As a licensed psychologist specializing in treating Irritable Bowel Syndrome, functional dyspepsia, chronic constipation, cyclic vomiting, and other functional GI disorders, my aim is to help you to heal even though you may not have a clear medical or physiological explanation for your symptoms. When you have a digestive problem with no clear-cut physiological cause, healing is a process of trial and error. 

Often, the first step in this trial and error process is to stop seeking a cause so that you can focus on healing. From there, healing from IBS is a series of calculated risks you will take over time with the hope that each risk will result in reduction of your IBS symptoms. In this process, hope is essential. Steps you take towards healing are small leaps of faith. Sometimes they work out well, and sometimes they don’t. Either way, you will learn something valuable that helps set you up for a more likely success the next time. 

 Healing As a Journey

Individuals suffering from IBS share many common experiences: the frustration of painful symptoms with no clear cause, and the hope for a symptom-free life. Despite these commonalities, however, healing from IBS is an individual process. It might be helpful to think of your healing as a personal journey of exploration, learning, and discovery. My healing journey was unique to my own life, and your healing journey will be unique to yours. 

Sometimes, the idea of a “healing process” is discouraging to IBS patients, because it implies a long period of time. While it’s true that healing isn’t typically a quick fix, it might not be a long haul either. It took me 10 years to heal my body, but that doesn’t mean it will take you the same amount of time. I’ve seen people make a great deal of progress in a short amount of time. My objective is to help you to learn most expediently what I’ve learned on my own as a natural consequence of healing my own body and over the course of helping my patients to heal theirs. 

Give Yourself Time

When you put your body on your thinking brain’s time-clock, you’re getting in your body’s way of healing. Instead, give healing your body plenty of time. Give it as much time as it needs. Try to dialogue with the voice inside that may be pressuring you to fix your IBS problem ASAP. That pressure is only worsening your symptoms. Let that part of you know that another part of you needs it to yield so you can take steps toward healing.  

Though it might seem like your IBS came on suddenly, your IBS actually didn’t appear overnight. It developed in your body over time. Likewise, healing will take some time. 

To learn more, subscribe to the Don’t Hate Your Guts® YouTube channel and visit the Don’t Hate Your Guts® website, where you can sign up to have blogs sent straight to your inbox. Through the newsletter, you’ll also receive updates about the exciting webinar series I’m about to launch. 

Don’t hate your guts. Instead, discover how to heal your body.