Chris Barry, Clinical Hypnotist

12/22/2024

A quick heads up for anyone looking me up here and wanting to contact me for anything: my web page seems to be having some issues on the Wordpress side for the past couple of days, making it impossible to receive new contact forms. So if you need something, email me directly at chrisbarryhypnosis@gmail.com until the tech nerds at the web hosting can catch the hamster and get it back in the wheel. Thanks.

Also, Merry Christmas. :)

05/12/2022

Here' s a little live presentation I did for my networking group a month or so ago. I didn't feel like doing just another PowerPoint so I did some simple Blender3D animation renders and ran everything through OBS. I only had time for one quick question at the end but maybe you all find it informative and/or entertaining. It was fun to make. :)

03/18/2022

Good morning, all. Just a quick heads up: apparently the contact form on my web site hasn't been working recently, and I only just found out when a prospective client called and told me they couldn't fill it out. Even now I've tried testing it to send myself messages and it seems something on the back end changed or got broken or something. I also kind of started to wonder what was happening since business had suddenly begun to slow down for no reason ...

Anyway, phone and email and what have you still work. Hopefully I can get that contact form sorted. Apologies to anyone who tried to contact me that way recently and didn't get a response.

11/14/2021

For the record, my CPU socket had 5, count 'em, 5 bent pins, which was another major reason it wouldn't start. Yes, I had to correct them by hand. Took me like an hour.

10/08/2021

Interesting article that crossed my browser recently. I continue to advocate what I've always advocated for: the best way to deal with triggers isn't to accommodate them or get the world to change for you or to bury them or whatever ... it's to get rid of them. In the same way that offense is never given, only taken, nothing is inherently triggering unless you personally consider it a trigger. That can feel like it's out of your control if you've suffered some sort of trauma or have PTSD. But it's not. I've posted at length about that before -- the idea that you aren't coming to me to be hypnotized, you're coming to me to be UN-hypnotized -- but if you want to know more, call or email me. Consultations are free. Let's talk.

New psychological research suggests that trigger warnings do not reduce negative reactions to disturbing material—and may even increase them.

07/22/2021

Quick apologies to anyone trying to call me today; my phone decided it doesn't want to charge anymore. Oh well; I'm due for a new phone anyway. :) In the meantime, feel free to email me while I get that sorted.

06/17/2021

I was at the grocery store today and noticed a cover story on Howie Mandel and his daughter, about battling extreme OCD and anxiety, particularly around germs and cleanliness. It reminded me of this clip from years ago, where a hypnotist (not even a hypnotherapist, a STAGE hypnotist) got Howie to shake hands without issue. I made a point at the time of showing this off to a lot of less progressive hypnotherapists I knew who had a hard time believing stage hypnosis techniques can accomplish this. In our discussions, most of us were strongly of the opinion that Howie's OCD and anxiety could be treated very easily and long-term with proper hypnotherapy.

That didn't happen, of course. When Howie realized what had happened (technically without his consent), he was quite upset and went through quite a bit of therapy to deal with it. It's a shame he didn't take a more positive reaction and realize that this was something that could (and did) actually really help him. Imagine being anxiety-free for the last five years, instead of being so afflicted that People Magazine runs an article on your mental issues.

Anxiety has been running at an all time high for everyone over the last year due to loss of jobs, isolation, fears and uncertainties of the future, and other issues I'm mentioned in the past. I haven't posted in a bit partly because I've been quite busy and distracted with clients (seeing the magazine inspired this post). Maybe you think you've got it bad. Even as bad as Howie Mandel. But no matter your issues, they aren't a part of you. I tell people you aren't coming to me to be hypnotized, you're coming to me to be UN-hypnotized. You're coming to me because there's something you've got in your subconscious making you think or feel or do things against your will, and you only think change is hard because society tells you it is. Or you choose to buy into it as part of your identity. Or some other excuse. It's not true. Get in touch. Get your life back.

