Erica 0:41

All right. We are back I'm Erica and I am joined today and usually every time with Dr. Charles Barr, a licensed clinical therapist in Pasadena, California, Dr. BARR specializes in anxiety, and we are going to kind of just continue our conversation from our last episode, which was. Part one about how Dr. BARR treats anxiety in his office. So if you've never seen anybody for anxiety, or you just want to hear how, um, somebody else treats anxiety in their office, you can kind of get into the mind of Dr. BARR in these two episodes. So we've got part two for you and let's go right now. welcome to the life free of anxiety podcast, where each week we'll bring you another discussion to help you on your way to overcoming your fears. I'm Erica and together with dr. Charles Barr, a licensed clinical psychologist, specializing in anxiety. We'll be your guides on this journey to find a list of helpful free resources we offer head to lifefreeofanxiety.com Because you are not broken, you are not alone. And you are on your way to living a life free of anxiety.

Dr. Charles Barr 1:56

this isn't, this isn't a temporary fix. This is a, this is a Choose, whatever you would like to do with your life now very free.

Erica 2:04

pretty incredible. It sounds too good to be true. I know, because when you told me

Dr. Charles Barr 2:09

it does.

Erica 2:09

did, it does. Yeah.

Dr. Charles Barr 2:11

and I think you were very skeptical

Erica 2:13

Yes. Yes.

Dr. Charles Barr 2:15

And, uh, I was to, um, as a matter of fact, I considered that this program can to psychotherapy, you know, canned in quotation marks. And I was very much against that. You know, it's like, okay, this is pop psychology and that kind of stuff. And as a therapist, I. And as a psychologist, I was just turned off by that stuff. But one of my clients had presented the program to me and asked me to take a look at it with her to see if I thought it was any good. So reluctantly, I agreed to do that. And when I did that, I was totally surprised. Uh it's like, Hey, wait a minute. This, this is actually good therapy.

Erica 2:58

Yeah. What you were dealing with your own anxiety at that point from the earthquake offsetting

Dr. Charles Barr 3:03

Yes, sir. I was, yeah. So I signed up for the program and did the program myself and that's, uh, that's what got me back on an even keel. And,

Erica 3:13

What year was that?

Dr. Charles Barr 3:15

that was 1987. Well, let's see. Yeah, the, the earthquake was 87, so that was 1988. And then, um, Not surprisingly, I specialized in anxiety starting in 1988.

Erica 3:30

Oh. So that's what happened.

Dr. Charles Barr 3:33

That's exactly what happened. That's what took me there. I really wanted to go after those people who were experiencing panic because, Hey, here's a way out of this dilemma and panic is true suffering. Um, It, I really consider it true suffering. And it's like, Oh my gosh, you know, uh, all these people out there suffering with this and, let's see if we can't give them a way out and, uh, help them be free of this suffering. So that, that was my motivation to, and still is my motivation. I just. No, that there's hope. And I want to get that word out to people. it seems too good to be true. You're right. It does. But it works if you'll put the time in on it and the practice in on it. Cause it is a practice kind of therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a practice kind of therapy. You can't just know it. That's not good enough. You have to do it. And, um,

Erica 4:33

And I think anybody who's really suffering knows at this point that, um, there's nothing you can know. You've probably tried to know a lot about anxiety. I th that was one thing I had tried. Well, how much can I know about what I'm going through? And, and it helps. I mean, it's helpful to know, but it's only one side of it because the other side really is healing your body from a physiological standpoint. You really can't do one without the other. And that's what I love about this program is it combines both. We just had somebody do the program. Who was she at? Like a five or I said it last week, but she's now at a level nine of happiness. I can't remember what she was at before, but. She's at a level nine of happiness. She just did the program with us online. She was the first group to do it. Now that the program's moved online and she's at a level nine of daily happiness. I mean, that's pretty high, a level

Dr. Charles Barr 5:30

that is, that's very good. You know, so that's, that's why I'm still excited about it. That's why I'm still involved in it

Erica 5:37

definitely. Now I want, I'm curious. How did you treat, the girl on the dog? Whisper? I don't know. Can you tell me about that? I guess it's not a private case, right? Like how do you get somebody when somebody comes to you with one specific phobia? Monday, don't have an anxiety disorder per se. Like how does that, what does that look like in your office?

Dr. Charles Barr 5:57

Well, what we did with her, um, she did not do the change program because we didn't have time. Um, we had three weeks to get her ready

Erica 6:08

no pressure. That must have been a lot of

Dr. Charles Barr 6:10

no pressure at all.

Erica 6:11

just on national TV.

