Hypnotherapy for IBS

Before seeing Emma I woke up feeling tired and unrested every morning, with regular dreams of doing my day job tasks and spiders! Every day my life was plagued with IBS pains. I lacked confidence in putting myself across verbally and my abilities, which took away from my enjoyment of and full participation in my favourite pastime, horse riding. I also suffered anxieties surrounding academic study, deadlines and results/grades.

Emma made me feel very comfortable and directed the process in a very gentle manner which allowed me to realise for myself that I did know how to, and could, help myself – that I could choose to be in control of my thoughts and reject negative thoughts. Emma always made the sessions relevant to what was happening in my life at the current time which helped me put theory into practice and gave me lots of suggestions that I could pick and choose from and trial. I didn’t know anything about hypnosis before I started and Emma gave a good introduction, as a pragmatist, I appreciated the explanation of how it all works. In other words, very good! It’s clear that Emma enjoys her work and has an aptitude for it.

Somehow being able to say to myself that negative thought/scenario playing is just not helpful to me has given me the justification and authority I needed to battle my negative thoughts and allow myself to have confidence. I am able to help myself much more now because I can come up with solutions rather than wasting time and hindering myself by endless fretting. I have found the visualisation tool very helpful and it has enabled me to start competing in horse riding which I previously thought was beyond me. My IBS pain is much improved and my verbal skills are improving.

If you’re thinking of trying hypnotherapy do it! I think hypnotherapy is misunderstood as something mystic when it is actually very logically based and not strange or unnerving. I never found counselling very helpful before and I think a lot of people would find the practical focus of this therapy really approachable and useful.

Lizzie, Devon