New research has recently been published further demonstrating the effectiveness of hypnotherapy for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and what is more it has interesting implications of possible future practice.
Hypnotherapy for functional digestive disorders
One of hypnotherapies most well researched, yet least well-known areas to the public, is how effective it is in treating functional digestive disorders. Functional digestive disorders are those where nothing is physically observably wrong, i.e. no tissue damage or unusual masses, and yet the digestion does not work as you would want. The most well know examples are irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and functional dyspepsia.
Gut-directed hypnotherapy (GDH)
A specific set of techniques have been brought together to treat functional digestive disorders, these are collectively known as Gut Directed Hypnotherapy (GDH) and include:
- Direct suggestions for gut calm, gut health and gut strength.
- Visualisations: these can be the patient’s own imagery or standard ones can be used. In the ‘The River’ imagery is used to send calming imagery to the gut, to flow freely and calmly. In ‘The warm hand’, a warm light is transferred from the hand into the gut, sending a signal directly to the digestion to both clam.
- Desensitisation is used to reduce anticipatory tension around situations and trigger foods.
- Recordings are used to regulatory and frequently reinforce imagery and direct suggestions.
Historically, most of this work has been done in-person and on a one-to-one basis. However, research has found that other ways of conducting hypnotherapy for IBS are not only viable but possibly more effective.
Group hypnotherapy for IBS?
Hypnotherapy has been conducted to groups of people for various issues for years but has never become the normal way of practicing. It may not have caught on because of the additional administrative burden. However, there is good evidence that for IBS work it is associated with better outcomes than individual therapy. Various theorises for this have been forwarded, such as peer support and the effect of group oxytocin bonding, but none have yet been demonstrated scientifically.
So, with group work appearing beneficial to people with IBS, it is natural that ways of reducing the administrative barriers are sought. This is where video conferencing come in.
Online hypnotherapy for IBS
Research has demonstrated no significant difference between the experience of being hypnotised in-person and online (Rasch & Cordi 2024). Further, the outcomes of hypnotherapy for IBS appear to be similar when done in-person and online. Which leads to the question; what happens if you combine group hypnotherapy with online hypnotherapy?
Online group hypnotherapy for IBS
Luckily for us a team working out of Sweden has decided to address this question. A report of a pilot study of gut directed hypnotherapy for IBS which was conducted to an online group has recently been published. The key characteristic are:
- 51 adult participants, 42 of whom were female.
- All participants fulfilled Rome IV criteria for IBS.
- 8 sessions of live video conferencing therapy were conducted in groups of 6-8 participants over 12 weeks.
- GDH was based on the North Carolina protocol of hypnotherapy for IBS.
Key Results
- More than half were classified as ‘Responders’. A responder was someone whose symptoms reduced by ≥50 points on the IBS-severity scoring system (IBS-SSS). This is a commonly used and generally accepted measure of change which makes a substantial enough difference to be beneficial.
- Median IBS-SSS scores dropped by over a quarter from baseline to assessment 6 months after treatment.
- Other metrics showed a reduction in anxiety and depression and a general improvement in health-related quality of life.
Study limitation
The main limits to the studies generalisability come from it being a pilot study. Pilot studies are usually conducted to see if the evidence justifies the cost of a larger study. As such they tend not to be quite as rigorous as a full study, and a couple of aspects jump out:
- Small population – 51 participants is unlikely to be a sufficiently large sample to get a full representative distribution of people living with IBS.
- No formal control group – A comparison group was used from a previous study. This is not a true comparator as it was not time-synchronous with the treatment group and thus is open to different variables.
Neither of these invalidate the research, they simple caution against over-generalisation. These findings do however represent the highest level of evidence currently available to us and thus current evidence says that group online hypnotherapy is a valid approach.
Group online hypnotherapy for IBS – Implications for hypnotherapists and People living with IBS
The first thing we can say is that as it appears that group online hypnotherapy for IBS is effective and as such is a valid approach. This approach could make hypnotherapy for IBS:
- Easier to access – Hypnotherapists specialising in IBS have tended to be few and far between. By going online those specialisms become much easier for potential patients to access.
- Cheaper to access – By offering group work a hypnotherapist can reduce the price for individual patients.
- Potentially more profitable for hypnotherapists – As groups can be up to 8 participants the hypnotherapist could be offering group entry at substantially less than their one-to-one rate whilst still earning more overall.
Is group online hypnotherapy the way of the future?
From an evidence perspective it is too early to say if group online hypnotherapy for other issues will be effective. However, we may be able to say that it looks like a valid way forward for functional disorders which is justifiable on the reduction of cost and increase accessibility.
References
Lövdahl, J., Törnblom, H., Ringström, G., Palsson, O. S., & Simrén, M. (2026). Online Group Hypnotherapy for Irritable Bowel Syndrome—a Pilot Study. Neurogastroenterology & Motility, 38(5), e70328.
Rasch, B., & Cordi, M. J. (2024). The influence of experience and modality of presentation (online vs. offline) on hypnotizability. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1293070.