Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy

Many respected medical institutions and doctors support using medical hypnotherapy for a range of medical conditions which includes chronic pain, arthritis, cancer, fibromyalgia and for many of the digestive disorders.

Hypnosis is something that often gets a raise of the eyebrow because it can bring to mind a stage hypnotist performance.  This is where a performer on stage gets volunteers from the audience to do outrageous or whacky things like to cluck & strut like a chicken whenever a cell phone rings.  Thankfully medical hypnosis is nothing like this. 

Instead, with medical hypnosis, a trained professional helps their patients by inducing them into a hypnotic state.  There’s no loss of control, it’s just a state of mind that is especially relaxed and focused.  Once someone is in a hypnotic state the other parts of the work (steps 2 & 3 below) then follow.  This process is then practiced at home by the patient on their own with recordings.

Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy (GDHT)

This is a specific type of medical hypnosis that helps people with chronic GI conditions.  It typically involves 7-12 sessions and home practice to learn how to:

1 | Enter into & deepen a hypnotic state

2 | Engage in imagery focused on GI problems

3 | Instill post-hypnotic suggestions


This process tends to help people gain better control over symptoms by addressing the communication occurring between the brain and gut. 

What’s the Evidence? | Current Research

While gut-focused therapy is the most tested mind-body treatment for GI conditions, gut-directed hypnotherapy (GDHT) is the 2nd most.

Functional Disorders
(aka Disorders of the Gut-Brain Interaction - DGBI)

GDHT has been proven to be effective in significantly improving the symptoms of IBS.  Because research budgets are limited, most of the research in this field is focused on IBS. However, there is supporting evidence that GDHT is also quite helpful for other functional / disorders of the gut-brain interaction (DGBI) (e.g. GERD, dyspepsia, dysphagia).  In addition to the evidence from research the other source of information to consider is the clinical experience of experts and the majority of them report that GDHT is an effective tool they regularly use with their patients.  GDHT can be an especially useful tool when pain is a prominent symptom.

The summary of the impact of this treatment is very similar to the positive effects from gut-focused therapy - approximately 70% of people see significant improvement in GI symptoms.  In addition, there are significant improvements in well-being as the disruption from GI symptoms is reduced.

The treatment durability is how long the positive effects last and the durability of GDHT is quite good.  As long as the patient continues to keep the practice going, the positive effects tend to be sustained.  One study showed this to be the case as far as 6 years post-treatment.

For IBD

The available data does show some help for people with IBD (Crohn’s Disease & Ulcerative Colitis). Study participants benefited from a reduction in symptoms, prolonged remission and reduced need for steroids.  However, these positive results are based on a handful of studies so far.  The hope is that future research will reveal that this is a predictably effective tool for IBD, just as it is for IBS.

Finding a Trained Professional

There are two important factors to consider if you want to explore this tool for yourself.

Factor 1 | 
Make sure you are getting treatment from a licensed medical or mental health professional trained in clinical hypnosis.

Factor 2 | 
Make sure you would be receiving “Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy”, this is a specific treatment.

A licensed professional providing general clinical hypnosis or medical hypnosis is not sufficient, the person you are working with needs to confirm they have specific training in GDHT.  There are two available standardized GDHT protocols, the Manchester Approach and the North Carolina Protocol.  They should be using one of these two.

  • There are hundreds of professionals in the US that can be found here:

    GDHT Directory

  • There are reports that the directory above has some inaccurate or outdated info. If you are unable to find a professional from that list you can search this larger directory below, find a licensed hypnotherapist & ask them to follow one of the two protocols.

    American Society of Clinical Hypnosis

    If they don’t already use either of these protocols, they can get free access to the North Carolina 7 session protocol by contacting the people that host the directory in the GDHT directory in option 1 above.

  • While one-on-one is the gold standard of care, a good backup is an app called Nerva.

    The Nerva App

More Resources

The podcast Science Vs did a nice overview of clinical hypnosis (not specifically GDHT) in this episode:


Hypnosis: Does It Really Work?

Quick FAQ

  • Will I lose control of myself or be controlled by the hypnotherapist in any way?

    These are common concerns & the answer is definitely not.  No matter how deeply hypnotized you never lose control of yourself, nor can you be talked into anything you don’t agree with.

  • What if I’m not able to be hypnotized?

    It is true that there is a spectrum regarding someone’s ability to be hypnotized.  Thankfully though for this treatment to work the majority of people are hypnotizable “enough” to get positive results.