Dr. Charles Barr 6:14

Um, so we did a series of, relaxation exercises to teach her how to relax her body. And then we did a lot of, visualization exercises for her, where she could, picture herself being with the, Uh, with the dog that she was afraid of, it was her sister's pit bull. And, um, this lady had been bitten by a pit bull early in her life. So, uh, she had reason to have the fear. And so. We did a series of visualizations with her and, and the relaxation. And, um, she was able to, she put in the practice time, you know, this would not have worked if she was not willing to practice, but she was willing to practice. And so she did the practice and it worked and, she was able to, uh, the. The dog was going to be the ring bearer for her sister's wedding. So, um, yeah, so, uh, so she was able to be there and, and do the honors and be with the dog and, and Caesar and his team, uh, worked some wonders with the dog in the meantime, too, because this particular dog had been extremely unruly and, And, uh, unusually aggressive.

Erica 7:37

Oh, wow.

Dr. Charles Barr 7:39

uh, so, so they, they did a nice job with the dog and we did a nice job with, uh, the client and, uh, she, it all turned out really well. Wedding went well,

Erica 7:52

so you still took parts of the change program. You just did it in a three week kind of intensive basis, right? Like she was like, how long was she relaxing or how, what was the relaxation plan like at that point to do a body relaxation exercise?

Dr. Charles Barr 8:07

Yes, we use the same. I use the same relaxation exercise as I use in the program, uh, to help her relax and help her learn how to let go of all that tension in her body. So that. Worked well, and, I was very pleased about that. I was fairly confident that that would work. cause I have a lot of confidence in the technique and then the, how people are able to use it. And it's not a difficult thing to learn, but it's an important thing to learn. And it's not something that we teach people how to do very often. Um, Might be a good course in, in elementary school actually is to, you know, as part of a health class or something to really teach people how to relax their bodies and, and teach them some of these techniques.

Erica 9:01

and it's funny cause you, you joke sometimes about. And how you had a group do the change program one time and you, nobody ever came back, right? You

Dr. Charles Barr 9:11

that's right. They all got better.

Erica 9:13

you didn't have any clients after that. Yeah. That's hilarious. so my, my last question is because I think a lot of people are wondering about this in particular because of where they might be in their own anxiety journey. how often do you refer clients to go? Cause you're not a psychiatrist, so to go see a psychiatrist to get medication.

Dr. Charles Barr 9:34

probably about 20% or something like that, of my clients would end up seeing a psychiatrist now. I. Also am willing to work with people's primary care physicians. And so if their primary care physician feels comfortable prescribing the kinds of medications that, that are needed to help the person either, get them on a, an antidepressant or get them on a anti-anxiety medication, then I'll work with the family physician rather than. Uh, sending them to the psychiatrist. But some physicians don't feel comfortable prescribing those medications. They're not familiar enough with them. And so in those cases, then we'll send them to a psychiatrist. but most people don't need to be on medication. And if they are, they end up, many of them end up. Being able to get off their medications and, be able to function without medication and maybe they haven't had medication occasionally. That can be one of the tools that you have in your toolbox is, you may have a medication that works very nicely for you in terms of, one of the anti-anxiety medications.

Erica 10:52

Yeah, right. But I know that with a lot of anxiety, people, myself included, I was on medication. When I met you. I, you know, it can make you feel bad about it. You can feel bad about just like needing, like, feeling like you need that in order to be okay. And I think, a lot of what the change program teaches and kind of shows you is the way we are designed, from a physical standpoint, that with enough, you know, of the right. Things a lot of times we end up healing. Um, and

Dr. Charles Barr 11:30

That's right.

Erica 11:30

those decisions for ourselves. Once the 16 weeks is over, is, is medication right for me at this point? do I, do I feel good about myself being on it at this point? Do I want to be on, do I need it?

Dr. Charles Barr 11:44

Well, I think that's it. It's, it's like, um, Being in touch with your physiology instead of ignoring your physiology is one of the things that we, we really try to stress. We want you to be more in touch with it, not less in touch with it because that's part of what got you into the panic phase is not being in touch with it. And some people's physiology is just so exquisitely sensitive that. They, they need some chemical help sometimes. And, so to, to have a chemical that will help you fantastic, um, uh, better living through chemistry in that case, you know, and, uh, it is better living through chemistry. what I look at is what is your quality of life? Like? Are you free to go and do what you want to do? Um, she had really liked to go to Hawaii on a vacation, but I can't get on a plane. Well, if you get to go to Hawaii and you get having one full-time there on vacation, but you had to take some medication along the way. I'm not going to Dane you for that. I'm just happy. You got to Hawaii for vacation. It's like, yay. Good for you.

Erica 12:58

not grading ourselves kind of like with the MRI thing for me, it's like, I got an MRI. The image is still the exact same image. Right. So it's like either way it got done and one was less painful than the other way. So yeah.

Dr. Charles Barr 13:13

and I'm glad to know about the upright MRI.

Erica 13:16

Yeah. You can tell your clients.

Dr. Charles Barr 13:18

yes, I actually have, I have a man right now. I'm going to be telling

Erica 13:21

Oh, well, there you go. Happy birthday did whoever that is. I think it's a great gift and they actually took my insurance too, which is really nice. Um,

Dr. Charles Barr 13:31

Oh, good.

