"I have observed the Allen Carr method at first hand and found it to be very successful. I wholeheartedly support it as an effective way to quit smoking"  Dr. Anil Visram, Consultant Royal London Hospital

 "I was really impressed. In spite of Allen Carr’s organization’s success and fame, there were no gimmicks, and the professional approach was something a doctor could readily respect. I would happily recommend this method to any smoker."  Dr. PM Bray, MB Ch.b., MRCGP 

The Allen Carr Easyway method

Cognitive Therapy for Smoking Cessation:  An intelligent, guided approach to smoking cessation.

Health professionals are increasing aware of the difficulties many smoking patients experience when trying to quit. For most smokers, the quitting experience is a miserable one and pharmacological interventions do little to help smokers handle the psychological element of the dependency.

There is increasing consensus among researchers that "the effectiveness of NRT appears to be largely dependent upon the intensity of additional support provided to the smoker." (Lancaster & Stead: NRT for Smoking Cessation, 2002). This is supported by many others, including Lazarus (Strategies for Implementation of Smoking Cessation Programmes, 2002), who says, "pharmacologic therapy is rarely of benefit unless combined with some form of motivation or behavior modification."

About Allen Carr

The Easyway method was developed by Allen Carr, a former chain smoker, in the UK in 1983. Since then an estimated 10 million smokers have quit smoking using his unique approach. His network of centres (over 150 locations in 41 countries) is the biggest in the world and sees over 50,000 smokers every year. Carr’s books on the topic, including his most famous work, Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking, have sold over 8 million copies worldwide. It has been a number one bestseller in nine countries and translated into over twenty languages.

Carr’s work is supported by hundreds of physicians in Europe and, increasingly in Canada and the US. In 1997 in Beijing, Allen Carr was invited to address the WHO Congress on Tobacco or Health, the only non-physician ever to have been invited to do so.

The Easyway method

The Easyway method is classic Cognitive Therapy (CT), the ‘talking cure’ pioneered by Aaron T. Beck. The basic premise of CT is a simple one: that what we think influences the way we feel and in turn, what we do.

In a smoking context, according to the theory, repetitive ideation that cigarettes help us relax, concentrate, handle stress etc., combined with physical addiction to nicotine, creates a desire to smoke. This desire leads the smoker to feel a sense of sacrifice and deprivation when they cannot smoke.

Physical withdrawal from nicotine exacerbates this discomfort and the subject becomes irritable, anxious or distressed.

This discomfort disappears when the subject lights up, thus providing the smoker with a false sense of functionality or pleasure, when in fact all they have done is remove the symptoms of withdrawal created by the nicotine from the previous cigarette being metabolized.

This false reinforcement allows the smoker to build an intellectual and emotional paradigm that compels them to smoke indefinitely.

Cognitive Therapy highlights the maladaptive ideation that triggers the desire to smoke. By using a combination of repetition, positive reinforcement and common sense, the therapist corrects the ideation, and helps the smoker to replace it with a factual, rational model. As a consequence the subject no longer perceives smoking as desirable. With no desire to smoke, it takes no willpower not to do so.

This process is demonstrated below.

With no desire to smoke, the only barrier that the smoker now has to overcome is the fear that surrounds quitting and living life without ‘my little friend’.

Again using the cognitive techniques of logic, common sense, repetition and positive reinforcement the therapist demonstrates that such fears are irrational. The smoker is presented with an alternative paradigm – that in fact the cigarette creates the fear. This hypothesis is validated because smokers readily acknowledge that non-smokers do not experience this fear.

This model is shown below.

With no desire to smoke, and no fear of quitting, the subject is presented with a simple decision: to have to smoke all day every day for the rest of their lives, or to break free from the slavery of smoking and enjoy a future of health, happiness and freedom.

Most attendees find the therapy effective, enjoyable and empowering.