4 . Encourage them to slow down before stopping
Because the pattern had been disrupted , she found that as a by-product she felt less inclined to drink . These two rituals had satisfied the need for demarcation of her day . She wasn ' t trying not to drink , but after meditating and showering , cracking open the wine didn ' t feel the same to her . And she also found she finished drinking earlier .
We can loosen many patterns before shifting them for good .
There are also , of course , plenty of hypnotic techniques to help scramble a compulsive pattern . I filmed a client session for UPTV just last weekend in which I applied a classic hypnotic scrambling pattern for a woman who was compulsively eating chocolate .
When we apply scrambling like this it serves as a great technique but also an hypnotic induction in itself as the person repeatedly goes in and out of trance as they access the different components of the compulsion before your eyes .
So , help disrupt the pattern . There are lots of ways to wind down that don ' t make your head fuzzy and your skin tired .
4 . Encourage them to slow down before stopping
I asked Caroline to what extent she savoured the wine she drank . I got her to access the experience of drinking wine in the evening after the day was done . " It ' s curious ," she said , " but I only really enjoy the first glass . It ' s like the others just slip in under the radar !"
We use a similar line of enquiry when helping smokers break free . A smoker may smoke sixty a day , but there will only be five or six that they actually savour – if that . The rest may be hurried through , barely noticed . Once we take out the compulsion of those five or six , the whole edifice collapses . Like taking the supporting legs from under a bridge .
Gulping down wine like there ' s no tomorrow is a sure-fire way to , well , drink more wine . We can drink so fast we forget to taste . I suggested to Caroline she have her first glass of wine , but since it was really the only one that ' counted ' ( the one she actually remembered enjoying ) she could stretch it out to cover the first 45 minutes .