Hypnotherapy for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).

IBS is a common gut disorder that affects one in five people. It affects people of all ages but more commonly first develops in young adults. Symptoms include abdominal pain, bloating, and sometimes bouts of diarrhoea and/or constipation.

Although the exact cause is unknown, and it isn't possible to prevent IBS from developing, there are certain things that can be done to prevent symptoms from occurring or worsening, for example avoiding stress, eating regular meals, and, in some cases, eating more dietary fibre.

Hypnotherapy is a psychological treatment that helps people to explore, reframe and de/reconstruct situations that are causing anxiety and stress and contributing to their symptoms of IBS.

To demonstrate how hypnotherapy helps with IBS, read Maria's story:

Maria had already consulted her GP and was being referred to see a specialist at the local hospital for her IBS. She presented with classic symptoms of IBS, and her GP recommended hypnotherapy as a useful method for managing her symptoms. During the initial assessment, she disclosed how she was experiencing other symptoms including e.g. headaches, heart palpitations, insomnia, nausea, and nervousness; all classic symptoms of stress.

Maria was also struggling to gain control over her weight and was mildly obese. Her work as a nurse at the local hospital was often in conflict with having a regular healthy eating and sleeping regime, and she would often binge on sweets and chocolates brought in as presents by grateful patients and their families. 

Maria attended four sessions. The first session was an initial assessment where we explored the various issues that were contributing to her symptoms. Here we found that her level of self-care wasn't as good as it could be, and although she used to have some good patterns of behaviours/patterns/routines in place, she was struggling to currently make these work for her. Her confidence was at an all-time low and she wasn't enjoying her work as a nurse anymore.

Maria did enjoy recording things and was motivated to make the changes she needed to make to feel healthy and well again. She left looking forward to completing a diary that would help her identify what specific stressors were going on for her at the moment.

During and after this session, the hypnotherapist does an initial formulation based on the discussion with the client during the session and puts a plan of interventions together for the next session.

Feedback from clients is very important, as this can change what happens during a session. Maria, for example, gained a lot of insights from completing her stress diary and was able to identify a number of things that were distressing and challenging her. She also had some solutions to how she could manage things better at work to reduce her stress levels.

During the session, we used hypnosis to induce her trance and help her to deeply relax. She identified a favourite place that we were able to anchor so that she can return to these same relaxed feelings when she feels stressed. We worked on building her confidence to empower her to cope with things better despite the challenges she was facing at the moment and to consider some of the self-care regimes she can put in place to prioritise her health above others.

It's not always necessary or appropriate for clients to do 'homework' during sessions, however, for Maria, it was helpful to keep her motivated and build on work we had done in the session. She decided to keep another diary for the week, this time to monitor her current diet and exercise.

Feedback from Maria suggested that she knew what she was supposed to do to feel well and healthy, but, like many clients, she struggled to implement these behaviours. She didn't feel too good about herself and would not choose foods that she knew would make her feel better, instead, living on processed 'junk' food usually bought on impulse.

She gained further insights this session on how easy it could be to implement those changes needed to feel better about herself as we mentally rehearsed putting them in place so she was ready to hit the ground running with her new/revived plan of planning her meals/meal breaks better especially at work. She left the session motivated to increase her physical activity during the week in simple ways, which were manageable and easy to fit in with her busy lifestyle.

The plan worked! The following week Maria came to the session seeming much more confident. She had a glow of optimism and energy. She discussed how she had found it relatively easy to plan a week’s meals that are regular, nutritious, and well-balanced. She had also remembered to use her 'anchor' by bringing back all the good feelings of being in her favourite place at times where she anticipated getting stressed.

She noticed how her symptoms of IBS had significantly reduced during the week and felt much more healthy in herself. During the next week, Maria monitored her IBS symptoms in her diary making a note of times when they were good and not so good, and what the antecedents and consequences were of these events.

In session 4, Maria was pleased with how she had gotten back on track and felt much less stressed in her life generally. She was seeking a promotion at work which took her to a better place and had the responsibilities she wanted, which she felt would give her more self-worth. During the session, we enhanced many of her newfound skills, and she was able to reframe and reconstruct aspects of her life as something she was now looking forward to rather than what she had previously of waking to feel a sense of dread each day.

She was encouraged during the session to recall how far she had come and to celebrate the changes she had made. She went away with a head full of self-affirmations and a method of devising her own sessions using hypnosis to maintain her changes over the longer term.

Learn more about Irritable Bowel Syndrome.