What is Hypnosis?
Hypnosis is a relaxing, natural state of mind. It is often describe as that lovely, cozy feeling just prior to sleep.
It is not however sleep itself.

Hypnosis induces a state of relaxation allowing the the conscious mind to harmonise with the unconscious mind
(sub-conscious.) Both chemically and electrically the left and right hemispheres of the brain work together. Hypnosis can be self induced or induced by another person. It is produced through relaxation of the body, concentration, imagination, suggestibility and goal orientation. The main theme is suggestibility. Using the sensory perception of the conscious mind with suggestions of relaxation, imagination, goal orientation, concentration and suggestions the conscious and unconscious become in harmony with each other recording the same message simultaneously. This then is understood logically by the conscious mind and association by the unconscious mind. When this happens endorphins are released into the brain and both the conscious and unconscious mind produce alpha waves patterns.

The Mind
The mind works on two levels the conscious and the unconscious. Both play extremely important roles but each has a specific function of its own while interacting with the other. Our interpretation of the world initially starts from the conscious part of the mind, this information is fed into the unconscious to be stored and used. The unconscious has no logic or reasoning abilities. Information constantly fed to the unconscious mind becomes a behaviour, a belief. I. E.G. A learnt experience, a pattern, a habit or an addiction. Good or bad for you the unconscious does not differentiate, it does exactly what it is programmed to do. So what is presumed with a conscious action and thought is absorbed into the unconscious. Please note the unconscious mind wins over any conscious effort to change a learnt experience.
The conscious mind every second can accept about 7 pieces of separate information, the unconscious can absorb around 10,000 pieces of information every second.
It is worth mentioning that the unconscious mind controls the body, ie. the function of the organs, blood circulation, digestion and so on. It also controls breathing although that can be consciously controlled at times when required.It is my understanding that most health issues can be helped by aiding the unconscious mind to heal the body and change the belief factor that brought the disease into conscious reality. Holistic hypnotherapy is a positive step to enable the body to ease or rid itself of health issues. (This I can discuss in more depth if you wish to contact me)

What Hypnosis Does
Being in a state of hypnosis with a qualified therapist allows direct access to the unconscious mind to change negative habits and learnt beliefs that no conscious mind has the ability to change. We live life mainly through the unconscious although it appears we experience life through the conscious mind. It is now scientifically understood that thoughts can create our reality. We are not always mindful of the thoughts we think, sometimes we are not even aware of them. They become habitual, and embedded in the unconscious mind. Being in a state of hypnosis allows the therapist to redirect the unconscious mind from negative patterns or behaviours to more suitable, healthier and positive patterns and behaviours. Dealing directly with the unconscious mind positive changes are accepted naturally and permanently.

NLP.
Neuro Linguistic Programming
Neuro = Nervous system through which experience is received and processed through the five senses
Linguistic = Language verbal and non verbal communication systems through which natural representations are coded, ordered and given meaning
Programming = The ability to organise our communication and neurological systems to achieve specific desired goals and results.
I have to admit I got this definition from the Internet.
Every person uses all the above to receive information at any given time. But how we process the information and what we make of it is different for each one of us. NLP uses the known factors (above) to aid an individual in adapting their abilities to the fullest. It also helps an individual to strengthen weaker areas of their individual information system. It is a system to bring about human excellence developed in the 1970's by Richard Brandler and John Grinder. Many of it's known techniques are simple but effective and when used in conjunction with hypnosis can have astonishing results.