Hypnotic trance has been utilised by mankind since early civilisation and is still an element of tribal ceremonies in regions such as Africa & Australia.
The Egyptians created ‘sleep temples’ in which priests gave healing treatments to their patients through suggestion. These temples spread through Greece and the Romans learned it via the Greeks.
The actual word ‘hypnosis’ comes from the Greek word ‘hypnos’ which means to sleep. However hypnosis is NOT a sleep state – and is usually described as a state somewhere between sleep and wakefulness.

What hypnosis does is to allow the subconscious mind to become more receptive and to allow a dialogue to take place between the conscious and subconscious mind.

Here's a simple analogy:
Imagine you are a computer, the screen is your conscious mind and the hard drive is your stored information or subconscious.

Sometimes our hard drives are infected with a “virus”, once the virus is cleared the hard drive then will function properly again.

If these “viruses” were unpleasant or traumatic events and occurred during childhood they will have been programmed into our subconscious and allowed to be repressed. These repressed memories can re-emerge later in life and manifest themselves sometimes as a completely debilitating condition or phobia. A young child for example, who is threatened or attacked by a dog may have serious dog phobias or other issues in later life

Occasionally we need to clear the virus or reprogram this stored information (which is the product of all our memories and experiences) and allow ourselves to function unhampered by viruses or negative programming.

In instances such as this, hypnotherapy can help release these repressed emotions – and this is done through analytical therapy.