First of all, hello! I've been lurking on this site for almost 4 years and have finally worked up the courage to raise my hand in class for the first time :P

My reason for doing so is because, after many years of enjoying wonderful the art, writing and many other things that I've found for this fetish, I want to finally seek out experiences for myself, however, I haven't any idea where to start.

I'm primarily looking for Hypno & Petplay stuff to get involved in. Be it forums, community sites, events (online or irl - I'm UK based) or anything else I'm failing to think of right now, I'd like to know where I can go to find people and experience these fetishes myself. I'd also welcome any words of wisdom people may have for me.

Thank you all in advance and I hope you're having a great day!

Take a look at reddit communities for hypnosis.
There's r/erotichypnosis (for discussing and learning) and r/hypnohookup (for actually finding a partner/hypnotist/subject), which are good places to start and talk to people. You can also find files all over youtube and reddit as well, though i'd preview them beforehand (or have someone you trust do it) to make sure there's nothing in there you won't like.
EDIT: There's also hypno meetups and convention style events, but I wouldn't recommend them for a newbie. They can be very fulfilling, or very overwhelming, and it's hard to guess which, sometimes.

Been a couple of days, but I just wanted to say thanks! Through your suggestions, I found a good Discord and I've had some positive hypno-flavoured experiences! So thank you!

Glad I could help! Hope you can continue to have those positive experiences.