Learn a Strategy-Based Approach to Vaping Cessation
A live CPD course for hypnotherapists who want to work with clients who vape.
If you already do smoking cessation, most of what you know still applies. That part is straightforward. The difficulty is that three things do a lot of quiet work in a smoking session, and a vaping client brings none of them.
Start with the money. An Australian smoker spends somewhere between $12,000 and $15,000 a year. A vaper spends nearer $1,200. Ask a vaper to add up what it’s costing them and very little happens.
Then the social side. No smell, no ash, nobody standing outside in the rain. They vape at the desk, in the car, halfway through a sentence, and nobody says anything about it.
And the health worry, which a smoker walks in already carrying. Most vapers believe they made the safer choice. A good number will tell you there’s no nicotine in it.
So the session runs. It’s pleasant enough. Nothing shifts.
This course covers the adjustments I make for a vaping client, where I find the motivation when the usual sources aren’t there, and why I charge a vaper the same fee I charge a smoker.
- Commences Tuesday 22 September 2026
- Strategy-based vaping cessation training for hypnotherapists
- 4 live video workshop sessions via Google Meet
- Recordings included
- Ernest’s exact session scripts and protocols
- Scripts, client handouts and vaping education material you can use with clients
- Lifetime access and lifetime re-attendance
- Certificate of completion for each course, on completing the course material
- 7-day money-back guarantee
Includes the Vaping, Smoking, and Gambling Cessation Courses.
Enrolment closes 11:59pm Sydney time, Monday 21 September 2026 — secure access to all three courses for AUD $97.
Recognition for the Strategy-Based smoking cessation work this course is built on.
Course at a Glance
| Enrolment | Strategy-Based Cessation Mastery |
| Focus of this page | Strategy-Based Vaping Cessation Course |
| Also included | Smoking and Gambling Cessation Courses |
| Start date | Tuesday 22 September 2026 |
| Time | 6:00 PM Sydney time — times in your timezone: worldtimebuddy.com |
| Format | 4 live video workshop sessions via Google Meet |
| Recordings | Included |
| Access | Lifetime access |
| Re-attendance | Lifetime re-attendance for all three courses |
| CPD | 10 CPD points recognised by AHA per course |
| Total CPD | 30 CPD points recognised by AHA |
| Certificates | Certificate of completion for each course, issued on completing the course material |
| Investment | AUD $97 |
| Guarantee | 7-day money-back guarantee |
Live Course Dates
The Strategy-Based Vaping Cessation Course commences on Tuesday 22 September 2026. The 4 live video workshop sessions are scheduled for:
Session 1
Tuesday 22 September 2026
6:00 PM Sydney time
Session 2
Tuesday 29 September 2026
6:00 PM Sydney time
Session 3
Tuesday 6 October 2026
6:00 PM Sydney time
Session 4
Tuesday 13 October 2026
6:00 PM Sydney time
| Session | Sydney | London | Auckland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 22 September | 6:00 PM | 9:00 AM | 8:00 PM |
| Tue 29 September | 6:00 PM | 9:00 AM | 9:00 PM |
| Tue 6 October | 6:00 PM | 8:00 AM | 8:00 PM |
| Tue 13 October | 6:00 PM | 8:00 AM | 8:00 PM |
New Zealand daylight saving begins 27 September and Australian daylight saving begins 4 October, so the UK and Auckland times shift partway through. The Sydney time never changes. Delivered via Google Meet, and every session is recorded — re-watch any time. Times in your timezone: worldtimebuddy.com
Enrolment closes soon
Enrol in Strategy-Based Cessation Mastery for AUD $97
Includes the Vaping, Smoking, and Gambling Cessation Courses.
What the Strategy-Based Approach Is
Most cessation work is good at removing the desire. The client leaves not wanting it, and for a while that holds.