Erica 13:32

yeah, so bonuses all around, but yeah, I, I, um, I appreciate the fact that Dr. BARR, you don't try to keep people in your office forever and ever, and ever. You actually do have a lot of people. Get better and stop seeing you. Um, you

Dr. Charles Barr 13:49

Oh, yes, that's right.

Erica 13:51

you treat this, you are one of the few therapists who actually treats anxiety, um, that I've met. I mean, I haven't met a million therapists. I'm sure others can treat it. But, uh, that is one thing I can say for certain is that you treat anxiety, um, and, and, and treating is different than just come to my office every week for the next 16 years. Which is no fun for anybody, I think after a while.

Dr. Charles Barr 14:19

traditional therapy, traditional talk therapy, uh, is very effective at helping you understand yourself and knowledge is power. Uh, in most instance, instances and knowledge is important in this incident too, but knowledge is not enough when you're treating anxiety, uh, treating panic disorder and anxiety like this.

Erica 14:42

Yeah. And I know, I know this is a lot of like mystery talk. Um, I understand this very well because I've been through the program and I also relaxed. Um, with the relaxation exercises several times a day, um, right now, and Dr. BARR has been through the program with many people. We know the program inside out. Um, but I know to you listening, it's like, what I don't I under I like, I'm trying to understand this. It sounds interesting, but I don't, I don't fully know. Um, well there's only one way find out and Dr. Barra and I both know you will be glad you did. Um,

Dr. Charles Barr 15:26

Well, that's, that's a very good point, Erica. there really is only one way to, to really find that out and it does sound mysterious and it does sound too good to be true. And you may have already spent a small fortune on trying to get better in other ways that haven't worked. And so to hear that there's a program where you can get better in 16 weeks, It's like, Oh, come on. But it's like you said, I used it myself. You used it. We know the effectiveness of it ourselves. And so we highly recommend it to you. So, it's like, okay, so I'm going to get my vaccine today. And, the benefit far outweighs the cost. And I think that's the same thing I feel about the change program.

Erica 16:12

And then with practice, you only get better. You only get less anxious. You only see improvement. So practicing sounds like, Oh, I don't want to, I don't know if I feel like practicing anything. Well, You know, it's, it's actually an enjoyable practice because you get, you start taking breaks in your day. You start taking that moment to yourself. You start giving

Dr. Charles Barr 16:34

that's right.

Erica 16:36

um, energy and, and positive positivity bursts in your day. And then all of a sudden it's like, practice is really paying off. I mean, this is just the snowball effect of goodness that comes from it. There's it's only way I can really explain it.

Dr. Charles Barr 16:51

Actually that's, that's a, that's a, I hadn't thought about it in the snowball effect, uh, analogy, but I like that. You're right.

Erica 16:59

I just thought of it.

Dr. Charles Barr 17:00

Yeah. Good

Erica 17:03

I'm not the doctor, but you know, I could come up with a thing or do every now and again, but it, it really is. It's like I said, I'm just explaining this from somebody who's done it, but I want you to be somebody who's explaining it to somebody else soon. About why this works because we've got this program going right now. it's going anytime and you want to do it from the comfort of your own home. If you are housebound, it is for you. If you are not housebound, it is for you. You can do it at home and, see wonderful changes in your life. And, um, we are seeing changes in people's lives now because we've. This program has been around since the seventies and, we've now digitized it. So it's available to anyone through the worldwide web. And those people are finding new, new ways of life and happiness and people in the seventies were doing the same thing. So program hasn't changed and, and it's still, it's still making, you know, huge effects in people's lives. And we love to see it and love being part of it.

Dr. Charles Barr 18:08

we sure do. We love being part of it. So come in, come in, be part of it. give yourself, give yourself a gift and, participate. That's great.

Erica 18:18

Yes. All right. Well, we will be back with you next week. And, we're glad you were here with us today but next week, Dr. BARR will fill us in on his vaccine with, uh, his

Dr. Charles Barr 18:30

That's right.

Erica 18:31

one year later. And here we are less than one year later. And here we are.

Dr. Charles Barr 18:34

That's right. All right, so you're next week?

Erica 18:37

you next week. Thanks for being here. Thanks so much for joining us for those of you who tuned in for the very first time. Welcome special Heidi. We hope you'll stick around. We've got a ton of content from before. We've done this show for a year. Now you can find out more information about that change program that we discussed in this episode@changewithtwoways.com. You can purchase it there. You can do it anytime from home and that's changed with two-ways dot com. If you have any questions, you can reach out to me@ericaatlifefreeofanxiety.com. We always do love to hear from you. And I think that's it. I will go ahead and talk to you guys next week. Thanks for being here again. Thanks so much for tuning in today. I hope that something in today's conversation provided you with a feeling of hope, determination, or purpose. I know what you're going through, and that's why I want to give you some of the tools that helped me in my anxiety journey to get a free copy of free from fears head to freefromfearsbook.com to find out more about the CHAANGE anxiety treatment program. Find us at CHAANGE.com Thanks again for listening. And remember you are not broken You are not alone and you are on your way to living a life free of anxiety. See you next week.