Many people believe hypnosis to be some mysterious state but it's actually quite simple. We experience it every day. Put simply, hypnosis is a state of deep relaxation and awareness during which you are highly susceptible to suggestion. For example, when you're driving on the freeway and you are so deep in thought that you end up missing your exit, that deep mental focus and awareness is the state of hypnosis. Or maybe when you get so caught up in thinking that you don't even realize that someone is speaking to you. That is hypnosis. This is the root of where our mental issues arise from. We are listening to ourselves think every day. When our thoughts are negative, our outlook on life or a particular experience in our lives becomes a negative association in our minds. ​From when we are children to around the age of 8, our experiences are perceived as either negative or positive. We make those associations based on a reward system. For example, if we do something well, like a sport or activity and we are praised for it, we associate that particular task or experience positively. Alternatively, let's say you play that same sport or activity, and you are teased or berated. Your mind then forms a negative association with that activity. We live our lives based on a collection of experiences. These experiences can either have a good or bad impact on how we think. Hypnotherapy uses hypnosis as a tool to alter those ingrained perspectives and associations for the better.