Mental Health

Improving Mental Health Through Smoking Cessation: Practical Tools for Health and Wellbeing Professionals

Supporting people to quit smoking is one of the most powerful ways to boost both physical and mental wellbeing.

Smoking doesn’t just harm the body — it fuels the cycle of low mood, anxiety, stress and irritability. Evidence shows that stopping smoking can deliver mental health improvements on par with antidepressants.

People living with depression and anxiety are twice as likely to smoke, putting them at even greater risk of worsening symptoms, serious health conditions and premature death. 

This training unit will unpack how smoking affects the brain, how nicotine withdrawal drives stress and anxiety, and how this links to therapeutic models such as CBT.

You’ll learn practical, confidence-building approaches to start supportive conversations about smoking using Very Brief Advice (VBA) — a fast, empathetic, evidence-based tool for opening up the topic without judgement.

The session will also spotlight the vital role of local stop smoking services and show you how to guide clients towards specialist support that can transform their health.

Click here to learn more and register for our next live training webinar.

Workbook and certificate

There will be a PDF workbook to accompany the webinar and a CPD certificate will be available.