But the wanting was only half of it. Underneath sits years of behavioural memory: the hand reaching, the moment with the coffee, the pause before a meeting. Take out the craving and leave all of that in place, and you’ve created an empty space where the habit used to be. Something moves into that space eventually. Usually the old behaviour, and usually calling itself “just one.”
I call it the Void, and filling it is what my approach is built around.
Two things do that. The client builds their own way through each situation they’d normally have vaped in, in their own words, because a plan handed to them by me is a plan they’ll drop by Thursday. And they leave with a settled picture of themselves as someone who doesn’t do this any more, rather than someone who is trying not to.
It’s delivered as a program, not a course of appointments. One main session, built so the client walks out of it free of the behaviour, followed by a structured check-in schedule that runs for twelve months. Most of the problems that would turn into a relapse get caught in a ten-minute phone call.
That’s the process. It’s the same one I use for smoking, and it’s what this course applies to vaping.
What Changes When the Client Vapes
Most hypnotherapists who come to this already know smoking cessation. The process you use there is the process you’ll use here — that isn’t the problem.
The problem is that vaping is easier. It’s cheaper, it’s accepted, it happens at the desk and in the car and mid-sentence, and there is nothing to count. Many clients genuinely cannot tell you how much they vape. And a good number aren’t fully convinced they need to stop at all — which is a conversation you almost never have with a smoker.
That is why many therapists wonder:
- What makes vaping behaviour different from smoking?
- How do I work with clients who vape constantly throughout the day?
- How do I address the emotional attachment to vaping?
- What do I do if the client sees vaping as less serious than smoking?
- What do I do when the client isn’t convinced they need to stop?
- How do I handle the habit loop when the behaviour is so convenient?
- How do I structure the session so it feels confident and repeatable?
- How do I work with younger clients or clients who started vaping before smoking?
- How do I explain vaping cessation in a way that makes sense to clients?
- What do I say when they tell me there’s no nicotine in it?
If you have ever felt that your smoking work would mostly transfer but you weren’t sure where it wouldn’t, this course is designed for you.
The Same Process, Without the Usual Motivators
Vaping and smoking share more than most trainings admit. The behaviour differs in texture — more frequent, more discreet, easier to repeat and easier to justify, with no smoke break, no ashtray, no packet running out and no obvious end point. But the therapeutic process does not need rebuilding for it.
What needs rebuilding is the motivation.
There is no smell, no residue and no social disapproval, so none of the outside pressure a smoker feels is in the room. And on health, most vaping clients believe they made the safer choice — which is, after all, what they were told, and what a great deal of regulation still quietly implies.
Take those three away and the process still holds. But what you fill the Void with, and where you find the emotional weight to do it, changes considerably. That is what this course is about.
The Strategy-Based Approach
Vaping asks more of you than telling a client to stop. The process above is the one you’ll use. These are the parts that change.
1. What Stays the Same
Nearly all of it. If you already work this way with smokers, you’re not learning a new method here, and knowing which parts hold is as useful as knowing which don’t. It stops you rebuilding a session that was working.
2. Where the Motivation Comes From
A smoking session leans on cost, social pressure and health worry. A vaping client gives you none of them, so you have to dig a good deal deeper to find what actually matters to this person. Most practitioners come unstuck here, and it’s the middle of the course.
3. What the Client Needs to Know
With a smoker, education is background. With a vaper it’s part of the job, starting with the belief that there’s no nicotine in it. You’ll get the client-facing material I use so you’re not assembling it yourself.
What You Will Learn
In the Strategy-Based Vaping Cessation Course, you will learn a structured approach to helping vaping clients.
