The majority of hypnotherapy professional organisations require that their members do not bring the profession into disrepute.  To this end many, but not all, have a requirement that their members adhere to the Code of Advertising Practice (CAP) advertising standard when advertising their services of services associated with hypnotherapy.

Smoking cessation treatment forms a major part of many hypnotherapist's private practices.  We have spoken to many people over the years who have attended hypnotherapy sessions to stop smoking and for whom this type of treatment has been successful.  More recently however we have spoken to people, journalists and key people within the profession who were either making or receiving complaints about smoking cessation therapy offered by some therapists. 

The complaints are fairly consistent and centre around the claim:

and the fees that some therapists charge for their services.

Looking first at the claim, 'Stop Smoking in one hour' - first and foremost this claim has led to numerous complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority who have ruled against the claim on each occasion and instructed the advertiser to remove it from future advertising. As the majority of professional hypnotherapy bodies encourage/demand that their members adhere to the ASA's published advertising standards there is also scope here for members of the public to not only complain to the ASA but to also bring their complaints directly to those organisations to whom these hypnotherapists belong.