Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy

Living with digestive sensitivity can feel tiring and unpredictable.

You may experience:

• Abdominal pain or discomfort
• Bloating
• Diarrhoea
• Constipation
• Urgency
• Changes in bowel habits
• Digestive symptoms during stressful periods
• Anxiety connected with food, travel, work, or social situations
• Heightened awareness of sensations in your abdomen
• Anticipation around possible flare-ups

These experiences are real.

Your digestive system and nervous system are continually communicating. Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy works with this communication in a calm, focused, and supportive way.

Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy is a specialised form of clinical hypnotherapy developed to support the gut–brain connection.

During hypnosis, your body enters a calm and focused state. Your attention turns inward while you remain aware, responsive, and in control.

Guided imagery, therapeutic language, and gentle suggestion are then used to support a more settled relationship with digestive sensations.

Rather than asking you to ignore what you feel, the process invites your system to experience those sensations with greater steadiness and less alarm.

With repetition, new patterns of response can begin to feel more familiar.

Your gut and brain communicate through a complex network involving the nervous system, hormones, immune activity, and signals from the digestive tract.

The gut and brain are always in conversation

This communication moves in both directions.

A demanding or emotionally charged experience may influence digestion. Digestive discomfort may also create worry, vigilance, or anticipation.

Over time, this can form a repeating cycle:

A sensation appears

Your attention moves towards it.

The body prepares for discomfort or urgency.

The sensation feels stronger.

Your mind begins anticipating the next episode.

Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy offers your system a different experience.

Through calm attention and repeated therapeutic imagery, your body can begin developing a steadier response to the signals moving between your gut and brain.

People respond in their own way and at their own pace.

As the programme unfolds, you may begin to notice:

• Greater ease around digestive sensations
• A calmer response when symptoms arise
• Less anticipation around meals or outings
• More confidence in everyday situations
• A softer relationship with your body
• Increased awareness of stress patterns
• More space between a sensation and your reaction
• A growing sense of steadiness and choice

The purpose is to support your relationship with your digestive system as part of a wider approach to health and wellbeing.

Who is this programme for?

Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy may be suitable when:

• You have received an IBS diagnosis
• You experience persistent digestive sensitivity
• Stress or emotional pressure influences your digestion
• Your symptoms affect eating, travelling, working, or socialising
• Medical investigations have provided reassurance while symptoms continue
• You feel ready to explore the connection between your nervous system and digestion
• You want an approach that can sit alongside your existing medical or nutritional care
• An intake process helps us explore whether this service feels appropriate for you.

Each session is gentle, guided, and structured.

We begin with a conversation about how you have been since your previous appointment and anything you have noticed in your body, digestion, emotions, or daily life.

You are then guided into a calm and focused state.

Your outer attention softens while your inner awareness becomes clearer. You can hear my voice, respond when needed, adjust your body, and return to ordinary awareness at any time.

I use imagery and therapeutic suggestions connected with ease, rhythm, flow, comfort, and the natural functioning of the digestive system.

There is nothing you need to perform or achieve.

You simply listen and allow your own experience to unfold.

Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy works through repetition.

The programme includes:

An initial consultation

We explore your digestive history, current symptoms, medical care, daily patterns, and what you would like to experience differently.

This conversation also gives you space to ask questions and become familiar with the process.

A structured series of sessions

You attend a series of Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy sessions over several weeks.

Each session builds gently upon the one before it, allowing your nervous system to become familiar with the experience.

Guided listening between sessions

You receive a recording to listen to between appointments.

Regular listening supports repetition and helps the process become part of your everyday rhythm.

Review and integration

Together, we notice what has changed, what still feels tender, and what may support you moving forward.

Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy works alongside appropriate medical and nutritional care.

A medical practitioner is the right person to assess, diagnose, and investigate digestive symptoms. I ask clients to seek medical guidance for new, changing, persistent, or unexplained symptoms before beginning the programme.

Your doctor, gastroenterologist, dietitian, and other healthcare providers remain important parts of your care team.

This programme focuses specifically on the patterns of communication between the gut, brain, attention, and nervous system.

I welcome enquiries from general practitioners, gastroenterologists, dietitians, Health Improvement Practitioners, psychologists, counsellors, and other healthcare professionals supporting people with IBS or disorders of gut–brain interaction.

Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy is offered as a complementary intervention within an individual’s broader care plan.

The referral pathway includes:

1. Medical assessment or an established diagnosis where appropriate
2. Completion of the client intake form
3. An initial consultation to explore suitability
4. A structured Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy programme
5. Communication with the referring practitioner when the client has provided consent

Professional information, research references, and referral details are available below.

[View Professional Information & Referral Pathway]

Your body may have spent a long time preparing, protecting, and anticipating.

Here, we begin by listening.

The intake form gives you space to share what you have been experiencing and what you would like support with. I will review your information and contact you with the next appropriate step.

Complete the Intake Form

Ask a Question

Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy
Online throughout New Zealand
In person in Raumati South on the Kāpiti Coast

withlove@christinalongley.com

Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy is a complementary health service. Individual experiences and outcomes vary.

This service supports the psychological and nervous system aspects of digestive wellbeing and works alongside assessment, diagnosis, and treatment from appropriately qualified healthcare professionals.

For urgent or severe symptoms, contact your medical practitioner, an after-hours medical service, or emergency care.