The underlying causes of the majority physical habits may be quite varied, and rooted at different psychological levels. While hypnotherapy has a wide range of applications, the behaviors that are most directly related to physical habits are typically the ones that can be treated with hypnotherapy most quickly and directly. Hypnotherapy for smoking cessation is the most commonly recognized of these, and is among the most successful and least invasive techniques for reaching its goal. Another common area for hypnotherapy treatment is for weight control. Similarly, hypnotherapy is also the most effective technique for conquering the nail biting habit.

The nail biting habit has much in common with smoking. Both are ritualistic, physical habits. Either can be caused by the mechanics of a physical routine, or might be symptomatic of deeper psychological problems. In either case the habit itself can be effectively stopped with hypnotherapy.

Discovering and treating underlying psychological problems, which are exhibited in nail biting and smoking can be a process that requires numerous sessions with a skilled hypnotherapist. Not all hypnotists and hypnotherapists are capable of working at the deep psychological level. Thankfully, for the purposes of ending a smoking or a nail biting habit, they do not need to work below the most direct physical level.

The more immediate goal of curing the nail biting habit is much more straightforward. Many of our deeper emotional and psychological states are influenced by our physical state, so in treating the physical symptoms directly, we can also indirectly impact deeper issues. Additionally, not all negative physical habits have an underlying cause; sometimes it is truly just a physical habit; and it just "feels" good for the person to take part in them.

In my experience, the focused and relaxed state of hypnosis can have nearly miraculous results when it comes to achieving simple physical state changes. Whenever I relieve severe burn pain, remove nausea, and relieve other physical issues for a client in just a few seconds, it still amazes and surprises me, even though I'm supposedly the one with the "power" (although as we know, the real power exists within the client's unconscious mind). Our minds are capable of blocking out severe nausea and pain; so helping to prevent one from biting their nails is a simple goal in comparison.

I've found three of the most powerful hypnotic techniques to be association, substitution and anchoring. With association, one can link a negative behavior to something truly unpleasant; with substitution, one can replace the bad habit with a harmless one; with anchoring, one can link physical movement triggers with alternative feelings and behaviors.

With association, just like the simple hypnotic phenomenon can make a slice of white bread taste like a delectable slice of New York Cheesecake to a subject, one can make the taste and feeling of nail biting to be very distasteful. If your subject is consistently and repeatedly conditioned to feel that the taste and feel of nail biting is very unpleasant, it will help the habit to disappear.

There are chemical products that achieve this goal via foul tasting nail polish. However, with a mental association they can stop nail biting without relying on consistently applying a chemical product. This "aversion" type of therapy isn't generally very helpful. But it is reliable only when used as an adjunct to relieving the stress that causes one to bite their nails, as well as extinguishing conditioned responses (unconscious associations), which triggers one to bite their nails.

With substitution, it can be very effective to replace the nail biting affliction with a more benign behavior. For instance, it is quite effective to place the suggestion that whenever one feels the impulses that lead them towards nail biting, they will take a deep breath instead, and slowly exhale, experiencing all the same feelings and resolution that nail biting used to bring. I have found the deep breathing substitute to be effective and relaxing for a wide variety of issues.

Anchoring similarly can be used to subvert one action into a different one, and works well with association and substitution. It is useful in creating the suggestion that each time subjects see their fingers coming to their mouth, they strongly remember the bad taste association, and they take a deep breath instead to relieve the tension.

In summary, hypnotherapy has long been recognized as one of the best techniques for negative habit modification. Just as with smoking cessation, the techniques and concepts described here prove to be very successful as a long-term nail-biting cure.