POULSBO — The word hypnosis can bring to mind visions of county fair sideshows and old gags found in cheesy movies.

But hypnotherapist Marie Rhodes is hoping to dispel those stereotypes one patient at a time.

Rhodes, who has been practicing for about three years, started seeing patients in August in a rented space at Armstrong Fitness University off Viking Avenue. Though she has witnessed the method help people overcome a variety of maladies, Rhodes said she still has trouble convincing people that it is safe.

“People tend to mistrust it,” she said. “People tend to see it and believe those old myths and they tend to come here as a last resort.”

One of the biggest myths Rhodes encounters is that people believe hypnosis is mind control. They fear that Rhodes could tell them to empty out their bank account or to do something embarrassing and they would have to comply.

The truth, Rhodes said, is that in hypnotherapy, the patient is always in control. They can, and do, pop out of the extreme state of relaxation if they are given an inappropriate suggestion.

“Hypnosis is a focused state of attention. People go in and out of it all the time,” Rhodes explained. “People always have control. Your subconscious is always on the alert even though it may not look like it.”

The other reality, Rhodes added, is that hypnosis works really well in helping people quit smoking, lose weight, gain motivation, relieve stress and achieve many other desired results.

“Any habit of thought, feeling or behavior can be changed through hypnosis,” Rhodes said. “Any of the problems that healthy adults have are easy to fix with it.”

Rhodes, a Poulsbo resident since 1989, is a registered nurse who had to stop practicing in 1996 due to the onset of Multiple Sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. She became interested in hypnotherapy to help herself through the mental challenges of her illnesses and realized that it could be a new career path for her. She said hypnotherapy suits her because it does not involve as much physical activity as being a nurse did but it utilizes the same compassion, care and understanding of the human body as her former career.

“Chronic illness impacts a person in a very negative way and I’m aware of that,” Rhodes said. “I think that makes me a more caring and perceptive person for those cases.”

A member of the National Guild of Hypnotists and the American Association of Professional Hypnotists, Rhodes trained at the Institute for Therapeutic Teaching in Seattle. Though hypnotherapy has been practiced since the mid 1800s, and named an accepted modality by the American Medical Association in 1958, she said the field has really been booming in the last 20 years. Besides personality and habit issues, Rhodes said some doctors are starting to prescribe hypnotherapy to their patients for medical conditions like Irritable Bowel Syndrome, nail biting and even feelings of anxiousness prior to surgery.

“We’re moving into an age where traditional medicine and alternatives are moving together and hypnotherapy is part of that compliment to the medical world,” Rhodes said.

And once people decide to take the plunge, Rhodes said someone like herself, who only offers hypnotherapy, is a great choice. Some therapists offer hypnosis among their modes of operation but rarely use the technique. Rhodes believes that when it comes to helping someone through subconscious road blocks, training is the key. In three years of practice, she’s logged more than 360 hours of education.

“But the only thing I can’t do is make them really want to,” Rhodes commented. “They have to genuinely want to make the change and that goes back to how it’s not mind control.”