Access Bars

The founder's account

Access Bars belongs to Access Consciousness, a self-help organisation founded in the United States by Gary Douglas. Critical accounts by Gorski, Hall and Jarry report that Douglas says the 32 points were conveyed to him by channelling, naming the Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin as the source. This is the founder's claim as relayed by these commentators, and it is not a historical fact that scholarship has established.

Dates differ between sources

Sources give different start dates. Jarry places the channelling at a party in 1987, Gorski says the Bars were channelled around 1990, and an encyclopedia entry on new religious movements says the organisation was founded in 1991 under the name Access Energy Transformation and renamed Access Consciousness in 1995. The organisation's own pages, which might settle the question, could not be retrieved for this draft, so no single date is adopted here.

An Access Consciousness blog post from 2018 says the Bars were developed more than 25 years earlier and describes Dain Heer as a co-creator of the wider system. The encyclopedia entry says Heer, a chiropractor, joined Douglas in 2001. These accounts do not conflict, though the entry's author and sources are not stated on the page.

Spread and scale

The organisation's 2018 blog post reports practice in 173 countries and over 10,000 trained facilitators. Gorski, writing in 2024, cites over 15,000 practitioners and 486 courses worldwide, and Hall reports a claim of operation in 170 countries. These are the organisation's own figures as relayed in the sources, and none has been independently audited.

Bars, Access Bars and Access Consciousness

Access Consciousness is the wider system, which Hall reports as offering thousands of 'tools'. Access Bars is one technique within it and is sometimes shortened to 'the Bars'. Practitioners use the phrase 'running the Bars' for touching the points, as quoted by Gorski. A Brazilian review uses the title 'access bars to consciousness', and Portuguese-language papers use 'Barra de Access'.

The 32 points and their names

A 2026 Brazilian case report describes the technique as gentle touch on 32 points on the head, 16 on each side, and lists point names drawn from a practitioner's article. They include control, creativity, ageing, healing, body and sexuality, sadness and joy, and communication. Each point is said to relate to an area of life. The organisation's own description of the points was not opened, so the naming here rests on this secondary source.

Hall and Gorski both report the claim that the points hold thoughts, emotions and memories. Both commentators compare the idea to phrenology, the discredited reading of character from the skull. That comparison is their critical framing and not a term used by practitioners, and similar wording does not make the two practices equivalent.

Session format in published reports

In the 2026 case report the participant lay on her back on a treatment couch with her eyes closed and was asked to relax through breathing while the 32 points were touched gently. She was also advised to repeat two affirmation phrases daily during the course of treatment. This is one clinic's protocol and not a standard sequence.

Doses used in the small studies

The 2017 pilot study gave one 90-minute session. The 2023 police case series gave seven 60-minute sessions over seven weeks, delivered by a licensed Access Bars facilitator at a naturopathic clinic in Hampshire, England. These formats come from study abstracts. The sources reviewed do not state what clothing is worn or what the recipient is told during a session.

Training and oversight

Gorski describes practitioners as people who have completed a one-day online course, and Jarry reports a one-day certification costing about USD 440. No statutory regulation, professional register or independent training standard for Access Bars facilitators was found in the sources reviewed. The organisation certifies its own facilitators, and the organisation's class pages could not be retrieved to confirm current content or requirements.

What the organisation and practitioners describe

Hall reports the organisation's claim that touching the points clears mental clutter and negative energy, and Gorski reports claims that extend to relationships and finances. A Brazilian review lists reported benefits including relaxation, pain relief, reduced anxiety and stress, better sleep, mental clarity and release of trauma. The review's abstract presents these as reported effects and also says few studies have been published to demonstrate effectiveness.

Mental health and other uses studied

The published reports found test the technique for anxiety, depression, stress and post-traumatic stress symptoms in small groups, and for tinnitus distress in one combined-treatment case. The organisation's blog promotes the 2017 pilot study as a result. These uses have been examined only in uncontrolled designs, so none of them is an established indication.

Statements about psychiatric medicines

Gorski reports that Access Consciousness material advises avoiding medicines for attention and mood conditions on the ground that they 'alter who you are', and Jarry reports a practitioner's account of a client stopping antidepressants after sessions. These are critics' reports of the organisation's materials, and they were not checked against the original documents. They are recorded here because they bear on care boundaries.

Searches run and what was found

PubMed searches on 5 October 2026 for the terms 'Access Bars', 'Access Bar' and 'Access Consciousness' in titles and abstracts returned no trial or review of this technique. The only hits for 'Access Bar' concerned a sports nutrition product, and 'Access Consciousness' hits concerned a theory of consciousness. Web searches found the small studies below. No systematic review or clinical guideline covering Access Bars was found.

Two small uncontrolled studies

The 2017 pilot study by Terrie Hope included seven adults aged 25 to 68 with mild to severe anxiety or depression, who had one 90-minute session. Scores on the Beck Anxiety Inventory fell from 23.3 to 3.6 and on the Beck Depression Inventory-II from 22.3 to 3.9 immediately afterwards, with EEG changes also reported. The abstract describes no comparison group, and the full text was behind a paywall.

The 2023 case series by the same author included four police officers who had depression, anxiety, stress or post-traumatic stress symptoms despite earlier treatment. After seven sessions, mean depression scores fell from 31 to 7.5, and one officer's PTSD checklist score fell from 38 to 18. The abstract reports no control group, and with four participants the findings cannot be generalised.

Reviews and a single case report

A 2020 bibliographic review by Freitag concluded that few studies had demonstrated effectiveness. A 2023 survey-based paper of 15 participants, with a literature review, reported anxiety and self-esteem improvements while stating that the technique lacks sufficient scientific validation and needs randomised controlled studies. Only the repository abstract of that paper was opened.

The 2026 case report combined Access Bars with ear acupressure and speech-language counselling for one woman with tinnitus. The authors say effects cannot be attributed to a single component, that generalising is not recommended, and that evidence for Access Bars is limited and lacks randomised trials. It cites a 2023 university thesis that could not be opened.

Design limits of the studies

The two studies by Hope relied on self-reported scales completed immediately after sessions, without a described comparison group, so changes could reflect relaxation, expectation, natural fluctuation or other care received. Gorski describes both as very small case series. Jarry says other studies cited by supporters, using thermography and EEG, show at most relaxation during lying down, and these original reports were not located.

Plausibility of the proposed mechanism

Hall, Gorski and Jarry each state that no scientific basis has been shown for points on the head storing thoughts or emotions, and Hall says the article cites no research supporting the claims. These are expert commentaries from skeptical publications, not peer-reviewed assessments. A proposed mechanism is not evidence of benefit either way, and a lack of trials is not evidence that no effect exists.

Adverse effects and what was not reported

None of the abstracts or papers reviewed reported adverse events, and none described how adverse events were recorded. The studies were too small and short for an absence of reports to show that none occur. The sources reviewed identify no formal contraindications for light touch to the head.

Care boundaries

Access Bars has not been shown in controlled trials to treat depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress or tinnitus, and the case report's authors say it should be offered alongside evidence-supported care. Gorski raises the concern that statements about psychiatric medicines could lead a person to stop treatment. A person with persistent low mood, anxiety or other symptoms can speak to a doctor, and medicines should not be changed without the prescriber.

Sessions involve light touch to the head, so a person can ask what contact to expect and can ask the facilitator to stop. Training is a short, privately certified course and no independent regulator or register was found in the sources reviewed, so claims about a facilitator's qualifications are worth asking about directly.