When undergoing hypnosis, hypnotherapy or hypnotism, one undergoes a change in the way the brain allows you to think, feel and act, simply by putting oneself into a hypnotic state and listening to or repeating suggestions that get deeply into the mind and affect 
change. You can hypnotize yourself in self hypnosis or you can see a hypnotherapist who can help you go into a hypnotic trance. It takes a bit of special training to be able to do hypnosis.
Hypnotherapy or hypnotism involves an induction state in which the client undergoes visualization exercises such as using the staircase technique in which the hypnotherapist counts backwards from ten to one and then the client imagines he or she is descending a staircase with ten steps, the bottom of which is a feather bed. Other visualization techniques have to do with actively relaxing the muscles around the face, arms and legs until the person is completely relaxed.
In the practice of hypnosis, hypnotherapy, hypnotism or related techniques, an individual can be given particular suggestions that can affect change in the way they act, think or feel after that. For example, if the individual is suffering from weight loss issues, they can be given suggestions related to weight loss and will begin to lose weight because they won’t be so hungry anymore. For example, suggestions such as “I am not hungry for sweets” or “I am not attracted to fatty foods” or “I am a thin person inside myself” will affect change in behavior (eating) and in thinking (self esteem). It changes the way the person acts around food.
Hypnosis, hypnotherapy and hypnotism can be used for many medical conditions. These techniques can be used for pain control such as the pain of childbirth, the pain of cancer or the pain of irritable bowel syndrome or arthritis. One basically goes through the induction process and then is fed suggestions like “The pain is blunted and I hardly feel it” or “You will no longer feel such pain” or “The pain is completely controllable.” Such suggestions work on the brain and probably affect the levels of endorphins in the body so that there is a diminished feeling of pain.
When you undergo hypnosis, hypnotherapy or hypnotism for smoking cessation, you can often have the urge to quit smoking after just one session. The hypnotherapist puts you into a hypnotic trance and then feeds you suggestions to help you quit smoking. Suggestions can include those like “I have no need to smoke” or “I am a nonsmoker” or “I am repulsed by the thought of smoking”. It affects the way you behave around smoking, it affects what you think about smoking and it affects what you feel about smoking.
Hypnosis, hypnotherapy and hypnotism can be used for anxiety or phobias. After going into a hypnotic trance, the client is fed suggestions like “You are no longer afraid of water” or “Animals don’t bother you anymore” or “I am not afraid of heights at all”. It can simply change the life of anyone who undergoes the process.
