Functional Gut Disorders
Hypnotherapy a proven treatment for IBS & other gut motility issues

GUT Directed hypnotherapy is a treatment specifically designed to treat functional gut disorders such as IBS. Used alongside conventional medical treatment research has found that patients undergoing this therapy demonstrated a significant improvement in their symptoms.

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Gastrointestinal Disorders are complex, the causes can differ from person to person as can the manifestation of the symtoms. Hypnotherapy and CBT offers a proven method to help patients deal with the uncontrollable, unpredictable, and painful aspects of these GI conditions.

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Sufferers have a variety of symptoms, abdominal pain in differing patterns, abdominal distention, bloating, disordered gut habit resulting in diarrhoea, constipation that quite often alternate, disordered stomach transit. 

The symptoms experienced can impact severely on mental health, increasing stress and anxiety. Living with the condition can have a significant negative effect on everyday life with sufferers having to alter behaviours to accommodate their symptoms. This can have a huge impact on how they can live their life often needing to limit activities especially if there is lack of control over bowel habit or in severe pain, this can lead to many absences taken from work or refused social activities all these limitations can lead to added anxiety depression and even suicidal thoughts.

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With specific gut hypnosis and cognitive behavioural therapy, we can address the multifactorial aspects of the condition treating the miscommunication between the gut and brain. We do this by using suggestion, imagery, relaxation, and cognitive restructuring all of which enable the therapeutic effect particularly dampening the gut hypersensitivity.

 

All aspects of the combined treatment give healthy coping strategies, helps address stress and anxiety which affects both the mind and body, so aiding to ease symptoms and understand and change any unhelpful behaviours, thoughts and emotions that may have formed when previously coping with the disorder.

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Research undertaken with 1000 sufferers has shown after undertaking a gut focused treatment plan of between 8-12 hourly sessions weekly with daily practice participants report improvement in quality of  their life,  reduced visceral sensitivity, less pain. 

This type of behavioural therapy showed a 60-70% positive response rate.

76%  reported a significant reduction in symptom severity.

67% reported a 30% reduction in pain.

59% stopped taking medication & those that continued on medication took them less and on a reduced dose.

83% of responders reported that they were well between 1-5 years post treatment.

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Miller V, Carruthers HR, Morris J, Hasan SS, Archbold S, Whorwell PJ. Hypnotherapy for irritable bowel syndrome: an audit of one thousand adult patients. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2015 May;41(9):844-55. doi: 10.1111/apt.13145. Epub 2015 Mar 4. PMID: 25736234.

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