The IBS Treatment Most People Don't Know About

The scientific community is beginning to accept (aka validate) the connection between emotional trauma and health.

The landmark study about Adverse Childhood Experiences is now permeating the medical community as we understand more about the effect of emotions on the body and the long term impact trauma has on our physiology.

What I know is that trauma can overwhelm the emotional body and create chaos in the physical body as well.

And sometimes it’s not even “yours”.

Trauma, if unresolved, can be passed down both genetically and behaviorally for somewhere between five and seven generations.

This would be helpful if we needed to know how to escape from a dangerous animal but can also use the same pathway to recycle family dysfunction or significant traumas from our ancestors.

I call this “undigested trauma”.

It usually shows up as seemingly benign behaviors like “finishing your plate” or being able to “put it [a large amount of food] away” even if you yourself have never experienced a famine or any shortage of food.

And for some it can show up as a “sensitive stomach”, or even “irritable bowel syndrome”(sometimes even if only self-diagnosed).

Because IBS is a syndrome- a collection of observed symptoms- and not a binary diagnosis, it leaves plenty of room for holistic support to create lasting changes.

What we want is to trust our own system- listening to the feelings of fullness and discomfort and honoring them even if the voice of the past (“you better eat while it’s available” or “a little bit won’t hurt you”,”clean your plate”) is echoing.

It would be like watching a movie while listening to the audio from another movie.

It’s just confusing.

Being able to separate these voices as “mine” and “not mine” can be a powerful key to relief.

Healing this trauma can create relief for your gut too.

As is the case for a friend of mine, she’s been “chasing” her symptoms- eating foods she thinks would cause constipation in order to prevent the excessive diarrhea she’s experienced since a traumatic event in her life.

When I shared with her that IBS can be a side effect or a traumatic event, a lightbulb went off for her.

The experience that shook her as a child was still difficult to “digest” even as a well-resourced trauma-informed adult.

If you have suffered from GI issues most of your life, think back to when it first started, was it around the time of a traumatic event?

If so, then your gut may be reliving that trauma over and over because your body/brain/adult-self hasn’t fully processed it.

Until we can hold the anxious child inside of us, and allow her to “digest” what’s happened with an adult (you) to guide her “she” will continue with what she knows because that’s all she’s known.

My hope is to approach this process with a little more compassion if it’s not an “immediate shift”.

Nutrition, especially for people with IBS, is highly specialized and yet deeply personal.

This is my specialty.

I am opening up 2 additional spots for 1:1 coaching.

In addition to my online program, Nourished, to begin healing the underlying emotional experience, I would love to guide you in learning how to uncover and manage your trigger foods using your feminine energy in a way that feels empowering and insightful.

You will learn what your body needs and how to know what to leave out to begin to get ahead of your symptoms so you aren’t always planning your life around a bathroom.

The people that get the best results from this type of coaching are naturally intuitive and have tried many healing modalities.

They are often healers themselves but haven’t infused their emotional growth with their physical well-being.

They have often tried a variety of ways to manage their stomach pain, having sensitivity tests done, supplement regimens, and working with specialists for gut health for years but still feel like they haven’t quite found the answers they need to move the needle.

IBS runs in their family and they haven’t been able to eliminate the “correct” foods to reduce episodes of flare-ups even after trying several elimination diets.

They are open to personal growth and exploring their masculine and feminine energies to heal and create healthy connections in all areas of their lives.

Email me (CSchandNutrition@gmail.com) and we can see if using a trauma-informed lens for resolving your nutrition concerns is the right fit for you and get started ASAP.