We are driven by our emotions. While we like to think of ourselves as rational, in truth, most of our decisions are made out of a subconscious* feeling.

When we "do the thing we don't want to do," when we do the thing we "know" is not good for us, we are often being driven by a feeling/drive/fear/or emotion buried in our subconscious. Bad habits, fears and phobias, procrastination (internal resistance toward working on a stated goal), and purposelessness, are outcroppings of our own subconscious resistance when what the subconscious believes is not in line with our conscious desires.
Intention

When using the hypnotherapeutic state to access the subconscious, our intention determines where we "go." Since 2007, I have used hypnotherapy to help clients discover and explore:

the origin of a troubling issue (habit, phobia, sleep disturbance, etc.)
their own memories and childhoods
the possibility of past lives (past life, or time, regression)
the between life state (life-between-life regression)
their own sense of purpose and direction
their best choice between two offers, or possible alternatives with different outcomes (future life, or time, progression)

Hypnotherapy is different, and more profound, than hypnosis-alone. It is an excellent tool with which to explore your own subconscious motivations.

Both hypnotherapy and hypnosis allow a professional to lead you in a guided visualization, in order to induce a light, relaxed, meditative, state. In that state, your conscious mind is present and observing, but quiet, and your subconscious mind comes to the foreground.

In hypnosis-alone, suggestions are then made to the subconscious, with the intention of bringing improvement to your issue.

In hypnotherapy, I facilitate your self-exploration by asking your subconscious the question(s) you have about your issue.
As you begin to answer those questions, I help you move from question to question, in a process of deepening self-exploration of the underlying reasons for your present issue.
After the exploration, hypnotic suggestions are made that are tailored to what you discovered.
- *Note: The professional hypnotherapist does not implant answers, but rather, facilitates you finding your own answers - expressing whatever is there for you in the relaxed state.
- *Note: Being "under" hypnosis - or "in" hypnotherapy - is not "sleep." You are aware. You are always in control. You cannot get "stuck" and can "come back" at any time. If a client is not "brought back," the worst that can happen is that they will fall asleep and awaken normally.
- *Note: YOUR free will cannot be overridden.
  - You will never accept a suggestion to which you are opposed (college students and audience members in a stage hypnosis demonstration are willing to act funny).
  - You will never accept a suggestion to which you are ethically or morally opposed.
- *Note: Both hypnotherapy and hypnosis can bring improvement, helping you shift habits and behaviors. Hypnotherapy offers a deeper level of self-knowledge, with the intention of facilitating a more profound level of change.

The professional hypnotherapist makes suggestions (of which you are aware) to your subconscious to observe, not re-experience, whatever comes to you in the hypnotherapeutic state. Therefore, you do not relive past pain. But in remembering it, as an observer, you facilitate being able to release it and move forward with your intentions for your life as it is now.

IF I can just download a hypnotic induction on the internet, what is the value of working with a professional?

The professional tailors the induction, the questions, and the suggestions to you, in particular.
The professional functions as the conscious mind, and is responsive to what you are observing and reporting from the subconscious realm. The professional facilitates you getting to the root of the issues (to "see" - or uncover - more), and makes suggestions tailored to what you “see” in order to make deeper change.
- As a trained professional, what I bring to the table is the opportunity for you to explore further, to ask the questions you want answers to, and to receive the suggestions that make the most sense for you. Together, we ask, why you are putting off the changes you would like to make. We ask, where the origin of a fear lies and how to release it. We ask what you are "getting out of" that habit your conscious mind so desperately wants to leave behind.
A recording stops just as you are beginning to "see" and cannot help you explore further.

Yes. You may record the hypnotherapy part of any session via your own app (like an audio app on your phone), or I can give you the ability to record, via Zoom, to your own cloud or computer.

You use the word “subconscious,” when Freud discussed the “unconscious.”
- Freud did hypothesize a dichotomy between the conscious and the unconscious mind. However, in my experience both as a practitioner of, and as a recipient of, hypnotherapy, that which comes to the surface in hypnosis is often experiences as that which was just below the surface - not conscious - but not so deep as to be buried in total unawareness. Much of what we uncover are the kinds of drives and affective states to which we often exclaim, "I knew that!" even though, they were things we had not quite told ourselves. I use the common parlance of "subconscious" when the perceptual experience is that of the light bulb going on about the thing we "knew" but didn't really "tell ourselves."