High-impact therapy for smoking cessation

Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and disability- and thus an issue of considerable importance to psychotherapists. The majo rity of smoking-cessation programs available to the public uses an effectiv e group format, but it remains underused. Many smokers who seek treatment r equest individual counseling however, empirically based individual treatmen ts are still in the early stages of development, High-impact therapy is a f orm of short-term dynamic psychotherapy adapted by the authors for the trea tment of the hard-core smoker. It recognizes that the relationship among sm oking, life stressors, personality factors, and psychological disorders is complex, and it intervenes using motivational and defense-challenging techn iques. One of the main and distinctive features of this model is the emphas is on emotional arousal to facilitate the mastery of emotional conflict, ma king this a high-impact form of psychotherapy. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.