Chris Barry, Clinical Hypnotist

11/05/2026

Time for another famous application of hypnotherapy: dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Hypnotherapy famously owes a lot to its effectiveness in treating PTSD for its rise to relevance. Mental health practitioners like Sigmund Freud favoured and promoted talk psychology over hypnotherapy because, among other reasons, it was more profitable. Why charge someone to fix their issues in a handful of sessions with hypnotherapy when you can charge them for 100 or more sessions to get the same result? But when World War 1 rolled around and we had legions of soldiers coming home with PTSD, hundreds of sessions to treat PTSD was not exactly practical. Then someone remembered hypnotherapy and they used that instead, with great success ... and promptly forgot it again. Then the same situation happened with World War 2, and practitioners finally started thinking, hey, this works really well, maybe we should keep using it? Which let to hypnotherapy finally starting to be recognized as a valid medical modality by various official medical institutions in the 1950's.

Hypnotherapy remains an excellent way to treat PTSD, either alone or in conjunction with other modalities, because of it's ability to deal with the deeper subconscious triggers that other therapies struggle with. If you know someone dealing with trauma and they haven't been able to get the help they need, contact me and let's talk about how hypnotherapy might be the solution.

Explore how hypnotherapy for PTSD can help treat trauma. Discover techniques for re-framing and alleviating symptoms effectively.

09/23/2026

Next on our list of great applications of hypnotherapy is one a lot of people don't think of: sports improvement.

This has been a secret weapon of a lot of high-level athletes for decades. Being able to focus and get into a flow state at will is a powerful weapon for everyone from golfers to equestrians. So is visual rehearsal and training to improve form and lose bad habits in technique. And sometimes, people come to me because of an incident or accident that happened which has now caused a mental block, keeping them from performing a certain trick or event safely or correctly. Retraining the subconscious mind is really the only way to fix that. They say half the game is in the mind; well, how many of you really act on that?

As always, feel free to reach out and see how I can help you take your performance to the next level, or read more at the link. If you feel like something mentally is holding you back in your chosen sport, that doesn't need to be the case. The sooner we address it, the better.

Unlock your potential with sports hypnotherapy. Enhance focus, overcome mental blocks, and improve your athletic performance.

09/14/2026

A quick aside before I post more articles: this year has been a bit of a shake-up in more than a few ways (including the weight loss) and as work gets done on the business, the economy and rising costs of running a business over the last year or so is finally going to force me to raise my prices a bit in the near future, for the second time in 13 years. I've been holding them down for simplifying finances and just being a nice guy (was even paying the GST for my clients for a bit there) but as I've been reorganizing on the back end, it's finally time to just bite the bullet and do it as we reassess the value of my services relative to where the country's been going. Can only put it off so long.

But! Not until the end of the year. So! If you've been thinking about it or holding off, or know someone who could really use this and now's the time, get in touch and let's talk about how I can help. Because once I change those numbers in my system, that's it. :) Get a head start on those New Year's Resolutions, or just deal with the stress that comes with the holidays for some of us. Or just do it because self-improvement is best done earlier than later. Consultations are always free and I'm happy to answer questions, so get in touch now.

Explore the transformative power of hypnotherapy and how it can help improve your mental health and well-being.

09/11/2026

Okay, had some website issues for a bit there but got it sorted. Back to the posts.

Ultimately, if hypnotherapy is about anything, it's changing subconscious habits. Quitting smoking, weight loss, even OCD behaviors ... it all boils down to the subconscious programming that makes us tick and do thing on autopilot. Well, what if you could adjust that autopilot? Stop the bad habits, start the good ones, just like that. That's how I lost those 50 pounds (well, 55 now; that website issue took a bit to address).

This is why I like to say you aren't coming to me to be hypnotized, You're coming to be un-hypnotized. It's not a question of if hypnosis works or not; if it didn't work, you wouldn't have the problem in the first place. Let's just make that powerful subconscious work in your favour instead of having to fight it.

Learn about the power of hypnotherapy for bad habits and how it can effectively transform your behaviors and mindset.

08/24/2026

While we're still on the topic of hypnotherapy for weight loss: before we move on to new things, I realize that while I never took a "before" picture in December, I do have this from several years back. Not too far off from what I looked like 8 months ago.

So there you go. Hypnosis works. I mean, look at me; my face used to be a circle. O_O

08/19/2026

Weight loss is easily the most common thing people come to a hypnotherapist for after smoking cessation. Not only is this a common area of high success in our industry, it's an area where I practice what I preach, too; recently I did a ton of experimentation involving hypnosis and lost 50 lbs over 8 months (225 lbs to 175 lbs), and pretty easily too.

