To make it simple, the difference between hypnosis and hypnotherapy is like growing a garden.

Yeah, that's kind of corny, but hear me out...

The first thing you do to grow a garden is plant the seeds. And then water them.

This is what hypnosis does.

But if you plant the seeds on land that is already filled with weeds and other things, it is a lot harder for your garden to grow.

So, hypnotherapy is the process of removing the weeds and clearing out the soil, so your new seeds can grow.

Okay, that was really corny. I'll just tell you...

Hypnosis is a state of consciousness and it's also a process...of getting to that state of consciousness.

You probably go through this state at least once a day, whether you're daydreaming, watching a movie, falling asleep, or reading a book (or falling asleep from reading a book!).

Hypnosis is the process of getting to this state and using suggestions and positive affirmations to change whatever you are ready to change.

The instructions for self hypnosis goes into detail about this process.

Hypnotherapy is a form of therapy where you and a hypnotherapist use hypnosis to find out what your false beliefs are (i.e. what is holding you back) and rework them so you can move forward.

Or you could call it clearing out the weeds, if you want to use the garden analogy.

So, that's basically the difference between hypnosis and hypnotherapy.

There are more details in how hypnosis works.