Irritable Bowel Syndrome…The Facts:

“Recently the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) issued guidance to the NHS that there was good evidence that hypnotherapy was an effective treatment for IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome)”.

Irritable bowel syndrome is one of the most common disorders of the digestive system. The organisation IBS Network estimates that it affects one third of people in the UK at some point and to some extent, and one in ten people have symptoms bad enough to visit their doctor. IBS is characterised by a collection of symptoms affecting the small or large bowel which include:

These cause pain and discomfort. The exact causes of IBS are unknown. IBS sufferers usually have no physical abnormalities in the bowel, so it has been clinical trials state that there is a strong link between stress and IBS. What seems to happen with Irritable Bowel Syndrome is that the bowel becomes super sensitive and responds with violent contractions or spasms to stimuli such as stress or simply eating a meal.

How does hypnotherapy help?

Hypnotherapy routinely produces long term positive results in over 80% of the people who use it.

Hypnotherapy is often thought to be therapy that only affects the mind, but as mind and body are inseparably joined, hypnosis can also help physical ailments.

For Irritable Bowel Syndrome, one of hypnotherapy's greatest benefits is its well-established ability to reduce the effects of stress. Your state of mind can have a direct impact on your physical well-being, even when you're in the best of health. If you're struggling with IBS, the tension, anxiety, and depression that comes from living with an incurable illness can actually undermine your immune system and further compromise your health.

Hypnosis can reduce this stress and its resultant negative impact by placing you in a deeply relaxed state, promoting positive thoughts and coping strategies, and clearing your mind of negative attitudes.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome in fact is almost uniquely suited to treatment by hypnosis or self hypnosis, for several reasons. First, as just noted, stress-related attacks can be significantly reduced. Second, one of the most impressive aspects from hypnotherapy, and of tremendous benefit to IBS sufferers, is its well-documented ability to relieve virtually all types and degrees of pain. Finally, because IBS is not a disease at all but a syndrome, if you can relieve and prevent the symptoms, you have effectively cured yourself of the disorder, and you will be living an IBS-free life. This outcome is a definite possibility from hypnotherapy treatments.



The key to management of IBS is to lower our stress sensitivity and also reduce the perception of pain from the bowel thereby. Although there is no known cause of irritable bowel syndrome, it has been clinically proven that Stress is a large contributing factor. At the Hertfordshire Hypnosis Clinic I focus my attention on helping you to relieve any stress you may have in your life and how to manage it effectively. The different relaxation techniques I will teach you will help to alleviate symptoms considerably.