Cost Effective – $39 Group Rate compared to $150 Individual Rate.
Why Consider Hypnosis Treatment for IBS?
- Hypnosis is an attractive adjunct treatment for many IBS sufferers with chronic and severe symptoms.
- It is one of the most successful treatment approaches for chronic IBS.
- The treatment often helps individuals who have failed to get improvements with other methods (see for example: Whorwell et al., 1984, 1987; Palsson et al., 1997, 2000).
- Many find the relaxing and pleasurable sessions a unique and wonderful way to spend some time for themselves in healing.
- It’s a natural process using the power of your own mind, without negative side effects.
- Many experience improvement in other areas such as migraine or tension headaches.
- The beneficial effects of the treatment last long after the end of the course of treatment.
According to research, individuals who improve from hypnosis treatment for IBS can generally look forward to years of reduced bowel symptoms.
The therapy protocol
The group is an open group, meaning you can join at any week. However, there is an initial meeting to take a thorough clinical interview, assess and discuss current symptoms, and review past treatments. During this meeting, we also establish rapport, answer questions, and orient you to the group and hypnosis. I will provide you a realistic expectation of the process and therapeutic gains.
The prescriptive treatment course is initiated by joining the group in its first meeting after the assessment. You may attend the groups weekly or biweekly until the entire seven-session sequence is completed. On rare occasions, if you have unusual symptoms that I believe should also be targeted, I make additions to the therapeutic suggestions.
The groups are one hour in length. The scripted hypnosis sessions take between 20 and 40 minutes to deliver, so there is plenty of time to discuss concerns and process the techniques taught. You will receive a hypnosis audio recording for home use. Rarely does anyone have trouble with home practice as practice is pleasant.
By the sixth treatment visit, I ask patients to re-assess their bowel symptoms. We compare your current and pretreatment symptom levels. This is a good way for you to get an objective picture of your therapeutic gains.
Once you have finished the seven-session sequence, the therapy course is finished, no further treatment for IBS is generally required. However, you may attend a group session or I offer a 3-month follow-up visit as a booster session, because many patients find that helpful.
Prognosis and follow-up
Treatment responders typically remain better for a long time. In a few cases, however, patients have a return of symptoms years after the end of treatment (often brought on by unusually stressful life circumstances). In such cases, they have found that they can often bring their symptoms back under control if they use their audio exercise again daily for a couple of months.
This is a brief and fixed course of therapy, it is well received by practically all patients, and the experience to date shows that it can be expected to reliably improve the bowel symptoms of the great majority of IBS patients who have been unresponsive to other treatments.