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St. Petersburg Times
Breaking the habit is no snap

Quit-smoking seminar uses tough talk and hypnosis to help the hooked in their struggle to give up cigarettes

By Mary Evertz
Times Staff Writer
(Edited & Reprinted)

Sheila McDevitt takes a long drag on her cigarette. The assistant vice-president/senior corporate counsel for TECO Energy, Inc. of Tampa savors the flavor of the tobacco and wistfully watches the smoke billow above her hair. Children’s clothes manufacturer Barbara Groover puffs as fast as she can on her cigarette, and then grinds out the unsmoked portion.

Forty-five other people are with these two women in the McDonald’s Restaurant at Tampa General Hospital, and all of them are smoking furiously. It is one of the few places on the hospital’s grounds where people can smoke, and this crowd is taking full advantage.

If all goes well, these could be their last cigarettes.

They are members of a group that has gathered in the hospital’s auditorium to hear Rena Greenberg pitch on stopping smoking. For 45 minutes they listened as Greenberg, president of Wellness Seminars, Inc., railed about the awful nicotine addiction and how they could get “rid of the horrible, disgusting habit – if they put their minds to it.” Now they are on a break, trying to decide whether they are up to it.

From the looks on their faces and the questions they asked the smokers seemed to want to believe they could kick the habit. A few even gave witness to why they wanted to quit: My father died at 58. My mother died of emphysema.

McDevitt, who has been a smoker for 29 years, is trying to quit because her company is planning to ban smoking inside the corporate office complex and she wants to “make the choice of not smoking before it is made for me.” Groover, who has smoked for about the same length of time, is doing it because “smoking is no longer socially acceptable.”

Jack Zaleskic and his wife Joan talk about the program’s potential with Tony Henneke, who works with Zaleskic at IBM. Henneke concedes his reason for quitting is “strictly social.” Zaleskic cites “health” as his reason, while Joan says she is here because her 10-year old daughter “pressured” her into coming. Tom Architect and Grace Simmons, co-workers at Merrill Lynch in Clearwater, were also there for health and family reasons.

Wellness Seminars uses a one-session lecture format that incorporates standard behavior modification techniques and a hypnotic experience. After a 45-minute informational lecture, participants are invited to participate in an hour-long session that uses group hypnosis to aid in quitting smoking.

The approaches used by such programs, as weight watchers and Alcoholic Anonymous require a participant to attend meetings over an extended period. “In many cases the busy executive or worker finds it is difficult to make a commitment to this type of method even though motivated.” Greenberg says.

Greenberg’s method also takes into account recidivism: “We expect people to walk out of the session not smoking. But people do go back to smoking.” She said most people who have quit smoking failed from three to five times before the successful attempt. “Built into success is a history of failure.”

CERTIFIED HYPNOTIST

Greenberg, who has lead the Florida operation since it started in 1990, was a biofeedback therapist in private practice and at the Hospital of Joint Diseases in New York City before founding Wellness Seminars.

The format and the success rate of the program, coupled with requests we have had from our employees and the community for a hypnotic and behavior modification approach was our reason for selecting Wellness Seminars for our wellness program, says Mary K. Cunningham, coordinator of the cardiac rehabilitation program for Tampa General.

Jerry Touchton, director of community relations for Helen Ellis Hospital in Tarpon Springs, said he chose the program because “we have had positive response from our staff that participated in an in-house seminar we held, so we decided to offer it to the community.”

“It works but you have got to want to stop smoking, “ said Helene Anderson, Director of Education at Helen Ellis and a smoker for many years. She said she has not smoked a cigarette since she attended the session.

Greenberg also conducts smoking cessation and weight loss seminars for corporations and government agencies.

In her opening, Greenberg challenges the crowd: “Have you experienced shortness of breath? Social embarrassment? Or burned holes in your clothes?” The only noise other than the sound of her voice is the hacking of veteran’s smokers.

“How many believe you have the potential not to smoke?” she continues. “Smoking has become a part of your life. Get into a new habit. The habit of not smoking.”

“What about gaining weight?” asks a potential participant.

“Many people have that worry, and rightly so, “ she says. “There is a risk for weight gain because smoking tends to increase the body’s metabolic rate and because many people eat more when they stop smoking. We stress being a slender non-smoker.”

When the participants return from their break and plunk down their money Greenberg quickly gives the group a run-down on what she’ll do in the portion of the seminar that involves group hypnosis. She then tells them to relax, bow their heads and “just imagine drifting down to peacefulness…. Just listen to sound of my voice…loosen your muscles, go as slack as possible.”

At the end of the hour, the group disbands, refreshed, renewed, and resolute, nodding support to each other.

Because the Wellness Seminar method is a “cold turkey” approach, for those who think they might waffle after the session, Greenberg offers reinforcements – a booklet, a cassette tape, and a telephone support line. She also says they can take the session over as many times as necessary, free.
TWO WEEKS LATER

It has been two weeks since the session at Tampa General.

Architect, Simmons, McDevitt, Groover, and Jack Zaleskic have not had a cigarette.

Greenberg said she is pleased. Seminar studies show that 85% of its participants give up smoking in the first week. But after a year, the company’s statistics show between 72% and 58% of its participants start smoking again – a 28 to 42% success rate.

The US Surgeon General endorses the concept the smoking cessation programs. She says such programs generally have 20 to 40% success rates.

“Most people who eventually stop smoking have tried three or four times before they actually do. It is a matter of commitment and persistence. You have to persist.” Greenberg says.