership #6858852099
