- With Mayo Clinic behavioral counselor
Jennifer A. Kern, M.S., C.T.T.S.
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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
- Focus on gratitude, not craving a cigarette
Nov. 24, 2009
- 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
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Quit smoking blog
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Aug. 7, 2009
Blog: The language of going tobacco-free
By Jennifer A. Kern, M.S., C.T.T.S.
During my first visit to Beijing this week, I'm discovering a whole new life on the other side of the planet. I don't speak Chinese, but I've been told that there are no past or future tenses in this language. In China, there's only the present.
How can that be? How do they express what they intend to do someday? How do they describe what has already occurred?
Being somewhat of a polyglot, I've noticed that when speaking in other languages my way of thinking subtly changes. I've discussed this with other multi-lingual people who describe having a similar experience. Variations in word choice, verb conjugation, and sentence structure call for a different way of putting thoughts together, in order to effectively convey a certain meaning.
Learning about the lack of verb tenses in Chinese sparked within me a curiosity about how their thinking might differ from ours. It also led me to wonder how the language we use around quitting smoking would be different if we could only speak in the present tense.
Many smokers talk about having cheated, slipped, or failed ... all in the past tense. I also hear people who are planning to quit smoking talk about how they could quit, when they will do it, or what would make it a good time to start ... all in the future.
If we only had the present tense in English, those who are quitting smoking would speak about it as if it were happening now. Being a non-smoker would be immediate, current, in the moment, today, this very minute.
Imagine how your thinking about quitting smoking might change if your words implied present moment action, rather than crafted, vague, future-focused ideations. How would you feel if your thinking reflected that you are smoke-free today? What choices would those feelings lead you to make?
How might your life be different if language permitted you to think and speak only in the present tense about being tobacco-free?
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