"I came to see Julie about stopping smoking three years ago - I'd just been diagnosed with high blood pressure - my doctor had shown me that my risk of having a heart attack in 10 years dropped from 7% to 2% if I didn't smoke - so I had some good motivation.

Previously I'd tried 'cold turkey' - which lasted a week - and I wanted a cigarette constantly, gum - which tasted vile and made me miss ciggies and Zyban - which sent me loopy - and didn't work.

Julie and I chatted on the phone for about 15 minutes about my motivation, and how I smoked - when, how many etcetera, and I decided I did want to give hypnotherapy a try. This helped me to realise just how structured and habitual my smoking was - one in the car on the way to work, one outside the office, two at lunch etc... etc... Julie sent out her CD, which I copied to my iPod and listened to religiously four times a day in the run up to our session. During this week I managed to cut out some of the cigarettes I was smoking without a problem!

On the day of the session I had my last cigarette out on The Headrow - wondering what it would be like to not smoke - then ceremonially binning the remainder of the pack on my way in. The session itself seemed to be over fairly quickly - we chatted more about smoking and about how the hypnosis and NLP worked, then I settled back in Julie's chair and emerged a non-smoker about half an hour later.

I'd love to say it was easy from then on - and the truth is it was - I had a bit of a wobble on the next holiday - but didn't give in - then made it through a close relative's death without even thinking about smoking.

I've also saved an absolute fortune to splurge on gadgets with - something I couldn't have afforded to do as a smoker.

If you are considering seeing Julie then I would recommend you just do it - I was sceptical - but it was one of the best decisions I've made."

Martin, Leeds