While weight loss is simple for a hypnotherapist, the client knowing their own challenges is also key. Often I'll get people who come to me for weight loss help and say they can't stop eating sugary foods, or have zero impulse control, etc. And we'll solve the problem, they stop the bad habit, but they don't lose as much weight as they wanted. Well then that wasn't the issue, was it? I always recommend at least talking to a nutritionist and/or fitness expert first so you have a game plan (and I can recommend one if necessary), but regardless, when you know what you need to do and can't, that's when you need to see me. There's also a whole host of issues that can interfere with weight loss, like high stress and anxiety, or some sort of trauma, or even poor sleep. And of course, I'm well equipped to deal with all that too. A weight loss program with a competent hypnotherapist can be very comprehensive.

If you feel like you're lacking control in some area of your diet, exercise, motivation, or anything else interfering with your weight loss goals, contact me and we'll talk about how I can help. But when you do come in, please forgive the baggy dress shirts; I haven't had a chance to go shopping for new clothes yet. :)

Explore how hypnotherapy for weight loss can transform your eating habits and help achieve your weight loss goals.

08/12/2026

Next on our list of things to talk about is, honestly, what I personally think hypnotherapy is the king of treating, even more than quitting smoking: Anxiety.

It still surprises me how much people will do almost anything for their anxiety except address the problem where it resides. Sure, you should be exercising, getting massages, etc. for many reasons, not just to feel better. But ultimately, anxiety is a malady of the subconscious mind. It is, to give another definition, you inadvertently doing negative self-hypnosis, even if you aren't consciously aware of it. In the same way we can give positive suggestions to improve mindset, be calmer and more mindful, and just be in the ideal state you need to be in for any situation, by contrast you having a negative belief or worry or trigger will cause anxiety, even to the point that it causes panic attacks or impacts your physical health if left untreated. You may be going to unhealthy coping mechanisms to deal with it, too. It interferes with other issues, like losing weight or sleeping better. And anxiety-based conditions are certainly on the rise in our modern world. But we can help that easier than you think.

If you want to be more in control of your state and have less anxiety, definitely reach out to see how I can help. Even without the therapy side of things, hypnosis is a natural anxiety reliever, because at least we're getting you to stop doing the negative self-hypnosis. And it's an even better option for people who are worried about the side effects of medication, or don't respond to medication at all. Get in touch and let me help you or someone you know.

Learn why hypnotherapy for anxiety is an effective approach to managing and treating anxiety symptoms. Start your journey today.

08/08/2026

The first thing I updated on the web site is the classic: quitting smoking. This is the service hypnotherapists are most well known for, and for good reason: relative to other treatments, our track record is excellent (as I discuss on the page).

I can't even tell you how many people I've helped quit smoking over the years, often in conjunction with other addictions like drinking. While ni****ne is addictive, it runs through your system quickly; it's the conditioning over time or underlying stressors and anchors that trigger the habit which are the real problem. Deprogram those, and the problem often evaporates. Some people are so caught into their accepted identity as smokers than even the idea they can simply quit comes as a revelation. Talk to me about how I can help tailor a smoking cessation program for your situation (consultations are always free), or just read more at the link.

And look forward to almost a dozen more of these posts, because I commonly treat a lot of stuff you might not expect, and that's just the typical hypnotherapy stuff. :)

Explore how to quit smoking with hypnotherapy. Learn about its effectiveness and success rates for lasting change.

08/06/2026

Hey there! It's been a busy year but just a quick update: there's been a lot of work done over the last few months to update the website and add more content, update information, and start linking to more peer-reviewed studies on the effectiveness of hypnotherapy in a variety of areas I treat. Spent a lot of time teaching myself modern SEO, too (good thing I come from a background in tech :p). I'm moving on to making sure that all this content is (hopefully) social media friendly, so over the next month or so I'll be sharing pages on the web site and links to other things that I probably should have been doing on FaceBook a while ago, and really digging into how effective hypnosis is for quitting smoking, weight loss, anxiety, phobias, sports improvement, and everything else I've been helping people with for almost a decade and a half now. I know I've never been very present on FaceBook, but this site has never been a strong source of connection for people looking for me. We'll see if that changes. :)

01/05/2026

Happy World Hypnotism Day, everyone! I was going to make a video post about it but I was in the office longer than I thought (yes, on a Sunday), so I'll have to do it later. But yes, January 4th is the official day of hypnosis awareness, probably because whoever decided that figured you'd all need help with the new year's resolutions you're already struggling with. :)