You will learn how to:
- Adapt the cessation process you already use so it works with a client who vapes
- Tell the difference between two kinds of vaping client — a distinction that changes what you do next
- Establish a usable picture of a client’s pattern when the client can’t quantify it
- Find strong emotional motivation when cost, social stigma and health fear aren’t available to you
- Address the belief that vaping contains no nicotine, without confrontation
- Decide what a client needs educating on, and where in the process that education belongs
- Recognise the client who isn’t ready, and what to do about it before the session rather than after
- Fill the gap the behaviour leaves behind, instead of only taking the behaviour away
- Work from a shift in identity rather than willpower alone
- Structure your follow-up so a struggling client is resolved in a phone call, not a second session
- Price and position vaping cessation as a program rather than sessions, and answer the price objection without discounting
- Use Ernest’s exact session scripts and protocols
Vaping Cessation Course Outline
Session 1: Foundations and the First Conversation
How the mind builds and rebuilds memory, and why that — rather than willpower — is what makes a change hold. The three-part sequence behind every behaviour, and the two points at which you can intervene in it. Then the enquiry call itself: what to listen for, the single distinction between two kinds of vaping client that changes everything you do next, how to frame the work so the client arrives already expecting to succeed, and the admin that belongs before the session rather than after it. Plus the self-maintenance most cessation training never mentions.
Session 2: What Actually Changes When the Client Vapes
The differences that matter in the room: cost, social acceptance, health belief, nicotine concentration, and how often the device is picked up. Why the motivators that carry a smoking session are unavailable, and what you use instead. What clients believe about vaping that isn’t true, where that misinformation comes from — including the mixed signals sent by regulation in Australia and the UK — and how to correct it without an argument you can’t win. Plus building that education into your website and marketing, so clients arrive already convinced rather than needing convincing.
Session 3: The Pre-Talk, the Strategy, and the Detox
Structuring the pre-talk: establishing the client’s pattern, managing expectations if they’ve seen a hypnotherapist before, and the simple exercise that earns their attention and shows them where the change actually happens. Then the strategy work — how it’s elicited, why the client has to arrive at it themselves, how you steer them away from strategies that won’t survive contact with a Tuesday, and how each one is tested. Followed by the education about what the body does in the first few days, and why framing that in advance stops a client misreading it as failure.
Session 4: The Emotional Work, the Close, and What to Charge
The emotional work that moves a client from “I’m trying to stop” to “that’s not who I am” — including the physical step that puts the villain outside the client rather than inside them, which makes the identity shift far easier to accept. Building and anchoring the picture of a vape-free life. How to finish the session, what to send afterwards, and the follow-up structure that catches problems in a ten-minute phone call instead of a wasted second session. What to do when a client does need more help, and how to diagnose why. Then the business side: why you charge the same fee for vaping as for smoking, why you sell a program rather than sessions, and how to answer the price objection.
What to Charge for Vaping Cessation
A vaper enquires. You quote your smoking cessation fee. There’s a pause, then some version of: “But I only spend about $30 a week on vaping.”
Most therapists come down at that point. Not by much — just enough to secure the booking. And a fee that moves once tends to move again.
I charge the same for vaping as for smoking. AUD $590, and I don’t discount it, for a straightforward reason: it’s the same work. Same process, same hours, and in some respects more of them, because vaping clients need follow-up more often than smokers do.
There’s also a structural fix that does most of the work before the objection arrives. Sell a program, not sessions. A session has an hourly rate, and an hourly rate invites the client to do arithmetic against their weekly spend. A program has an outcome and a fixed price, and it removes the client’s fear of an open-ended bill. If you’re quoting per session, you’ve built the objection into your own pricing.
The course covers how that program is structured, what belongs inside it, where to set your fee relative to the practitioners around you, and the specific responses I use when the price question comes anyway.
“I would highly recommend it if someone wants to specialise in this area. It’s very, very effective.”
— Dana, Clinical Hypnotherapist (20+ years), Adelaide, after the smoking cessation training
What Ernest Sees in His Own Practice
Ernest has worked in smoking cessation since 2012, and across that time more than 80% of smoking clients stop after the first session. Of those who don’t, most are resolved in a ten- or twenty-minute phone call rather than a second session.
