Hello, everyone, and welcome to the grand unveiling of the new blog! As recently as 2 weeks ago, when I told someone I was a hypnotist for a living, his first question was, “Do you have a blog?” So it’s nice to finally get this established.
Very quickly, for those of you wondering: my name is Chris Barry, and I’m a hypnotherapist currently based out of Calgary, Alberta. More than just hypnosis for therapy though, I also do stage and street hypnosis. Not to embarrass people or belittle the therapy profession, but to educate people and show them how normal hypnosis really is, for the sake of living better, happier lives. I’m very much a hypnosis specialist, and there’s no area or topic in hypnosis I don’t find interesting.
And there’s been a lot of topics to write about that have piled up in my “to-do” list, almost as quickly as I have conversations about hypnosis and the misunderstandings become apparent. I want to make a handy list of articles not only for people to reference and share, but also for you, the potential client, to read and understand more about what hypnosis is and how it works. Because there’s a lot of misconceptions out there which really need to be corrected, not just for the sake of the profession, but for the sake of them mental health of everyone who doesn’t realize that hypnosis isn’t something fantastical or scary, but is an everyday occurrence. And not noting how that everyday occurrence occurs everyday is a big reason why people are walking around stressed, anxious, triggered, phobic, or just dealing with bad habits and attitudes that they really don’t need to.
So we’re going to talk about the truth, the lies, the right uses, the wrong uses. We’re going to look at the incredible things hypnosis can do, and the crazy things people think it can do but can’t. We’re going to talk about the history, the future, the theory, the practice. We’re going to give tips on what you can do right now, and signs that you need to come in and see someone like me. We’re going to talk about examples of hypnosis in advertising, in media, in sales, in politics. And we’re going to focus on the details of some of those in whatever way seems informative or entertaining to me at the time. Did you know animals like the cuttlefish and the stoat use principles of hypnosis to mesmerize their prey before going in for a kill?
I’m tempted to keep going, but this is the intro post, after all. So next time, we’re going to start off the posts proper by talking about “what is hypnosis”. That seems like a good jumping off point. Be prepared to put aside your misconceptions, open your mind to how it actually works, and, as a famous book about hypnosis and NLP says, learn how to change your mind — and keep the change.