Hypnotherapy is the process of using hypnosis to interact with the subconscious mind in an open-reflective process to create positive change in your life. There are many techniques and many styles and many applications of hypnotherapy. They all have several things in common: (1) a strong desire to change, (2) a state of deeply relaxed focus, and (3) language and visualization in relationship to emotions.

Or in other words:
Hypnotherapy is the practice of psychotherapy with a client who is in a hypnotic altered state of consciousness. Hypnotherapy is a powerful way to access the source of distress, like depression and anxiety, and for people to reconnect with dissociated emotions and disowned parts of themselves. Hypnotherapy helps therapists and the client get closer to the source of a client’s issues by opening the doorway to their subconscious mind.

While hypnosis and hypnotherapy are in the same “family,” they are very different from each other. The core difference is that hypnotherapy is an
internationally-recognized therapy technique for treating mental and psychosomatic issues. It uses hypnosis to break through to the subconscious to better understand the foundation of the issues a client is facing.

Therapists use different types of hypnotic induction to get people into a trance state.
The most well known and effective technique to induce a trance state is the voice
induction, eye fixation, asking clients to stare at a spot on the ceiling or an object, or their thumb as it moves slowly backward and forward.

Hypnosis is one of the world’s oldest sciences. Amazingly, ancient hieroglyphics show that the Egyptians were using hypnosis as early as 3,000 B.C. There is evidence the Greeks and the Mayans understood it and used it as well. Like other sciences, hypnotism has had its experimenters, its pioneers, its lucky guessers, and its experts.

While hypnosis has had a place in society for thousands of years, it has also carved out a place as a legitimate modern medical practice, where it is called hypnotherapy.

Hypnosis is simply a state of relaxed focus. It is a natural state. In fact, each of us enters such a state – sometimes called a trance state – at least twice a day: once when we are falling asleep, and once when we are waking up. That kind of fuzzy, timeless state between dreaming and awake is a trance state. When a nine-minute snooze button seems to give you enough time to have an hour-long dream, that’s a trance state.
There are many other times that people enter a natural state of trance. Driving, watching TV, listening to music, working on a favorite hobby or activity in the “flow” state. These are all “altered states of consciousness,” and all are various levels of trance. Trance is normal, natural, and common.
Some people leave their first hypnotherapy session saying, “I wasn’t hypnotized – I knew what was going on the whole time!” Well of course you did! Hypnosis is not a state of amnesia or of no awareness. Just the opposite is true, in fact: hypnosis is a state of very heightened awareness and focus.
Hollywood has perpetrated many myths about hypnosis, and not remembering anything from the hypnosis session is one of those myths. Only under special circumstances would a person forget everything from a session.
Much more can be accomplished when the person undergoing hypnosis remembers everything.

More simply put:
Hypnosis is a treatment intervention that involves inducing the client into a relaxed, suggestible state and then offering post-hypnotic suggestions for the relief of symptoms. It uses the hypnotic trance—the simple shifting back and forth between the conscious and subconscious mind, a natural process that occurs every day—in order to create this relaxed, suggestible state.

Many people think of hypnosis as inducing sleep. That’s actually not the case.
Hypnosis (and hypnotherapy) induce the “trance state.” It is actually a natural state of mind that many of us encounter in everyday life on a regular basis. If you’ve ever been engrossed in a book, movie, or performance, then you have likely experienced the trance state.

Many people think of hypnosis as inducing sleep. That’s actually not the case.
Hypnosis (and hypnotherapy) induce the “trance state.” It is actually a natural state of mind that many of us encounter in everyday life on a regular basis. If you’ve ever been engrossed in a book, movie, or performance, then you have likely experienced the trance state.

The hypnotic trance state creates a deep sense of relaxation and allows the client to let go. During this process, the hypnotherapist is able to uncover subconscious
motivations, access repressed memories, perform regression therapy, and/or use the power of suggestion to “re-map” the mind’s responses to stimuli.

Yes, hypnotherapy works. Professional organisations have consistently reported on the value of hypnotherapy. The British Medical Association has been formally studying and verifying it since 1892.

In the 1950s, both the British Medical Association and the American Medical
Association confirmed the efficacy of hypnotherapy as the official policy. They claimed:
“For the past hundred years, there has been an abundance of evidence that
psychological and physiological changes could be produced by hypnotism which was worth a study on their own account, and also that such changes might be of great service in the treatment of patients.”

In 2001, the British Psychological Society reported that: “Enough studies have now accumulated to suggest that the inclusion of hypnotic procedures may be beneficial in the management and treatment of a wide range of conditions and problems encountered in the practice of medicine, psychiatry, and psychotherapy.