Vaping is newer work, and he is clear about the limits of what he knows. The volume isn’t there yet to be confident, but his current experience suggests something closer to 70%, with roughly half of those who struggle genuinely needing a second session. That is part of why the follow-up structure taught in this course matters more for vaping than it does for smoking.
These are Ernest’s own practice outcomes and experience. They are not a guarantee of what any practitioner will achieve, because client results depend on many factors including client readiness, practitioner skill, suitability, and scope of practice.
What this course gives you is the structure, thinking, scripts, protocols, and strategic understanding behind Ernest’s approach, so you can develop greater confidence and clarity in your own cessation work.
Your Enrolment Includes the Full Strategy-Based Cessation Mastery Training
When you enrol through this page, you receive access to the full Strategy-Based Cessation Mastery training pathway. This includes all three courses.
1. Strategy-Based Vaping Cessation Course
Learn how the Strategy-Based process applies to a vaping client, the specific adjustments it needs, and how to price the work so you are not discounting it.
4 weeks · 4 live calls · 90 min each
2. Strategy-Based Smoking Cessation Course
Receive access to Ernest’s complete strategy-based approach to smoking cessation, including the structure, scripts, and protocols used to help clients move towards becoming non-smokers.
4 weeks · 4 live calls · 90 min each
3. Strategy-Based Gambling Cessation Course
Receive access to the gambling cessation course, which teaches you how to work with gambling behaviour from both the habit angle and the emotional driver angle.
4 weeks · 4 live calls · 90 min each
Also Included
- 4 live video workshop sessions for the Vaping Cessation Course, commencing Tuesday 22 September 2026
- Delivered via Google Meet
- Recordings of all sessions
- Word-for-word scripts for the core session work, a client handout for after the session, two audio scripts you can record in your own voice, client and consent form templates, a diary template, and the vaping education material — including studies and an infographic you can send to a client who is still deciding
- Ernest’s exact session scripts and protocols
- The follow-up structure Ernest uses with clients, including what to do when someone needs more help
- Pricing and positioning guidance for vaping cessation in your own practice
- Certificates of completion, issued on completing the course material
- 10 CPD points recognised by AHA per course
- 30 CPD points recognised by AHA across the full Strategy-Based Cessation Mastery training
- Lifetime access
- Lifetime re-attendance privilege for all three courses
- Email access for questions if you cannot attend live
- 7-day money-back guarantee
Attendance Bonus
Attend 3 or more live sessions and receive a complimentary 30-minute strategy call with Ernest.
Value: AUD $175
Investment
AUD $97
Includes the Vaping, Smoking, and Gambling Cessation Courses.
Lifetime Re-Attendance Privilege
When you enrol, you receive lifetime re-attendance privilege for all three Strategy-Based Cessation Courses:
- Strategy-Based Vaping Cessation Course
- Strategy-Based Smoking Cessation Course
- Strategy-Based Gambling Cessation Course
That means you can attend future live rounds again at no extra cost, refresh the material, ask new questions, and continue strengthening your confidence as the work evolves.
For Practitioners in the US and Canada
Because the live workshop sessions are based around Australian scheduling, many practitioners in the US and Canada prefer to watch the recordings rather than attend live.
That is completely fine. You will still receive access to the recordings, and you can email questions if you are unable to attend the live video workshop sessions.
So even if the live time does not suit your time zone, you can still complete the course and work through the material at a time that suits you.
Who This Course Is For
This course is for you if you are a hypnotherapist or therapeutic practitioner who wants to feel more confident working with vaping behaviour.
It is especially suitable if:
- You already work with habit change clients
- You want to add or improve vaping cessation in your practice
- You already use the smoking work and want to know exactly where it needs adjusting for a vaper
- You want to understand the strategy behind the session
- You want access to Ernest’s exact session scripts and protocols
- You want to work more confidently with smoking and vaping clients
- You want to understand how vaping differs from smoking in real client work
- You prefer practical, structured training over vague theory
Who This Course Is Not For
This course is not designed for people looking for a magic script without understanding the strategy behind it.
