Online 1:1
A private Zoom session from home. Same length, same method. Quiet room and a stable connection are enough. This is the default.
45-minute sessions · Zoom, or a house call
Hypnotherapy sessions for people who’ve already tried to quit
The work is a 45-minute session. We start with a free consultation so you know if it fits — then we book the sessions.
Free consult first. Paid 45-minute sessions if it is a fit. You stay awake and in control.
Al Bravo, certified hypnotherapist 20+ years working with people on personal change
Same work, two ways to show up
On Zoom, or at your home
There is no office. Sessions are private on Zoom worldwide, or Al comes to you in the Edmonton area. Pick whichever is easier to keep.
House call
Al comes to you in the Edmonton area. Mention it when you book so travel time can be arranged.
Why it has not worked yet
You have quit before. That was never the problem.
You know the moment. The end of a long afternoon, the back step, the first draw, and your shoulders finally coming down two inches. Notice that nothing in that moment involved a decision. Your hand was moving before you thought about it.
That is the part nobody has helped you with. And after the fourth or fifth attempt, most people quietly conclude the problem is them — that they are the one person who cannot do this. That conclusion is wrong, and it is expensive, because shame makes the next cigarette more appealing, not less.
Look at what you were actually given to work with:
- Cold turkey. Willpower against a pattern that never gets tired. It holds until the first genuinely bad week.
- Patches and gum. They replace the nicotine. They do nothing about the trigger that starts the reach.
- Vaping. The same cue, the same ritual, the same hand-to-mouth loop. A different delivery system for an unchanged pattern.
- Apps, quit dates, and a bet with your spouse. All motivation. Motivation is weather. It changes.
Every one of those fights the chemical or leans on willpower. Not one of them touches what actually starts a cigarette: a cue, a feeling, and a response wired in over tens of thousands of repetitions until it runs without you.
Nicotine leaves your body in a few days. The habit does not, because it was never living in your bloodstream.
The habit lives in the subconscious — the same part of your mind that drives you home without you tracking the turns. Willpower is conscious, and it clocks off. That mismatch is why you can want this completely, mean it completely, and still find a cigarette in your hand on a Tuesday.
You are not weak, and you are not the exception. You have been handed tools aimed at the wrong layer of the problem.
The free public option exists, and you should know that first. Alberta funds quit-smoking support through AlbertaQuits and the QuitCore group program, plus pharmacist-led cessation help. They cost nothing. For plenty of people they are the right place to start. This work is a different approach, not automatically a better one. It tends to suit people who have already been through those routes and found the pattern was still there afterward.
How hypnotherapy is different
Willpower is conscious. The habit is not.
So we work where the habit actually lives. Three stages, in this order, every time.
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Find the real triggers
Not “stress” — that is far too vague to work with. The specific ones. The first coffee. The three o’clock break with the same two people. The drive home. The phone call from your brother. A handful of cues account for most of your cigarettes, and those are what we build the work around.
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Change what the trigger is attached to
In hypnosis your attention narrows and your mind becomes unusually receptive to updating an automatic response — which is how the habit got installed in the first place, just deliberately this time. The cue does not vanish. You will still drink coffee and still have hard days. What changes is what follows.
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Make it hold under real pressure
A quit that only survives a good week is not a quit. So we rehearse the new response against the situations that have ended previous attempts: the argument, the wedding, the patio in July, the friend who steps outside and holds the door open for you. You also leave able to use self-hypnosis on your own.
Hypnotherapy is not magic and no outcome is guaranteed. Results vary from person to person, and how you engage with the work matters. What hypnotherapy offers is a method aimed squarely at the part of the problem that patches, gum, and willpower never reach.
Before you book
What actually happens in a session
Nearly everyone arrives with the same three worries. They deserve a direct answer, because almost everything people believe about hypnosis they learned from television.
You stay in control the whole time
Hypnosis is not sleep and it is not unconsciousness. You hear every word. You can talk, shift in the chair, scratch your nose, open your eyes, ask a question, or stop the session whenever you want. Most people are surprised by how ordinary and how awake it feels.
Nobody can make you do anything
You cannot be made to act against your own values, and you will not say anything you would rather keep to yourself. Stage hypnosis is a performance built on volunteers who walked up on stage precisely because they wanted to take part. Quiet clinical work on a goal you brought in yourself has nothing in common with it.
It is safe, and you have felt it before
The closest everyday comparison is being so absorbed in a film that you forget the room, or those few minutes before sleep when you are still awake and everything has slowed down. You have been in that state hundreds of times. Here it is used on purpose, for something you actually want.
The session, start to finish
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We talk first
The opening stretch is a conversation about how you smoke rather than how much. When, where, and what happens in the sixty seconds before you reach. This is where your trigger map comes from.
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Al explains exactly what he is about to do
Step by step, before anything begins. No surprises and no theatre. You will know what is happening and why, and you can ask anything at any point.
