- With Mayo Clinic behavioral counselor
Jennifer A. Kern, M.S., C.T.T.S.
read biographyclose windowBiography of
Jennifer A. Kern, M.S., C.T.T.S.
Jennifer A. Kern, M.S., C.T.T.S.
Jennifer Kern is a tobacco treatment specialist, certified through the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center.
Her counseling work addresses various aspects of tobacco addiction, including the love-hate relationship many tobacco users have with their smoking or chewing, education about nicotine addiction, and effective strategies to help with quitting.
In addition, she explores the importance of getting emotional and social support when stopping tobacco use, and offers ideas and suggestions about how to ask for and give this support.
Being bilingual, she enjoys counseling in both Spanish and English. She holds a master's degree in psychology, with interests including spirituality, psychosomatic illness, depression and anxiety, maladaptive coping behaviors, and overall health behavior change.
"As a former smoker, I am personally familiar with the complexity of dealing with the 'tobacco shackles,' " she said. "I am committed to helping others conquer this addiction so they may regain their freedom and possibly even save their own lives."
Latest entries
- Join the Great American Smokeout
Nov. 17, 2009
- Preparation key to quitting smoking
Nov. 5, 2009
- Learning to be a non-smoker
Oct. 23, 2009
- Build confidence in effort to go smoke-free
Oct. 16, 2009
- Goal-setting helps smooth way to smoke-free future
Oct. 1, 2009
Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Quit smoking blog
-
Oct. 1, 2009
Goal-setting helps smooth way to smoke-free future
By Jennifer A. Kern, M.S., C.T.T.S.
When planning to stop smoking, applying goal-setting strategies can help you create doable steps while preparing for your smoke-free date.
Effective goal-setting involves not just saying what you want to accomplish, but actually planning what to do, how much of it and by when. Your goals should be achievable for you and realistic within your normal routine. By setting measurable goals, you can tell whether or not you achieved them.
Vague goals, which neglect the planning stage, can leave your ambitions hanging somewhere out in the future, without your moving closer to them. The image that comes to my mind is of a donkey following a carrot on a stick that is dangled in front of it. No matter how much or how far the donkey walks, it never gets any closer to the carrot. By setting goals and effectively planning, you create strategies to "reach the carrot."
In the process of preparing to stop smoking, I find some people have more success if they break it down and start by creating small goals along the way. Below is an example of how this might look:
Goal: Stop smoking in my car
Date (by when): Oct. 15
Planning (what to do):
- Buy substitutes: 1 bag of suckers, 10 packs of chewing gum, a stress ball and an audio book.
- Stock the car with substitutes on Oct. 14.
- Plan alternate routes to drive to regular destinations by Oct. 14.
- Buy air freshener and begin using on Oct. 15.
- Empty ashtrays and remove lighters on Oct. 15.
Once the first goal is accomplished (which you will know by Oct. 15), you can focus on the next aspect of moving toward your smoke-free date. Goal-setting and well-planned "baby steps" will support your transformation from smoker to non-smoker and make it more sustainable over the long haul.
4 comments posted
November 17, 2009 6:50 p.m.
Hi, I'm a student at Metro State of Denver. I'm researching a new product possibility; the product would be a "Quit Smoking" aide that offers a stepping down approach. I am a former smoker myself but I'm addicted to Commit lozenges and they contain nicotine. I would still buy them if they had zero mg of nicotine but they don't offer that. I would like to market a product that does. Anyways, I made this survey for my research project and it would really help me if anyone could take it [smokers, former smokers, and non-smokers are all welcome] Thanks so much. -- Casey Here's the link to the survey. http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/206243/r2zgt
- Casey
October 18, 2009 11:10 a.m.
I tried Chantix, and now I'm back on antidepressants for depression. Never again!!!
- Sharon
October 13, 2009 4:57 p.m.
This is a great post about being mentally strong about quiting smoking an i wish i could stick with it ive tried so many times but no luck, however i found something to help me quit smoking almost instantly. Its called a electric cigarette and it has no tar, tobacco, or harmful carcinogens. if you dont believe me check them out for your self http://www.electriccigarettemall.com/
- jason
October 10, 2009 7:52 p.m.
I didn't have a goal in mind but before I started taking Chantix, I already had cut way back on smoking. Then I stopped drinking - just didn't feel like, in my case, drinking wine anymore. Started taking Chantix and stopped smoking 8/10. I really think I was preparing to quit previous to taking the pill but I didn't realize that until the last few weeks.
- Brady
4 comments posted