Helen Brooks - Gut Directed Hypnotherapy
The facts about Gut Directed Hypnotherapy
IBS is a disorder of the gut-brain interaction. This means there is nothing physically wrong with your gut; the problem lies in how your gut functions. The altered gut brain interaction causes a disruption to digestive processes affecting both the sensory and motor neurons throughout the gut. The complex coordination of digestion becomes out of sync causing irregular movements of the intestinal muscles and heightened sensitivity within the gut. These changes lead to bloating, pain, constipation, diarrhoea, nausea and heartburn.
So how can hypnotherapy help?
Hypnotherapy is a great way to reduce the symptoms of IBS. Treatment is safe, relaxing, natural, and does not involve elimination diets. Not only is it an evidence-based approach backed by 35 years of solid clinical research. It has also been shown to provide lasting relief.
Helen Brooks, Clinical Hypnotherapist IBS Tranformation Coach
Firstly, what is hypnosis?
Hypnosis is a state of focused awareness and narrowed attention often combined with relaxation, this focused attention is sometimes referred to as a trance state. We all go into a trance number of times each day. It’s a perfectly natural state. Daydreaming is an example, or when we are just ‘dropping off’ to sleep, even being deeply absorbed in a book or film is a trance state. In this state, the subconscious mind becomes more receptive to the suggestions and images that are presented to it.
Hypnotherapy is a therapeutic technique using hypnosis. Mostly known for its ability to change the way we think and feel it is also used in medical settings to create changes to processes controlled by the subconscious mind – so all the physiological functions we don’t have to consciously think about – such as blood pressure, temperature regulation, breathing, pain response and digestion.
Gut Directed or Gut Focused Hypnotherapy changes the function of the gut by resolving the miscommunication between the gut and brain. Signals sent through the gut brain connection are restored in turn reducing the hypersensitivity of nerves and modulating gut motility, thereby restoring regular gut function and relieving IBS symptoms.
Stress and anxiety make IBS symptoms worse.
We know that although stress does not cause IBS it does exacerbate symptoms and is a big culprit in causing digestive distress. Hypnotherapy also helps counteract the effects of stress on the gut by activating the parasympathetic nervous system. It stimulates the body’s rest and digest phase, the opposite branch to the fight or flight mode.
Beyond changing the gut brain communication and reducing the effects of stress hypnotherapy can also help change subconscious responses to situations that are often a challenge when living with IBS including the fear of needing the toilet when away from home or the fear of eating certain foods.
Is gut-directed hypnotherapy effective?
In 1984 Professor Whorwell, a UK gastroenterologist, decided to test the effectiveness of hypnotherapy as a treatment for IBS. Thirty patients with severe symptoms that didn’t respond to other treatments were chosen at random. They received either seven sessions of hypnotherapy or seven sessions of psychotherapy plus placebo pills.
The psychotherapy group showed a small but significant improvement in abdominal pain and general wellbeing but not bowel activity patterns. The hypnotherapy patients showed a dramatic improvement in all IBS symptoms. Later on, 35 patients were added to the initial 15 treated with hypnotherapy. For the combined 50 patient groups, the success rate was 95% for ‘classic’ IBS cases but substantially less for IBS patients with atypical symptom pictures or significant psychological problems.
Further to this, another study (Palsson 2007 The International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis.) found that over 80% of patients who underwent a course of GDH reported a significant improvement in their symptoms.
More recently, a team led by Dr Simone Peters at Monash University showed that gut-directed hypnotherapy improves gastrointestinal symptoms in people with IBS by 70-80%. These improvements were long term gains.
In conclusion, gut-directed hypnotherapy (GDH) is an effective, evidence-based approach to treating Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) GDH can reduce symptoms by decreasing visceral hypersensitivity, modulating gut motility, reducing stress and anxiety, and addressing psychological and emotional factors that may contribute to the maintenance of the condition. It is a safe, non-invasive and drug-free treatment option for IBS sufferers that often brings relief where dietary changes and medication have not succeeded.
(And that is why I LOVE it!)
Helen Brooks
To find out more head to https://www.thetummywhisperer.co.uk/
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