Harry is an experienced medical doctor who qualified in 1976 and having spent some time running a hospital in the Third World has worked as a senior GP within the Irish Health System for over thirty-five years. He has a long-standing interest around mental health especially the management of anxiety, depression, toxic stress and prevention of suicide. He is also interested in providing parents and adolescents with skills to improve the mental health of latter. He is especially interested in the concept of emotional resilience and how developing skills in this area could transform our mental health. He has developed a holistic approach with an emphasis on the combination of combining Neuroscience concepts, lifestyle changes and where necessary drug therapy, with the application of simple CBT approaches to effectively manage these approaches. He retired from full time general practice in 2013 to focus solely on mental health. He now works on a consultancy basis combining clinics, writing, media and public information lectures as well as assisting fellow GPs, nurses and therapists with lectures and workshops.
He has visited Google HQ on several occasions. On his first visit he briefed teams and did a videoed interview (available online) on how best to deal with all aspects of Anxiety. On several visits, this year – he has discussed the importance of management and staff developing Emotional Resilience skills to reduce incidence of anxiety, depression and stress. He has also visited many major companies (including Google HQ Dublin) around Ireland dealing with different aspects of mental health and resilience. He has also given some presentations on the subject in London.
He has written extensively on the subject and his Flag series of books have been widely read by professional and lay people interested in the area. His 6th book on Anxiety and Panic got to number one in the best – seller nonfiction list in Ireland. It combined a novel new approach to combining Neuroscience concepts with CBT to assist people eliminate or learn to deal with panic attacks, phobias, social anxiety and general anxiety. At the heart of his approach lies his belief that most people just need targeted skills that are simple to learn and apply to both manage and prevent mental health difficulties.
The Flag series have been taken on by the Orion Hachette group in London and relaunched in September and October 2017 and available in both Ireland, UK and online. His most international bestseller Emotional Resilience – how to safeguard your mental health was published by Orion UK in Dublin and London on 2nd May 2018 and has been number one in the nonfiction bestsellers in Ireland for many weeks and in the top five for months following its launch. He is currently writing his 8th book which will be published in May 2019 in Dublin and London.
He is a regular contributor to national press and media (both TV and radio) and is a monthly contributor to the Sean O’ Rourke show for almost four years. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the College of Psychiatry and former Board member of the national depression group Aware. He is a member of an international group of experts (which includes for example Professor Catherine Harmer, Professor Cognitive Neuroscience Oxford – who has also reviewed some of his books) exploring how best to measure cognition in depression and who recently published their first journal article on the subject.
He was recently invited to address the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Mental Health in Ireland on the subject of Talk Therapy to outline his vision of how mental health should be delivered.

His website is drharrybarry.com