Chris Barry, Clinical Hypnotist
8408 Elbow Drive SW T2V 1K7 Calgary, AB, Canada

Just a quick hi, and offering the services of people in my network if you need help during this rough time.

Slightly short notice, but I will be speaking about and demonstrating hypnosis at the Blind Beggar on Wednesday, September 2nd at 9PM, as part of their 40s Live podcast. I'll be talking about life in general, as a hypnotherapist and as a 40-something, and doing some street hypnosis-style demonstrations on stage as well. Last time I did this event with them it was a lot of fun, so come on out, support your local pub, and say hi. :)

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 t...hree 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!

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. :)

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 mo...tivated 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 vaping, 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 nicotine 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.

Articles and media are starting to pop up about how the current quarantine is affecting people's anxiety and stress. Over half of people in some polls reporting a major negative impact on their mental health according to a story on CBC, and we're even starting to hear stories of suicides from isolation depression, financial stress, etc. Sadly, to be expected, considering the disruption in people's lives right now. This is a good time to remind people that getting rid of anxie...ty, over-thinking, excessive worrying thoughts, etc. is my main specialty, so much so that even dealing with that stuff can have a huge impact in other areas I deal with like smoking, weight loss, etc. Even if you're in self-imposed quarantine, remote sessions via Skype are something I have done for years and continue to do, so there's no excuse for not asking for help. Even if I can't help, I can find someone who can. I've always said that even without the therapy side of things, hypnosis is a natural anxiety reliever which is why I do the work I do. And anxiety is at an all-time high right now with the lockdowns. So whether you are local or long-distance, get in touch. Stay healthy and stay safe .... mentally, as well as physically. See more

Just a heads up, I have an associate in my health and wellness network running a free masterclass this week, focusing on personal self-love, confidence, that sort of thing. I know I have a lot of women out there in my client base who want help with self-image, negative self-talk, etc. so if you're stuck in quarantine anyway, I highly advise you to check her out, either in her morning or evening class. And let her know I sent you. :) https://www.subscribepage.com/3smasterclass

Hey, everyone. Haven't posted in a bit, but I did want to let everyone know that yes, my office is still open during this time. The practitioners (myself included) are taking some extra steps as far as handwashing and routinely washing frequently touched areas like chairs and doorknobs between clients. Additionally, I've seen an increase in Skype appointment requests for a few people who are in voluntary seclusion right now, just because of their own personal concerns or contact they've made that might put them at risk. So just a reminder, I do remote Skype sessions if you want to go full-on quarantine mode. There's a lot of anxiety and such about right now and that's just something that's always affecting someone, so as always, feel free to reach out with any questions, and take care.

Another offline video, but this time with an object lesson embedded in it since I get to edit before I upload. :)

Things tend to come in waves in my industry. Had several heavy drinkers (10 to 15 beers a night) coming in the last week or so and pretty much stop caring about drinking entirely after only a session or two each. Gonna make it my personal mission in life to make the entire cigarette and alcohol industry hate my guts. :) Just wanted to share that.

No Live today; my browser kept giving me errors, so here's the video pre-recorded this time.

Forgot to mention: congrats to Kaitlyn Aubichon for winning the draw prize at our booth two weekends ago. We like to give away $50 gift boxes, and with such a low turnout this fall, odds were good. :)

Just a quick word of encouragement about mental health for World Mental Health Day.

I was just reading an article in the local Metro about how much PTSD and anxiety are on the rise among teens, in the face of dwindling mental health resources in the province. My last post was already on PTSD, so now might be a good time to remind everyone that a) hypnosis is amazing at dealing with anxiety in general, and b) PTSD is a pretty common thing people come in for, too. I'm pretty used to removing people's anxiety just in passing at expos and trade shows, so imagine how much I can help in a proper program. If you or your teenager needs help getting rid of anxiety, in general or in a specific area like social anxiety or test anxiety, you need to get in touch. The longer it goes, the more effort it takes to address.

June 27th is National PTSD Awareness Day. We live in a world where anxiety, stress, and trauma is only getting higher it seems, and it's important to not just let it be ignored and get worse. This is a study from a few years back on hypnosis for PTSD. It's important to see that over multiple placebo-controlled studies, hypnosis based in ego state therapy or parts therapy can be very effective, without having to resort to medication. If you or someone you know needs help with high anxiety or PTSD, there's no shame in reaching out. Get in touch and let's talk.

