Who writes this site

Written by Kathryn Dunn · Published 23 October 2026 · Last reviewed 23 October 2026

You've had the tests. They came back clear. Somebody said the words Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or IBS, and then the appointment was over, and you went home with the same stomach you walked in with and a leaflet you didn't read.

This site is for what happens after that.

Hello, I'm Kathryn

I'm a cognitive behavioural hypnotherapist in York. I work with people in the room and online across the UK, and the part of my work this site grew out of is gut-directed hypnotherapy for IBS.

I don't have IBS. I've worked with a good many women who do, and most of them told me the same thing in different words: they'd been given a name for it and then left to get on with it. The information they could find was either American, or trying to sell them something, or both.

So I started writing the site I wished I could have sent them to. Everything on it is written for you, in plain English, with the source linked so you can check it.

What I'm trained in

Since you should be able to check this too:

• Level 4 Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy, UK College of Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy
• Specialist training in gut-directed hypnotherapy for IBS with Dr Elena Eliadou, developed and delivered by an NHS consultant gastroenterologist
• Member of the Federation of Holistic Therapists (MFHT), registered and insured through the FHT
• Member of the Institute of Leadership

Before this I spent fifteen and a half years at the Electoral Commission. I've a law degree and a master's in leadership and management, and I've run five businesses, the first at school. It shows in how I write: organised, plain, and allergic to promises that can't be kept.

What I'm not

I'm not a doctor. I'm not a dietitian. Nothing on this site replaces either of them, and if you've got new or changing symptoms, your GP comes first.

Where a page describes a diet, it tells you what the diet is and what the research found. It won't tell you what to eat. That's a job for a registered dietitian, and the site says so wherever it comes up.

One thing you should know before you read on

I earn my living from one of the treatments described on this site. You should know that before you read a word about it.

Here's how I've handled it. Every treatment on IBS Explained gets the same page, written the same way: what it is, what the research found, who it suits, and what the guidelines say. Hypnotherapy gets no more space and no kinder tone than the low FODMAP diet, medication or cognitive behavioural therapy. Where the research is thin or mixed, the page says so, including for hypnotherapy. And the page about hypnotherapy ends with one line saying I offer it. That's the only place on the site that does.

If I've got that balance wrong anywhere, tell me. The contact page is there for exactly that.

How I decide what goes on here

Every claim about IBS, a treatment or the NHS links to where it came from: NICE, the NHS, the British Society of Gastroenterology, Guts UK, or the published paper. I don't link to summaries on other practitioners' sites. Every page shows the date it was last reviewed, and I go back through them when a guideline changes.

The full version of that is on the editorial standards page.

Where else to find me

My practice, for the gut-directed work, is Mind Your Guts at mindyourguts.co.uk. If you've read this far and want to know what that work looks like, that's where it's described.

For anything about this site, email [email protected].