Multi-disciplinary IBS Care

Trusting Your Guts Again

You will receive comprehensive initial assessments from both a psychologist and dietitian diving deep into understanding your symptoms. Our goal is to understand the underlying issue so we can solve it.

From a nutrition perspective we typically start with a food first, medication second approach – often using the low FODMAP diet and other evidence based strategies. The low FODMAP diet has been shown to help up to 75% of patients improve their IBS symptoms. Please note this approach may not be best suited for your symptoms, so we will tailor our nutrition recommendations to your individual case.

From a psychology perspective we start with building awareness in the body. This will help us to understand how the gut and brain interact to shape your digestive symptoms. Kirsten will teach you some tools to begin with body awareness in the first session.

Learning Your Triggers

After the first month of nutrition changes we focus on fine tuning symptoms and strategically reintroducing FODMAPs to better understand your personal triggers. If symptoms aren’t adequately improved we still have many other tools in our toolkit! We will work with your physician or gastroenterologist to get access to further testing or medication as required.

After you’ve done the work to build body awareness, you will start to explore how thoughts and feelings shape behaviours – or how your body responds to stress & your symptoms. Typically we use cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to add another tool to your toolkit, but also use other tools such as self compassion, sitting with discomfort, and learning how you create safety in your body so that you can better understand your stress triggers.

Setting You Up for Success

When we’ve hit those targets and understand how your symptoms are triggered, we will put a plan in place to keep you feeling good long term. We want you to live the healthiest life you ACTUALLY enjoy, with as much food freedom as possible! We focus on nutrition and lifestyle strategies, giving you control over your symptoms so you can take care of your guts for the rest of your life! Alongside nutrition & lifestyle, Kirsten will continue to work with you on shaping how your body responds to stress and continue to develop those positive coping tools to manage the gut-brain connection.