For many, the term hypnotist conjures up visions of a Caribbean cruise entertainer convincing a conservative tire salesman to shed his inhibitions, jump on a table and perform a striptease. Or perhaps the diabolical mesmerizer of Hollywood thrillers who forces a demure niece to plunge a knife into her uncle’s heart.

If the show-business aspect of the hypnotic craft is what first comes to mind, don’t come calling on Jane Nealey.

As a hypnotherapist and founder of the New England School of Clinical Hypnotherapy in Northport, Nealey is serious about the benefits and therapeutic reach of hypnosis. And she has little room for the myth and magic associated with the craft.

“That kind of hypnosis, people out to have fun and a few laughs and looking for entertainment is totally different than what I do,” Nealey emphasized. “There’s really nothing mysterious about hypnosis. It’s all very natural and we all experience it. Hollywood got hold of it and filled it with fear. The reality is we cannot make you do anything that you would not do, period.”

Nealey and her husband Harold are the school’s founders. It is the only licensed hypnotherapy school on the northeast seaboard. The next closest teaching facility is in Virginia. The Maine Department of Education licensed the Northport school in 1997. The Nealeys are members of the National Guild of Hypnotists and the school is endorsed by the International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association.

Located on Route 1 next to an abandoned motel known affectionately to locals as the “Bates Motel,” the school is situated in a wood-frame house that is also the Home Infinity’s Life Line, a shop specializing in metaphysical items, talismans, and texts.

At the school, students attend a 100-hour course that teaches them the art of hypnosis and self-hypnosis. The goals are to provide students with the ability to help others find a sense of inner peace, balance and harmony. Besides the school’s two-semester program, the Nealeys offer private training in both basic and advanced courses of hypnotherapy.

The school also works in conjunction with physicians to help patients relieve stress, panic, fear, grief and other maladies brought on by outside influences. Besides dealing with illnesses, Nealey specializes in pain-management and works with people wanting to quit smoking, drinking, reduce their weight and overcome their fear of flying or public speaking.

“Our goal is to educate the public and put out qualified, well-trained hypnotherapists so they can work with licensed medical professionals to aid in the care of the whole well-being of the physician’s patient,” Nealey said. “Hypnotherapy is not a replacement or alternative. It is complementary to standard medical care.”

Nealey noted that the American Medical Association has accepted clinical hypnosis as an adjunct to standard medical care for more than 40 years. The AMA recommended that hypnosis instructions be included in the curriculum of medical schools and post-graduate training centers. Despite that recommendation, a recent survey revealed that barely 20 percent of the physicians interviewed had received hypnotherapy training.

This spring the school graduated one of its more interesting students, a blind American Indian medicine man from Canada. The man came to Nealey because he wanted to expand his healing skills, particularly for dealing with troubled children. A person does not have to see to be hypnotized or to hypnotize. Relaxation, breathing and voice control are techniques used in hypnotherapy.

“It’s was a very challenging thing and he did it beautifully,” Nealey said of her student. “This was the first time I ever taught a blind person and I had to adapt so he could see. It was a challenge for me and it was a challenge for him.”

Nealey said that hypnotism is used to connect the subconscious with the conscious mind. Unlike the conscious mind, which can reason, the subconscious part accepts information as it is revealed. The subconscious mind is imprinted at an early age and believes whatever it is told. Those thoughts remain in the mind’s memory banks forever.

“Whatever is in the bank, positive or negative, is what makes you do the things you do today,” Nealey said. “You have positive imprints, you have negative imprints. From that you form your belief system.”

For instance, an overweight person might constantly tell himself that he can’t lose weight. By repeating that enough, the inability to lose weight becomes imprinted in the subconscious. The same with a child who is told by a parent that he will never amount to anything, she said.

“It establishes a belief system that will stay there forever until someone comes in and either deletes it or updates that data,” she said. “What you tell yourself in private becomes your reality. Your thoughts are suggestions and you want them to be positive suggestions. This is about going into that part of our mind and taking out things put there by our role models.”

Hypnosis is a means of communication between the conscious and the subconscious mind. According to Nealey, the subconscious mind can do many things at one time, whereas the conscious mind is restricted to performing one task at a time. Hypnosis and self-hypnosis open the door to the subconscious, she said.

According to Nealey, a hypnotherapist can serve as a guide to the subconscious. She said people engage in self-hypnosis every day. The period before sleep and after awakening is a state of hypnosis. Many people hypnotize themselves while driving their car, performing the conscious act of driving while at the same time having no recollection of getting from Point A to Point B.

The key component of hypnosis and self-hypnosis is relaxation, she said.

“When we are relaxed we can be exposed to positive suggestions,” Nealey said. “When you do that, you tap into a vast amount of power we never knew we had. What you tell yourself can actually create a physical change in your body. Hypnotism is merely a guide to make positive changes. It’s about giving a suggestion and the other person accepting that suggestion.”