Hypnosis

... is a perfectly relaxed state of mind that we experience every day of our lives. It is a deepened form of relaxation and the senstaions involved will be very familiar to most people. The feeling just after you wake up in the morning, but when you still don't want to move; the feeling of distraction when driving on the motorway; day dreaming; performing a monotonous task and functioning on "autopilot"; not noticing time passing - these are all common examples of degrees of hypnotic states. There are varying degrees of trance and these have different uses for different therapeutic applications.

Therapy ... is a treatment intended to promote relief from a problem.

Hypnotherapy

... is the use of hypnotic techniques to access the unconscious parts of the brain. Suggestions are used to promote alleviation from the difficulty at hand. In this relaxed state, individuals are highly responsive to beneficial direction. The uses of these techniques are wide and varied

For example: self esteem building and stress management issues can be addresed through relaxation methods; symptoms of physical illnesses that are exacerbated by stress (skin disorder, IBS etc) can be alleviated; a vast range of psychogenic problems (symptoms for which there are no traceable physical causes) can be successfully treated, and pain management for many condition's can imporve the sufferer's quality of life. The effects of hypnosis on pain control are well documented and current research has shown that hypnotic pain control is not a placebo effect. There is a physiological action that explains it's effectiveness. For example, it has been shown through PET (positron emission tomography) scans that hypnosis directly affects areas of the brain involved in pain perception.