I joined BASSP because I'm responsible for Allen Carr's Easyway To Stop Smoking Clinics in 38 countries worldwide and also oversee our publishing programme which has enjoyed sales of 10 million books worldwide.

We operate at 40 locations in the UK and I felt that we should engage with BASSP.

Having read the Minimum Standards for Training it strikes me that they are entirely aimed at practitioners operating in the medical establishment rather than private practitioners like ourselves.

I really would like to engage with this process but would welcome comments from other members on how welcome our views would be and how we might be able to include our own Minimum Standards for Training specifically for Allen Carr's Easyway method. What we do is very simple; smokers read one of our books, watch one of our DVDs, listen to our audio book, or attend one of our centres and having taken on board some very simple information - smokers stop smoking.

Training to become an Allen Carr therapist can take up to 12 months and involves learning and understanding the script for the 3 sessions which make up the programme and understanding which points to emphasise to which smokers (heavy/light etc) and how to handle smokers who fail to stop on the 1st and 2nd sessions that they attend..

We do not recommend the use of any substitutes (nicotine or otherwise) as these are detrimental to the effectiveness of the method. I think this is the main reason that we have not been accepted by the medical establishment along with the apparent lack of scientific studies that have been conducted on the method (although two have been published in peer review journals).

Should we engage or not? Are we welcome or not?

All the best

John

John Dicey, Worldwide Director, Allen Carr's Easyway

Thank you very much for your comments on this issue; indeed this posting

has seen the whole BASSP Management Committee reflecting on this.  I can

appreciate that the statement could appear medicalised.  One of the key

aims of BASSP is to promote the sharing of best practice.  We do value

evidence-based approaches and our members will no doubt be working with

national recommendations and guidelines in mind.  Maybe this philosophy

appears to favour a medical model?  What do you think?  

It is not the intention of BASSP to exclude members who share our vision

of supporting a national voice for stop smoking practitioners.  Indeed, our

constitution states that to be eligible to join, individuals should have

an active professional interest in smoking cessation, and be committed to

reducing the prevalence of smoking in the UK.  Membership is not open to

those employed in, or supported by, the tobacco industry, or to those

gain financially from the sale of tobacco or tobacco-related products.

I look forward to hearing the thoughts of other members.  Our forum is

excatly where we want to encourage this type of debate and I hope this

process serves to create a cohesive organisation that will benefit all

members.

Best wishes

Gillian (Chair BASSP)

Hi John

I attended one of your Easy Way sessions in London after reading the book.  I was really excited to be attending a course after reading all the hype surrounding it. I will not dwell on the ins and outs of the course itself but I would like to share with you what I feel to be the truth surrounding Alan Carr.

All day I heard about being a "happy none smoker". It is just basic brainwashing. This is repeated every 10 mins or so for 4 hours, at the end of the course you have probably heard it about 200 times.  If you tell someone something enough times they will start to believe it, is the general theory I felt was being used.

I was told by your Alan Carr staff that it was an “easy way” to quit smoking but give me Nicorette or Zyban any day. As soon as I left I wanted a cigarette.  You may say that "I hadn't listened" or that I had "missed vital points", (comments made by your staff when trying to get my money back), but I concerntrated and took on board as much as I could when listening to the same thing over and over again and being bord to tiers.

You claim to have a 90% success rate but what’s strange is that the three people who I kept in contact with from the course are all smoking even after attending your backup sessions.  Yes you offer a money back guarantee but only up to three months.  By the time people have finally given in to the temptation of smoking, then by the time your have got back them with a course date, 3 months is up and now an invalid money back guarantee.  If this method was as successful as you claim why is the money back guarantee not for life or at least a year?

I have no idea why the NHS would want to offer this on the NHS.  It is expensive, £240 for the course and backup sessions and a waste of time.  I think there money would only line your pockets further and could be invested in a far more sucessful way to help people in stopping smoking. My advice to anyone trying to quit smoking is try other methods first.  I have currently quit via Zyban so maybe discuss this with your doctor.

I am well aware of the amount of positive emails on your website with people claiming to have stopped smoking via your method.  Strangly I even wrote one after leaving your clinic, it was almost as if I felt I had to because I was told so many times this would work.  Weird!  I am still not sure why I did this, it was almost like I wanted this to work so much that I though if I lied to myself then it might.

Please dont let me put anyone off if your thinking of trying this method.  Just because it didnt work for me or my friends does not mean it wont work for you.

Regards

James Richardson