It is also not designed to replace medical advice, mental health care, or other professional support when those are required.
As a practitioner, your role is to work within your training, experience, professional requirements, and local laws.
This course will help you think more clearly about vaping cessation work, but it does not encourage you to work outside your scope of practice.
Working Safely and Ethically
Vaping cessation can be a valuable area of hypnotherapy practice. At the same time, every practitioner should work within their training, experience, professional requirements, and local laws.
This course is designed to help you work with more structure, clarity, and confidence. You will be encouraged to consider:
- Whether the client is suitable for hypnotherapy support
- Whether additional professional advice or support may be appropriate
- How to work within your own training and competence
- How to avoid overpromising outcomes
- How to explain the work clearly and responsibly
- How to approach cessation with care, professionalism, and structure
This is about becoming a more capable and thoughtful cessation practitioner, not making guarantees or working beyond your scope.
About Ernest McLeod
Ernest McLeod is an experienced clinical hypnotherapist, business coach, trainer, and founder of The Hypno Coach.
He has worked in cessation since 2012 — 14 years — and has trained hypnotherapists in his strategy-based approach for several years.
Ernest’s approach is practical, direct, and designed for real-world client work. Rather than teaching hypnotherapists to simply read scripts, Ernest focuses on helping practitioners understand the strategy behind the behaviour, so they can work with more confidence and clarity.
The Strategy-Based Vaping Cessation Course has been created for hypnotherapists who want a deeper, more structured, and more practical approach to helping clients break free from vaping behaviour.
What Makes This Different From a Script-Based Training?
Scripts can be useful. But scripts alone do not teach you how to think.
They do not always show you what to listen for. They do not explain why the client keeps returning to the behaviour. They do not always help you understand the emotional driver behind the pattern.
This course is designed to help you understand the structure of the problem, not just read words at the client. You will receive Ernest’s word-for-word scripts for the core session work — and you will also learn why the session is sequenced the way it is, which is what lets you hold the structure without holding the page.
7-Day Money-Back Guarantee
You are covered by a 7-day money-back guarantee. Enrol in the course, review the material, and make sure it is the right fit for you.
If you decide it is not suitable, simply request a refund within 7 days in line with the refund policy.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the course start?
The Strategy-Based Vaping Cessation Course commences on Tuesday 22 September 2026.
How many live sessions are included?
The Strategy-Based Vaping Cessation Course includes 4 live video workshop sessions delivered via Google Meet. The sessions are scheduled for:
- Tuesday 22 September 2026
- Tuesday 29 September 2026
- Tuesday 6 October 2026
- Tuesday 13 October 2026
Each session is at 6:00 PM Sydney time. Because New Zealand and Australian daylight saving both fall during this course, the UK and Auckland times shift partway through: 9:00 AM UK for the first two sessions and 8:00 AM UK for the last two; 8:00 PM Auckland except 29 September, which is 9:00 PM. The Sydney time never changes. Times in your timezone: worldtimebuddy.com
Are the sessions recorded?
Yes. Recordings are included, so you can watch the training later if you cannot attend live.
I am in the US or Canada. Can I still enrol?
Yes. Many practitioners in the US and Canada watch the recordings rather than attend live because of the time zone difference. You can also email questions if you are unable to attend the live video workshop sessions.
Is this only for Australian hypnotherapists?
No. The course is suitable for hypnotherapists in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the US, and Canada. However, you should always work within your own local laws, professional requirements, training, and scope of practice.
Are CPD points included?
Yes. Each course includes 10 CPD points recognised by AHA. Because your enrolment includes the Vaping, Smoking, and Gambling Cessation Courses, you receive access to 30 CPD points recognised by AHA across the full Strategy-Based Cessation Mastery training.
Do I receive a certificate?
Yes. Certificates are issued on completion of the course — the four live calls (or their recordings) plus the accompanying lessons and materials in the course dashboard. The live calls account for roughly half the hours the 10 CPD points require, so the lessons complete the picture. Let Ernest know once you have worked through everything and your certificate will be issued.