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The hypnosis itself
You sit in a comfortable chair and Al talks. You relax, you listen, you stay aware. There is no swinging pocket watch and no stage voice. For most people it is considerably less dramatic than they expected.
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You come back up and plan the week
What to expect, what to do at the moments that used to be automatic, and how to use self-hypnosis on your own between sessions.
The offer
A 45-minute session. $97.
One to one, built around your triggers rather than read off a standard script. Book as many as you need. The free consult comes first.
$97
per 45-minute session — Zoom, or a house call in Edmonton
What is included
- A trigger map built from your actual smoking pattern, not a questionnaire
- A 45-minute hypnotherapy session, booked after the free consult if it is a fit
- Direct work on the specific situations that ended your previous attempts
- Self-hypnosis you can use on your own, at home, for the rest of your life
- On Zoom from anywhere, or a house call in the Edmonton area. No office.
- Contact between sessions by phone or email if a hard week shows up
Then $97 for 45 minutes if it is a fit. Zoom, or a house call.
What the habit is already costing you
Not as an argument. Just as arithmetic you may not have done in a while.
| Time | What it costs |
|---|---|
| One day | $17.50 |
| One week | $123 |
| One month | $525 |
| One year | $6,388 |
| Five years | $31,938 |
| Ten years | $63,875 |
And that is money only. It leaves out the stairs, the mornings, the smell that stays in the car, and the conversation with your kids that you keep moving to next month.
One session is $97. Put that beside the ten-year line and decide for yourself which one is expensive.
Also available
Other patterns Al works on
Quitting smoking gives the fastest, clearest result, which is why most people start there. The same three-stage approach applies to other habits and responses.
Weight control
For the eating that happens on autopilot, not because you are hungry.
Weight control hypnotherapyStress & relaxation
For a nervous system that reacts before you have had a chance to think.
Stress and relaxation hypnotherapyHabit change
For the loop that keeps restarting no matter how many times you break it.
Habit-change hypnotherapyComfort and wellbeing
Alongside your medical care, never instead of it. Diagnosis comes first.
Comfort and wellbeing supportFears & phobias
For the flying, the dentist, the elevator, the needle, the stage.
Fears and phobias hypnotherapyWho you would be working with
I’m Al
I’m a certified hypnotherapist in Edmonton. I trained in the Hypnosis Training Academy tradition under Igor Ledochowski. I have spent more than twenty years helping people change habits that would not stick.
I work with adults who have already tried to quit and are tired of being told to want it more. I don’t lecture. I don’t run a scare campaign. And I don’t pretend this is mystical. It is a practical method for a specific problem.
- Certified hypnotherapist
- Trained in the Hypnosis Training Academy lineage (Igor Ledochowski)
- Serving Edmonton and area by house call, plus Zoom worldwide
Straight answers
Questions people ask before booking
Will I lose control, or be unconscious?
No. You stay awake and aware the entire time, you hear everything, and you can speak or stop whenever you like. Hypnosis is a focused state of attention, not unconsciousness, and you cannot be made to do anything that conflicts with your values.
I have tried to quit five times already. Why would this be different?
Because those five attempts were aimed at the nicotine or at your willpower. Hypnotherapy is aimed at the trigger, which is the part that survived every previous attempt and started the next cigarette. Having tried repeatedly is not a mark against you here. It usually means you are clear about what you want and have simply been using the wrong tool.
How many sessions does it take?
Most people start with one 45-minute paid session at $97 after the free consult. Some people want a follow-up later; others do not. Al will give you a straight answer about what he thinks you need on the free session, before any money changes hands.
Does it work over video?
Zoom is the default, and it works the same as being in the room. You need a quiet place where you will not be interrupted, a comfortable chair, and a stable connection. There is no office. If you are in the Edmonton area, Al can come to you.
Is hypnosis safe?
For most healthy adults, hypnosis is a normal state of focused attention and is widely considered safe when used appropriately. Hypnotherapy is not medical or psychological treatment, and it is not a substitute for care from your doctor. If you have a diagnosed medical or mental-health condition, speak with your physician first and tell Al about it on the call.
What actually happens on the free strategy session?
A conversation. Al asks how you smoke, what you have already tried, and what went wrong last time. He explains how the process would work for your situation. At the end you will know whether this is a fit. If it is not, he will say so and point you somewhere more useful. There is no obligation and nothing is decided under pressure.
Start here
Book a free consultation
The product is 45-minute sessions. We start with a free call so you know if it fits. If it does, we book the sessions after.
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Free consultation
How the habit works for you, what you have tried, whether sessions would help.
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If it is a fit, 45-minute sessions
Zoom, or a house call in Edmonton. $97 each.
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Stop when you are done
No package you have to finish. Book the next one only if you want it.
Or leave your details and Al will call you
Usually within one business day. Your information is never sold or shared.
No spam
A short note when it is useful
How the habit actually works, what a session is like, and when the next Zoom workshop is. Unsubscribe any time.