What is Nutrition Coaching? What is Gut-Centred Hypnotherapy?

Trusting someone with your health is a big decision. It can feel like taking a leap of faith. In this post, I want to share a little bit about how I work to hopefully demystify the process. I’m also excited to explain a bit more about gut-centred hypnotherapy which is a new protocol I’ve added to my client sessions. More on that later.

If you’ve never had an initial consultation with me, be warned: I ask a lot of questions. For every question I ask, I’m trying to paint a picture, connect the dots and make new connections. I may want to know what you were up to last week, last month and even last decade.

Too many of the doctors I’ve seen for my own autoimmune disease were focused only on today’s symptoms. This can lead to tunnel vision which omits the bigger picture. I’m all about finding holistic solutions. 

The way you felt this morning when you ate some toast could be related to the antibiotics you took last year, or the bout of food poisoning you had last month, or the stressful meeting you had last week. 

You may be struggling to lose weight because of poor sleep.

You may feel brain fog from chronically undereating. Or avoiding carbs.

As I gain a better understanding of what you’re going through and what some of the causes might be, I may recommend that you do some additional testing (this is always optional) and then we come up with a plan. 

To help us focus on what to attack first, I often use the below ‘Wheel of Gut Health’ to get a more concrete sense of what needs the most attention and how best to proceed. 

You might even find it useful to fill this out now, just to help quantify any issues you may be experiencing. 

Now, this is where it can get tricky. Things like gut health and autoimmunity exist on a spectrum and they’re anything but linear. And so healing can be a tricky process. You’ll have good days and not so good. Same as I do with my Hashimoto’s Disease. It may take a while to find a protocol that works. 

As your coach, I have your back through all this. Rest assured, I’ve been there before myself and I’ve helped many others through too. 

Often, one of the biggest challenges for my clients who are starting out on their wellness journey, is actually sticking to the plan. Compliance is hard. Especially if it involves changing ingrained habits, whether they relate to food choices, sleep hygiene, exercise, stress management...the list goes on. 

As your coach, I’m going to be your biggest cheerleader. Accountability is a massive component of any wellness protocol. And if you’re on a recurring coaching package, we’ll have weekly or monthly check-ins. Sometimes, those sessions will be about questions you have. Sometimes they’ll just be about celebrating small wins of compliance or progress. 

But there’s a new not so secret weapon in my arsenal that can really accelerate your progress. This is where gut-centred hypnotherapy comes in. It may seem a bit woo-woo to do a hypnosis session, but hold up just a second…

I decided to study and get certified as a clinical hypnotherapist because the scientific evidence was too compelling to ignore. There are just so many studies that show how darn effective hypnotherapy can be when it comes to gut health. 

If you like to read the nerdy fineprint (I do), you could start with the papers linked here and here. Both studies show that more than 75% of subjects experienced a reduction in their gastro-intestinal symptoms after treatment via hypnosis. 

This might surprise you. But remember, the vagus nerve is one of the most important nerves in the body. It oversees a vast array of crucial bodily functions, including control of mood, immune response, digestion, and heart rate. And it also links the stomach and the brain. So why not work with the brain (hypnosis) and the gut (diet, nutrition etc) at the same time? 

What’s great about gut-centred hypnotherapy sessions is that they’re so simple. I guide you through a tailor-made protocol designed to chip away at your symptoms. That’s it.

This is particularly powerful for clients who are struggling with that compliance piece I mentioned earlier. Hypnotherapy is something proactive we can do together, in a session, right now. There’s no meal prep, no special shopping list, no early morning trip to the gym. Sometimes we get too busy for all that. 

Hypnotherapy is a tool that I can bring to you where you are. No compliance needed, just an open mind. The sessions themselves will be customised for your needs. And this is another area where hypnosis can really excel.

I had a client the other day who was struggling with what she called ‘boredom snacking.’ Now, as a nutrition coach, I can tell you that too much snacking (especially with sugary treats) isn’t a great idea. You may already know this yourself. I can help you to understand what foods might make better choices, but I can’t necessarily get into the mindset that has led you to reach for a Tim Tam five times today. You yourself may not really understand what’s driving the behaviour beyond something vague like ‘I’m stressed.’ 

Enter hypnotherapy. During my session with this client, I was able to guide her into a more open and relaxed headspace. And she was able to go a little deeper on her self-knowledge – she tapped into the root cause or intention behind her snacking. It turns out, it was about stress but it was more complicated than just ‘I’m busy.’ The snacking was a behaviour that she had developed to give herself a break from an intense day. It was like her brain enforcing a little time out to take a breath and reset. 

Once my client understood this, it became much easier to avoid the sugary treats. She’s been scheduling some five minute breaks during her busiest days and just the simple act of starting a timer to go and get a cup of tea or take a quick walk around the office has completely eradicated her impulse to snack. 

Without the hypnotherapy session, we could still have done good work. We could have planned some general stress management practices like meditation and morning walks. We could have talked about sleep hygiene and developed an evening wind-down protocol. We would definitely have looked at any inflammatory foods in her diet. And all theses things will move the needle on something like stress. 

However, the added specificity gleaned from the hypnotherapy session gave us something very direct to action at the same time. And that’s what I mean when I say my approach to health and wellness is holistic. I’m always looking for ways to see the big picture because that’s how I’m able to get the best outcomes for my wonderful clients. 

Curious about gut-centred hypnotherapy? Got some health goals you need help with? Let’s talk!