What exactly do I receive?
Your enrolment includes:
- Strategy-Based Vaping Cessation Course
- Strategy-Based Smoking Cessation Course
- Strategy-Based Gambling Cessation Course
- Recordings
- Word-for-word scripts for the core session work, a client handout for after the session, two audio scripts you can record in your own voice, client and consent form templates, a diary template, and the vaping education material — including studies and an infographic you can send to a client who is still deciding
- Ernest’s exact session scripts and protocols
- Certificates of completion, issued on completing the course material
- 10 CPD points recognised by AHA per course
- 30 CPD points recognised by AHA across all three courses
- Lifetime access
- Lifetime re-attendance privilege for all three courses
- 7-day money-back guarantee
Is this a script course?
No. This is a strategy-based cessation course. You will receive Ernest’s exact session scripts and protocols, but the focus is not simply reading a script. The focus is helping you understand the structure behind the behaviour so you can work with more confidence and clarity.
Do I need to already work with vaping clients?
No. This course is suitable if you already work with vaping clients, or if you would like to feel more prepared before offering vaping cessation support.
Do I need to have done the Smoking Cessation course first?
No. Your enrolment includes the complete smoking course recordings and materials, so you can work through them at any point. But the vaping course does assume you’ll recognise the underlying process, so if you’re new to the Strategy-Based approach, the smoking recordings are the natural starting point.
Is vaping cessation the same as smoking cessation?
The process is. The motivation isn’t. Ernest uses the same Strategy-Based process for both, with a set of specific adjustments — and those adjustments matter, because the three things that carry a smoking session (cost, social stigma, and the client’s own health concern) are largely absent with a vaping client. This course teaches those adjustments and where the motivation comes from instead.
Does this guarantee client results?
No. This course does not guarantee client outcomes. It teaches Ernest’s strategy-based approach, scripts, protocols, and professional thinking so you can develop greater confidence and structure in your own cessation work.
Can I use this with clients straight away?
You can apply what you learn within your existing training, experience, professional scope, and local requirements. The course is designed to give you a clearer framework, not to encourage you to work beyond your competence.
What should I charge for vaping cessation?
The same as you charge for smoking cessation — it’s the same work. Ernest charges AUD $590 for both, and the course covers why, along with how to structure it as a program rather than as sessions, and how to answer the price objection when it comes. Undervaluing this work is common, and it’s one of the easier things to fix.
What happens if a client doesn’t stop?
The course covers exactly this — how to diagnose why, what can be resolved in a short phone call, and when a second session is genuinely needed. Ernest’s follow-up structure includes scheduled check-ins after the session, which is how most problems get caught before a client concludes the work didn’t help.
What is the refund policy?
The course includes a 7-day money-back guarantee. Please review the full refund policy here: Refund Policy
“I’ve probably done about four others besides yours, possibly more. Out of all of the smoking courses that I’ve done, I actually like yours the best.”
— Maureen, Australia, after the smoking cessation training
Learn the Strategy Behind Effective Vaping Cessation Work
If you have ever wanted to feel more confident helping vaping clients, this course gives you a clearer structure to follow.
You will learn the thinking, behaviour pattern, emotional driver, scripts, protocols, and session strategy behind Ernest’s approach to vaping cessation.
If you already do this work with smokers, you have most of what you need. What’s missing is the handful of things that change when the client vapes, and the confidence to charge properly for it.
Enrol in Strategy-Based Cessation Mastery for AUD $97
Includes the Vaping, Smoking, and Gambling Cessation Courses.
Enrolment closes 11:59pm Sydney time, Monday 21 September 2026.
About
Ernest McLeod is an award-winning hypnotherapist specialising in helping therapists help more people such as through cessation work. He trains other hypnotherapists in the strategy-based protocols he uses with his own clients.
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