A stop smoking clinic is like a one-stop smoking shop that helps a smoker quit, advises them on how to give up smoking, and what methods are available to help them. At the clinic, the smoker undergoes several counseling sessions, which are conducted on a one-to-one basis, as well as in groups. Most of these clinics enjoy a high success rate because they have trained counselors, mixing behavior-change therapy along with counseling. The counseling session normally lasts an hour, and is held twice or three times a week. However, the interaction is not limited to counseling sessions alone.

Both counselors and therapists, specializing in understanding the mind and behavior of a smoker, staff the stop smoking clinics. A smoker can consult or interact with the counselor at any point of time. All smokers experience withdrawal symptoms like emotional distress or abnormal weight gain when they give up smoking. It is at this stage that counseling proves very useful, providing the emotional support that the smoker so desperately needs.

Some clinics put the smokers on nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) to effectively control the withdrawal symptoms. Based on the smoker's likes and dislikes, they advise the use of nicotine patches, nicotine inhalers, nicotine gum or nicotine tablets, with regular exercise also as part of the program. The exercises seem to make the smoker feel healthy and reduce the urge for a smoke. Some clinics also advise the smoker to pick up a new hobby or interest to keep him busy.

The clinics stay in touch with smokers even after they have finished the program. The idea is to provide continuous support so that the smoker does not go back to smoking again. After they leave the clinic's program, the patients are mailed pamphlets that provide useful information or asked to attend seminars. Many consider this phase of treatment more important than actually quitting. The fact that smokers go back to smoking after a few years has a lot to do with this.