Anyone looking to come to the Calgary Women's Show, I have a nifty little promo code. When you go to buy tickets here, enter CBHYYC. The tickets are already pretty cheap, but feel free to save a few more bucks. :) (In case you didn't crack the code, the CBH stands for Chris Barry Hypnosis) ;)

I'll be back at the Calgary Women's Show April 6th and 7th, talking about hypnosis, doing free demonstrations, and just educating people on the power of the subconscious (as I do). I've lost track of how many times I've been invited to not only exhibit, but perform on the main stage, so clearly I'm empowering someone. :) Come find out how it works.

This is short notice (did I mention I've been REALLY busy lately?) but I'm all set up to exhibit and demonstrate at the BMO Centre this weekend as part of the Calgary Woman's Show. Admission is free this time, so this would be a good time to get questions answered, or even if you're a past client who wants a free little trance session, why not, right? :) See you there!

A little update and chat about anxiety. :) Hypnosis is such a good way to treat anxiety that most anxiety clients practically auto-qualify for hypnotherapy. After all, anxiety is effectively just you doing negative hypnosis to youtself, getting in your own head, repeating, ruminating, worrying, etc. So if you aren't going to come to me for hypnosis, please at least stop doing bad hypnosis to yourself. :)

So I meant to share this in the morning but got busy ... and now it's 50% sold out. So if you want to catch me talking about hypnosis in both an educational and entertaining talk, get some tickets and come on out before they're gone. Which will probably be by the end of the day. :)

For anyone who missed the live interview, this is a good intro to not only the work I do, but WHY it's so effective as we talk about the power of the subconscious. I know the stuff I do with Lis Perez looks crazy and staged (and yes, there's some practical demos we do live), but it's not magic ... this is literally the power of the mind if you would just tap into it. Issues resolved in a few hours worth of sessions, not years of talk therapy. It's actually perfectly normal for change to be rapid and long-term, IF you do it right. Better yet, more self-control to keep those mental issues from even happening in the first place. This applies to so many areas of our lives I can't even go into them all here, so for more info, get in touch with me and ask how I can help YOU! :)

Almost time ...

Evening, all. I don't post much recently -- I've been VERY busy lately, which is a good thing -- but I wanted to give a quick mention that I'll be chatting about the power of the subconscious and how hypnosis works on June 28th at Empower Media. So tune in and check it out.

Funnily enough, I actually had a client share this one for me, now that he's been sold on how effective hypnosis is. I get the same responses as in this article: it's black magic, it's movie nonsense, etc. I had a Christian woman argue with me recently that it was Satanic. And this is why I do my public demonstrations. To educate people on what hypnosis is actually is. There's so many people walking around with problems they thought were permanent, which can be cured so easily when you understand how your own mind works.

Happy Mental Health Week, everyone. Be aware of not just how you feel, but care about the well-being of others around you. Talk to them. And if there's some area I can help, ESPECIALLY in areas of anxiety and stress, make sure you reach out. Now's the time. Your health is too important to let it slide.

One week until the workshop. This will probably be the last one I run for a while, just because there hasn't been as much interest in it as there has been in other things I've been doing and promoting. So if you're interested, or thing others might be, sign up and spread the word. If it turns out folks want it I'll keep doing it. :)

I don't personally teach hypnobirthing, but I know hypnotherapists that do. It's one more example of the power of the subconscious mind to influence the body.

Still waiting on some of the footage and pictures people took this last Sunday, but here's a nice catch from a roaming camcorder which illustrates one of my favorite "trigger" routines. Triggers are getting more well known nowadays. From anxiety and panic attacks to phobias and everything else, you probably know someone who is "triggered" by something. Maybe it was a past bad relationship, maybe it was abuse, maybe it was a betrayal, maybe something else entirely. The good ne...ws is, hypnotherapy is really good at dealing with triggers. This is something I put in and take out as a matter of course in a demonstration; it may take a few sessions in a clinical setting, but it's easier than you think. Have a really negative trigger that's keeping you from living your life? Or know someone that does? Get in touch today and let's talk about how hypnosis can help.

The fun and empowerment begins in three hours at the BMO Centre!

Presents time! I have spare free tickets to the Calgary Woman's Show! Let's play a game; in 24 hours I'm going to pick 5 random people to receive 2 free tickets to the show this weekend. How do you enter? Say "I love hypnosis!" in the comments to this post. Tomorrow night, in 24 hours, I'll send the lucky winners a pair of tickets each. I'll be in the booth doing hypnosis demonstrations all weekend, as well as being on the main entertainment stage at 2PM Sunday. So come on out, let me answer your hypnosis questions, and enjoy the rest of the show. But you need to enter! :)