IBS: Dropping the Symptoms and the Shame.
The pain just makes me feel desperate for some relief, but it’s hopeless. I have no energy to do anything. I’m just worthless; no wonder people ignore me. I am … Continue reading
How do we deal with what happens?
How do we deal with experience? The quick answer is: we process it in association with previous experiences or thoughts and store it in our database of memories, where it … Continue reading
Bugs, trauma and brain architecture: an association awaiting an explanation.
Ever since its characterisation some ten or more years ago, scientists have speculated that specific changes in the colonic microbiome could account for IBS, but until recently there have been … Continue reading
It’s not just the symptoms.
It is not just the symptoms of being ill: the pain, nausea, bowel upset, bloating, breathlessness, that are so distressing. It is also what they mean. This includes the fear … Continue reading
I’m not mad. I’ve got IBS.
Is what we call IBS the name given to any one of a number of different unexplained gut disorders or is it a combination of defects in many functional components … Continue reading
Healing: observing, listening and ‘a laying on of hands’.
Some of my encounters with patients are so shocking that they remain etched on my mind as lessons that have altered the way I practice. It was 1994 and I was … Continue reading
Grief and IBS: some thoughts on how to survive it and recover.
‘Tonight I can write the saddest lines. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too. …… I no longer love her, that’s certain, but maybe I love her. Love … Continue reading
Stuck in the past? So use the body to change what is happening now.
Mary and Andrew adopted Molly when she was 18 months old. Her mother had been addicted to alcohol and drugs and was incapable of looking after her. She was therefore … Continue reading
The heart (and the gut) know their reasons, that reason cannot tell
Last night, it was so warm and humid, I left the window open, but by morning the temperature had dropped and shards of rain rattled against the skylight. Half an … Continue reading
And after the affair
The books and magazine articles are clear. Let it go, move on and start again. Erase his number from your phone, don’t read any letters, throw away all those poems … Continue reading
The Sensitive Gut 