Gut-directed hypnotherapy · York & online
You have had the tests. You have tried the diets. You still feel awful.
There is a calmer way to live with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and it starts with the conversation between your gut and your brain. I am Kathryn, a cognitive behavioural hypnotherapist with specialist training in IBS. Working alongside your medical care, I use gut-directed hypnotherapy to help you feel calmer, less anxious about your symptoms, and more in control of your days. No restrictive diets. No willpower. No "have you tried just relaxing?"
Or get my free relaxation →
Why nothing has worked yet
It is not all in your head. But your head has more to do with it than anyone has explained.
If your gut has been running the show for a while, you know the drill. The quiet planning around "safe" foods. Knowing where every toilet is, just in case. The flare-up that arrives at the worst possible moment. Turning down the dinner, the trip, the day out, because you cannot be sure what your gut will do.
Here is what is actually going on. Your gut and your brain are in constant, two-way conversation. In IBS that channel gets stuck on high alert, so the gut overreacts and the alarm keeps firing even when nothing is wrong. That is what sits behind the cramping, the urgency, the bloating and the unpredictability. It is real, it is physically grounded, and it is not your willpower, your food, or your imagination.
The hopeful part: that conversation can change. Working gently with the gut-brain connection can help you feel calmer, less anxious about your symptoms, and more in control of your day. That is what my work is built around, alongside the care you get from your GP.
Recognised in the guidelines
A recognised place in the UK clinical guidelines for IBS
Gut-directed hypnotherapy is not fringe, and it is not wishful thinking. It is named in the UK clinical guidelines for IBS, and hardly anyone has heard of it. I would like to change that.
1 in 7
People in the UK live with IBS, and most are offered no psychological support at all
NICE
Suggests considering referral for psychological therapies, including hypnotherapy, for IBS that has not responded to first-line treatment
BSG
The British Society of Gastroenterology guideline includes a recommendation for gut-directed hypnotherapy in IBS
This describes what the guidelines say, not a promise about your own results. Research on gut-directed hypnotherapy is encouraging but mixed, and no approach helps everyone. I will always be straight with you about what the evidence does and does not show, and this work sits alongside the care and diagnosis you get from your GP, never in place of it.
A Simple Plan
Three steps to feeling like yourself again
Step One
A free discovery call
We talk through what you are experiencing, what you have already tried, and whether this is the right path for you. A gentle chat, not an assessment full of forms.
Step Two
Your personal programme
A gut-directed programme built around your pattern, whether that is urgency, pain, bloating or a mix. It brings together hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioural techniques and mindfulness to help you feel calmer and respond differently to your symptoms.
Step Three
Feeling more like yourself
Less anxiety around food and going out, a kinder relationship with your gut, and a set of practical tools you keep for good, so the calm you build has the best chance of staying with you.
Wherever you are right
You are in the right place, whichever of these sounds like you
Diagnosed a while ago and still struggling. If IBS has not settled after a year of trying, you are precisely who the guidelines had in mind for psychological therapy. Not a difficult case, exactly the person this is for.
Still looking for answers. If you are trying lots of things and not sure what is going on, the best first step is a positive diagnosis from your GP to rule anything else out. From there, you do not have to spend years restricting food before getting real help.
A GP or gastroenterology colleague. If you support people with refractory IBS, there is a short evidence brief for referrers. Ask me and I will send it over.
Or get my free relaxation →
Free Relaxation
Get your free relaxation
Sign up to Mind Your Guts, my free weekly email, and I will send you a relaxation recording to listen to whenever you want a calmer moment. After that, one gentle email a week: the gut-brain science made simple, and small, doable things you can actually use.
No spam, ever. Unsubscribe any time.
Cognitive behavioural hypnotherapist. York and online. [email protected]
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Hypnotherapy is not a substitute for medical care and does not diagnose or treat IBS. Gut-directed hypnotherapy is referenced in the UK clinical guidelines for irritable bowel syndrome: the British Society of Gastroenterology guideline includes a recommendation for it, and NICE suggests healthcare professionals consider referral for psychological therapies, including hypnotherapy, for people whose IBS has not responded to first-line treatment after 12 months. Results vary from person to person and no approach helps everyone. This site is for information only. Please get a diagnosis from your GP and see your GP about any new, changing or persistent symptoms, so that other conditions can be ruled out.
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