I’ve lived with irritable bowel syndrome since I was a child.

So when someone talks about the bloating, pain, unpredictable bowel habits or the anxiety that can come with not knowing when your stomach is going to play up, I don’t just understand it from a textbook. I’ve experienced it.

For years, I thought of IBS as something happening purely in my gut. What I’ve come to understand, both through my own experience and my training as a Solution Focused Hypnotherapist, is just how closely our brain and gut communicate and how stress and anxiety can influence what happens in our digestive system.

Learning more about that connection has changed the way I think about my own IBS. And using hypnotherapy has benefitted me personally in managing my symptoms.

That doesn’t mean IBS is “all in your head”. Far from it. But the connection between what’s happening in your brain and what’s happening in your gut is fascinating and increasingly well understood.

What is the gut-brain connection?

We often talk about the brain and digestive system as though they’re completely separate. They’re not. 

The gut and brain communicate constantly through what is often called the gut-brain axis. Signals travel in both directions through neural, hormonal and immune pathways, with the nervous system playing an important role in how the digestive system functions and how we experience sensations from the gut. 

You’ve probably experienced this relationship even if you don’t have IBS. Think about having “butterflies” before something important. Feeling sick when you’re nervous. Losing your appetite when you’re stressed. Or suddenly needing the toilet before an exam, presentation or difficult conversation. 

Your thoughts haven’t imagined those physical sensations. The sensations are real. Your brain and body are communicating.

What does the gut-brain connection have to do with IBS?

IBS is now recognised as a disorder of gut-brain interaction. 

That doesn’t mean stress is the sole cause of IBS, nor does it mean reducing stress will automatically make symptoms disappear. IBS is complex and different people experience it differently. 

But we do know that communication between the brain and gut is important. When we’re stressed or anxious, the nervous system can affect digestive processes and how sensations from the gut are perceived. For someone with IBS, that can contribute to a difficult cycle. 

You experience gut symptoms. You worry about the symptoms. That increases stress. The increased stress may affect the gut. Which gives you something else to worry about. 

And round you go. 

When your gut starts affecting your life 

One of the things people who haven’t experienced IBS may not appreciate is how much it can influence your everyday decisions. Where’s the nearest toilet? What can I eat? What happens if my stomach starts while I’m out? Can I manage that journey? Should I eat before I go? What if I can’t leave the meeting? 

Sometimes the worry about symptoms can become almost as difficult as the symptoms themselves. And when you’ve experienced IBS for years, it’s understandable that the brain can become very alert to what is happening in the gut. 

A rumble, cramp or sensation can immediately capture your attention. Is it starting again? 

The brain anticipates a problem, stress increases, and that can feed back into the very system you’re worrying about. For me, understanding that relationship was incredibly helpful.

Can hypnotherapy really help with IBS? 

This is where things become particularly interesting, because hypnotherapy for IBS isn’t simply based on anecdotal experience. There is clinical research into gut-directed hypnotherapy and its effect on IBS symptoms.

Research has found that gut-directed hypnotherapy can improve overall IBS symptoms for some people, and it is recognised within UK clinical guidance as a potential psychological treatment for IBS. The British Society of Gastroenterology describes IBS as a disorder of gut-brain interaction and recommends gut-directed hypnotherapy as an option that may improve global IBS symptoms.

NICE guidance also recommends considering hypnotherapy and other psychological therapies for people with persistent IBS that hasn’t responded to other treatments. 

That’s important, because it reflects something we’re increasingly recognising about IBS: the brain and gut shouldn’t necessarily be treated as two completely separate things. 

So how might hypnotherapy help? 

Gut-directed hypnotherapy and Solution Focused Hypnotherapy aren’t exactly the same thing, and I think it’s important to make that distinction. The scientific research specifically looking at improvements in IBS symptoms has largely investigated gut-directed hypnotherapy, where hypnosis and therapeutic suggestions are focused specifically on the digestive system and the communication between the gut and brain. 

My work is Solution Focused. 

That means I look at the person more broadly, how stress and anxiety are affecting them, the patterns they’ve developed, how they want to feel and what life would look like if the problem were taking up less space. 

Hypnosis forms part of that process. 

By helping someone enter a deeply relaxed, focused state, we can support calmer patterns of response and work with the way the brain reacts to stress and bodily sensations. 

For someone whose IBS becomes worse when they’re anxious or overwhelmed, that can be particularly relevant. 

My own experience of IBS and hypnotherapy 

Having experienced IBS since childhood, I’m very conscious of not suggesting there is one simple answer. 

There isn’t.

I’ve had to learn what affects me, what helps me and how my own body responds. 

But one of the biggest changes for me has been understanding how closely my gut symptoms can be linked with what is happening elsewhere. 

Stress. Anxiety. Overthinking. Poor sleep. 

Those periods when everything feels as though it’s happening at once. As I’ve learned to manage those things differently, I’ve also noticed a difference in my IBS. Hypnotherapy has been part of that for me. 

My experience won’t necessarily be someone else’s experience, and I would never promise that hypnotherapy will remove IBS symptoms. But having lived with IBS for so much of my life, discovering that there was a genuine scientific basis for looking at the brain-gut connection and evidence that hypnotherapy can help some people with IBS was something I found really interesting. 

It also made a great deal of sense. IBS isn’t “just stress” 

This deserves saying clearly. IBS is a genuine gastrointestinal condition. Telling someone with IBS to “just relax” is no more helpful than telling someone who’s anxious to “stop worrying”. 

Hypnotherapy isn’t about pretending physical symptoms aren’t happening. Nor should someone assume new or persistent gut symptoms are IBS without appropriate medical assessment. If you’re experiencing unexplained or changing digestive symptoms, speaking to your GP or another appropriate healthcare professional should always come first. But once IBS has been diagnosed, understanding the relationship between your brain, nervous system, stress and digestive symptoms can open up another way of thinking about how you manage it. 

For me, it certainly did.