A professional hypnotist tricks germaphobe Howie Mandel into shaking hands with the judges! This feat will make you a believer!One Of The best auditions of a...

07/27/2020

Happy Monday, everyone. In lieu of a news article I thought I'd share a little story today that outlines the power of the subconscious.

As I've mentioned in the past, I do some public hypnosis demonstrations at trade shows, in booths, or sometimes in stage shows or out in parks as a street hypnotist. One of the times that stuck out to me as memorable was when a mother and daughter came by my booth at the Calgary Women's Show. I'm pretty sure this particular event was two or three years ago.

I worked with the daughter while the mother watched. It was fairly standard with a rapid induction and a few simple routines like sticking her to the chair and making her unable to remember her name. Stuff that I've posted footage of before. Whenever she was "asleep", she was lying on my shoulder, leaned up against me as we were sitting side by side in the booth. She was a good subject. And the whole time the mother was looking on with her mouth open in surprise. I thought she was just impressed with what I was doing. That wasn't quite it. :)

When I finished, I brought her back up and we both stood for her to go, the mother pointed at her and just said "She hates touching people!" And the daughter got a confused look on her face and said "hey, wait, I was lying against you and it didn't bother me." Turns out the daughter had a sever dislike of touching people, hugging, even shaking hands. But as she was in trance, all that anxiety went away. No therapy needed. I didn't even know until after. But just because of the simple work I was doing, whatever subconscious negative trigger she had just evaporated. The anxiety was gone and completely replaced with comfort and ease doing something she was basically unable to do before.

The reason I tell the story is that it shows the natural healing state of hypnosis. Sometimes all that's needed is to shut off the overly thinking part of your brain that brings up the worry, the anxious thoughts, the ruminations, the irrational fears, and just be in a state where you can feel as if you could just do whatever it is you want to do. I often tell people that even without the therapy side of it, hypnosis is a natural anxiety reliever. In more ways than one. It's why it's so effective at dealing with fears and phobias, among other things.

I hope you enjoyed that little story. If it inspired you to think of something I can help you with, or to help someone you know who is held back by anxiety or fears they don't need, you should reach out and have a conversation. I'd be happy to talk about how I can help make that kind of change long-term. Have a great week!

06/28/2020

Been a while since I shared a news article.

Sports improvement is a pretty common thing I've helped with, personally. From boxing to golf to dance to equestrian to weight lifting to skating to luge, I've helped a lot of athletes up their game. They say sports is 50% mental, but no one actually does anything about it. Fortunately, I can. If you need help getting past some mental blocks or just to get over a plateau, come talk to me and let's see what we can do. :)

Beating Sharath Kamal in 2012 was a pivotal moment for the 34-year-old who has not looked back since.

05/12/2020

Hey all. With people starting to go back to work, a new source of anxiety has arisen: fear of Covid-19 infection. As we start interacting with the public more, people with jobs where social distancing is not entirely possible (like hairdressers or massage therapists) are becoming concerned for their own well-being, even with best practices for sanitizing and PPE.

Smoking cessation and weight loss are always common hypnotherapy inquiries for me, but now people are even more motivated because not addressing them can cause vulnerabilities with coronavirus. Smoking in particular means your respiratory system is more likely to develop complications, with some studies saying smokers are up to 14 times more likely to die from coronavirus, up to 17 times more likely to develop those complications in the first place, and actually a bit of an increased likelihood to catch the virus at all (mostly due to the smoker's habit of putting their fingers to their mouth every time they take a drag). There are some similar numbers even for va**ng, and being overweight carries risks of coronavirus complications as well.

I don't want to be accused of fearmongering, but if you needed further motivation to make changes in your life that you should be making anyway, here we go. The sooner you get that ni****ne out of your system and get healthier, the better. That's always been true, of course, but now more than ever. If you or someone you know needs to quit smoking now, get in touch now and let's talk about how hypnotherapy can help.