If you manage to actually go into a deep trance, then the therapy can be as effective, because the therapy side of the hypnosis is quite easy once the person is in a hypnotic trance. However the key difference between self hypnosis/audio hypnosis and using a practioner, is indeed the ability to get into the trance. A practioner has a lot more ability to do so because he is responding in the moment to the reaction of the person being hypnotised. He needs the ability to create the trance in the first place, but because he is able to respond, he can also generate the trance around the individuals thought process. If you can get into a good quality of trance through audio then its contents wont be much worse than a hypnosis session, but that isnt necessarily easy. A good idea with it, is to get comfortable, and already quite relaxed before listening, so that you are already a step ahead before the audio begins.

If anyone wants to practice hypnosis for free, send me message. I have been studying hypnosis at the moment for about a year and am looking to practice and experiment both on self hypnosis and with hypnotising people in general. I am quite profficient in generating self hypnosis, I dont have much experience in hypnotising others however. Good luck!