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ALBANY, GA. -- "As you’re driving, your mind can be a thousand different places but you’re still driving your car safely and you get there," said Dr. Nick Carden. He is describing a mild form of hypnosis, a controversial technique he uses at Albany’s Renaissance Centre.

"It is designed for use with people who are suggestible, who are willing to allow themselves to enter different mental states for the purpose of accomplishing a specific task," said Carden.

While the idea of guiding people into a different level of consciousness in order to treat their ailments may sound bizarre or futuristic, the concept is not new. First popularized by the Scottish surgeon James Braid in 1841, the practice of hypnosis is still widely misunderstood.

For many, the term brings to mind images of a man waving a gold watch or a performer commanding large groups of people to cluck like chickens or pass out at the snap of a finger. "Those are fun things to go to if people want entertainment but that’s really the value," said Carden. "Hypnosis is not something where you are under control or the spell of another person."

Modern hypnotherapy employs various techniques to place people into different levels of consciousness – or unconsciousness, depending on your point of view. "What you use hypnosis for is primarily to help people when they have things that have become so habitual, that have become so repetitive, that it’s almost like blinking an eye," explained Carden.

Once the subject is in a trance, the therapist attempts to plant the seeds of new behaviors that will, hopefully, take the place of old behaviors.

Hypnotherapy is often used to help people stop smoking and Carden has seen success. "I’ve had people in the past where on one or two sessions, they come back ten years later and say, ‘I haven’t had a cigarette since,' " he said

Other common uses are pain management, eating disorders, and relaxation.

Some – like Dr. Cheryl Kaiser of Insight Psychotherapy – are skeptical about relying too much on a person’s suggestibility and too little on science. "There’s a lot of different alternative therapies that operate under that notion. I think that’s a little more of the art of psychology," said Kaiser.

Even when hypnosis does work, many therapists believe the individual undergoing treatment is missing out on an opportunity to confront their problems head on. They say when a person tackles his or her own issues on their own terms, the strength gained from that experience can last a lifetime. "I think that it’s empowering for people to take responsibility of their lives and find things that they can really dig into to do different and better," said Kaiser.

She prefers a more dynamic approach where both therapist and patient share ideas. "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is really kind of a self-empowering process where you can learn about how your own thoughts really have a great deal of impact on the way you behave," said Kaiser.

Carden, meanwhile, believes the effectiveness of any form of therapy depends on a patient’s willingness to believe in the treatment process. "We know that one of the healing factors in psychotherapy is the installation of hope and if you give people an expectation that things are going to get better, than they are more likely to get better," he said.

Do you believe in hypnotherapy? Sound off in the comments section below.