What is the difference between hypnosis and hypnotherapy?

A common misconception that has been around is that hypnosis and hypnotherapy are one and the same. They are not. The primary differences are:

1. Hypnosis has been existent since time immemorial. Since the time people knew the experience of the state of trance. Hypnotherapy is relatively new, just like many other therapy like talking therapy, etc.
2. The goal of hypnotherapy is to help one achieve a goal, or solve a problem, or bring about a positive change in one’s personality.
3. Many people know about hypnosis from stage shows and movies that portrays hypnotism as a kind of black magic to control someone to make him or do anything that they want. And that’s portrayed by making someone cry or laugh. Hypnotherapy is much more than making someone to cry or laugh, with a willingness to achieve a desired goal.

For instance, neither the soil, nor the air, nor the water has citric acid. But an orange tree takes in water from the soil, carbon dioxide from the air, and energy from sun, and can create the citric acid available in orange. But a dead tree can’t do that, probably because its lacking that “spark of life”.

Similarly, this life spark should be able to create the most appropriate “medicine” required by our body if the raw materials(food, water, oxygen, sunlight) are available. And since this life spark(the conscious entity) interacts with the body through the mind/brain, a healthy body coexists with a healthy mind. Maybe thats how things like hypnosis, meditation, mantra healing, etc works to restore psychosomatic disorders.