Diana Vasiliu has left her job with an advertising agency to become a certified trainer in the Allen Carr Easyway method and help Romanians quit smoking. She became a therapist - the only Allen Carr certified therapist in Romania and quit her job at the advertising agency last summer. She then went on to launch the Allen Carr Romania clinic this year, having started with the first sessions in January.

Diana, a former smoker herself, now plans to include sessions for English – speakers and to start targeting corporates for packages that would allow their employees to quit smoking.

“Romanians have a problem in asking for help. We believe we can do everything by ourselves,” Diana tells Romania-Insider.com. “People come to the sessions with two fears, equally important: the fear of failure, and the fear that they will succeed to quit smoking,” she says.

The Allen Carr method consists in a first session, which takes six hours, and two more sessions if there is a relapse after the first session. The method itself offers an 'all money back' guarantee for those who don't quit smoking after taking the full package, but Diana Vasiliu (in picture) says this is yet to happen in Romania, as all of those who attended her sessions quit smoking.

The cost of a package is of RON 340 and includes the after-session assistance. “Those who come to the second session are always those who haven't called me when they sensed they would have a relapse after the first session,” she adds.

Allen Carr was an accountant and heavy smoker who quit smoking by using the Easyway method and started teaching other how to do it in 1983. The method breaks down popular myths and removes fears. It has a 90 percent success rate and its network of clinics spreads over 50 countries.

Corina Saceanu, corina@romania-insider.com

If you want to get in touch with Diana Vasiliu, e-mail her at raspunsuri@allencarr.ro.

(photo source: Photoxpress.com, Diana Vasiliu personal archive)