Christopher Paul Jones: The Breakthrough Expert

29/04/2026

🧠 Why do intelligent, rational people still react as if they’re in danger when they know they’re safe?

That was one of the themes I explored when I was invited onto the Beauty is a Bitch podcast with Lauren Dimet Waters.

We talked about conditioned fear responses, why logic alone often doesn’t switch anxiety off, and practical ways those patterns can begin to change.

Really enjoyed this conversation.

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s9-e3-how-to-calm-anxiety-when-it-feels-out-of/id1485484707?i=1000759211893

Podcast Episode · Beauty is a Bitch · April 4 · 41m

29/04/2026

🧠 Why do intelligent, rational people still react as if they’re in danger when they know they’re safe?

That was one of the themes I explored when I was invited onto the Beauty is a Bitch podcast with Lauren Dimet Waters.

We talked about conditioned fear responses, why logic alone often doesn’t switch anxiety off, and practical ways those patterns can begin to change.

Really enjoyed this conversation.

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s9-e3-how-to-calm-anxiety-when-it-feels-out-of/id1485484707?i=1000759211893

28/04/2026

Christopher Paul Jones Cures Spider Phobia live

28/04/2026

Can you really cure a phobia?

When a journalist puts your work to the test, there is nowhere to hide.

This feature follows one writer’s experience coming to see me with a fear of flying, and leaving with a very different relationship to it.

One line stayed with me:

“I feel as though the grip has loosened.”

The online version of the feature is now live in Absolutely Magazines.

Link in the comments

Can you really cure a phobia? A Harley Street therapist explains how irrational fears form, why they persist, and the treatments that help people overcome phobias like flying, spiders and confined spaces.

27/04/2026

Congnative Distortions

26/04/2026

Black and White thinking

26/04/2026

Most people have stress triggers. Few people create calm triggers.
We tend to notice what sets anxiety off, but rarely think about practising cues that bring us back to calm.
That can be learned.
I touch on some simple ways to do that in this article:

By Christopher Paul Jones, Harley Street phobia expert and author of ‘Face your Fears – 7 steps to conquering phobias and anxiety’

25/04/2026

🧠 Fear. Phobia. Anxiety. Stress. Most people use these words interchangeably. But they are NOT the same thing, and mixing them up is one of the biggest reasons people struggle to recover.
Here's what Christopher Paul Jones, Phobia Specialist, breaks down in Video 4 of the Face Your Fears series:

A FEAR is proportional. You don't like it, but you can push through it.
A PHOBIA is a disproportional, instant reaction. Freeze. Flee. Fight. Even the thought of the thing triggers a full response.
ANXIETY comes from a prolonged period of not feeling safe. Your nervous system gets "overclocked." The world starts to feel dangerous by default.
STRESS is specific. Once the stressor is gone, so is the stress. With anxiety, the alertness stays, even when there is nothing left to be alert to.

Phobia vs Anxiety: Why Your Brain Gets Them Completely Wrong

24/04/2026

What if you could create a kind of off switch for stress?
Most people have stress triggers. Few people create calm triggers.
One of the techniques I often share helps people build an internal cue for calm they can access when anxiety rises.
I like it because it’s simple, practical and something you can use in real situations, before a flight, before speaking, or in the middle of a stress spike.

I wrote more about it in Your Coffee Break.

Anxiety has become incredibly prevalent. So many people say they suffer from it, yet very few people really understand how it works, what causes it, or indeed how to change it. After working for many years as a Harley Street fear, phobia and anxiety specialist, I’ve found there are some very effec...

23/04/2026

Over the years I’ve helped many people overcome fears and phobias, including journalists who later wrote about the experience in their own publications.

A few examples:

“Instead of dread, I felt excitement.”
public speaking, in Glamour

“I felt an unusual sense of calm.”
fear of flying, in Hello!

“I’ll admit, I was sceptical at first…”
tube anxiety, in the Evening Standard

“I don’t think I want one eating out of my hands, but strangely I enjoy their company.”
pigeon phobia, in Oh Comely

You can read more about what journalists have said here:
https://christopherpauljones.com/what-the-journalists-say/

And you can read the brand new Hello! article here:
https://www.hellomagazine.com/healthandbeauty/health-and-fitness/892512/beating-phobia-spiders-expert-techniques/

Christopher Paul Jones

19/04/2026

Ever noticed how your brain quietly ignores the times you coped…
but won’t let go of the one time you didn’t?

I was speaking to someone recently who said,
“I know it’s irrational… but I still feel it.”

And that’s the frustrating part.
You know it doesn’t make sense, but your body reacts anyway.

What’s happening isn’t random.

Your brain is running a few very predictable patterns:
It filters out your successes
It exaggerates what could go wrong
It turns one bad moment into “this always happens”
And it pushes you into all-or-nothing thinking
Once you start spotting these, things shift quite quickly.

I’ve broken this down in Step 3 of my Face Your Fears series if you want to understand how it actually works in your own mind.

https://youtu.be/wFAa6LmXK88

If it resonates, you’ll probably recognise more of it than you expect.

1 like, 1 comment. "Cognitive Distortion: Why You Can't Escape Your Fears"

15/04/2026

Before:
Scanning the room.
Avoiding corners.
That instant jolt when something moves.

After:
Seeing the same thing…
and nothing happens.
That contrast is what people find hardest to believe.
But it’s something I see all the time.

I recently worked with a journalist for Hello! Magazine who had a long-standing fear of spiders.
She couldn’t go near one.
By the end, she was holding one.
Not because she forced herself to.
Because her response changed.
And when the response changes, the behaviour follows naturally.

Christopher Paul Jones helped free me of my fear of spiders with hypnotherapy – and here's what you can do at home to help yourself