I first heard about Helen when I was attending a hospital appointment for my bowel problems. The nurse I was seeing suggested that my anxiety was part of my bowel problems and that hypnotherapy might help. I couldn’t understand or imagine that hypnotherapy could help my IBS symptoms and help me get back to doing things that I enjoyed doing. Socialising with friends, long walks, celebrations with family and days out with my daughter. All this had stopped due to my anxiety about my IBS and its symptoms. I felt so isolated as no one seemed to understand how I felt and what came with the IBS flare ups.

It was 6 weeks before I actually contacted Helen thinking I had nothing to lose and something had to be better than how things were. My first conversation with Helen was on the phone, talking about what was happening with me and the barriers I was facing. The impact on me as a person and my daughter as we were missing out on so much, because of the anxiety and worry about eating out and generally going anywhere. At times even driving to work would cause my anxiety which would cause a flare up.

In 2021 I had my first really bad bowel flare up that totally changed my life. I became very anxious about going out and particularly to new places. After lots of tests I found out I had a bug in my stomach called H. pylori this was not the first bug, but it was most definitely the worst. I stopped going out and socialising, I would go to work and come home. Over about 3 years I had many tests carried out, tried lots of different medications some worked short term, some made things worse and some caused side effects which meant stopping them. I first met with Helen at her home on the 16th of June. My IBS flared up when leaving the house not knowing what to expect on arrival. 

My first session with Helen was surreal, how could something that you were so aware of doing make you feel so relaxed. I was thinking to myself was it going to work, how was it going to work if I was just relaxed and listening to Helen. Helen sent me a hypnotherapy recording to listen to for the next 28 days but we had agreed to have another session in 2 weeks. Helen wanted me to go away and think about the thought process when things were happening and how to change that, thinking about the what if’s and the thought loop.

Session 2 with Helen was 30th of June. I felt more relaxed going to see Helen, this time we talked through my thoughts and how to change them from negative to positive. We talked about the what if’s and how the thought process could be changed and where I wanted to see myself by the end of the sessions. I had been on a school trip and hadn’t felt anxious on the travel or panicked about knowing where the toilets were. Talking through made me realise that changing my thought process took some of the anxiety away. We also talked about the holiday I was due to go on with my daughter as it is somewhere I have never been before on our own. All the what if’s and how to manage the IBS with my medication if needed so we could enjoy the holiday as medication is a normal thing for a lot of people.

Session 3 with Helen was the 12th of July. I could feel the change in me as a person, I felt calmer, more confident about doing trips for school but still hadn’t attempted food or drinks out of the house, I was planning on going out with friends from work to celebrate the end of the school year. Helen gave me another hypnotherapy recording to listen to along with the first one for 28 days to help with the negative thoughts and feelings for my anxiety and IBS. I listened to the hypnotherapy recordings until mid-August every day and then just when I felt I needed to after that. Over the next 6 weeks I had my holiday and only had 3 flare ups with my IBS but unsure if that was food with being away, feeling anxious at doing new things or enjoying a few drinks with being on holiday. We went out for a meal to celebrates mam’s birthday when we got home, ventured on a few day trips to the beach or shopping, a day trip to Edinburgh Zoo, joined friend’s in town for a bottomless brunch which is way out of my comfort zone. It felt amazing to go out and not have that tummy doing summersaults, back and forth to the toilet, feeling uncomfortable and in pain, wanting to cancel and worrying about what will happen if I go out. I went out and enjoyed everything. Helen was at the end of the phone keeping in touch with messages and we arranged our next session for the 6th September after my first week back at work.

Session 4 with Helen 6th September. This was talking about the positives and looking at whether or not I felt I had hit the goal I want. Although I feel I have made a lot of progress in a short space of time I still feel there is more to come. My next stage is to get the confidence to get back in the car and do day trips in the car, as with the anxiety and IBS it was easier to get the train to anywhere of distance so I knew there was always a toilet. Now I feel I have the control over my anxiety I feel I have more control over my IBS, which hopefully over time means we will be able to get back to those day trips and enjoying more socialising out of the house. My daughter and I share the cooking and are trying new recipes. I now have friends at the house and starting to enjoy going back out for food, I feel that we are starting to do normal things again with friends and family. For me small steps win the race and I feel like I’m winning.