Interview with a Natural Therapist

Barbara Gibb: The mind-body approach to digestion issues

                
Barbara Gibb is a natural health practitioner with over 15 years experience and study in the Complementary Health arena, specialising in the psycho-spiritual and energy balancing domains. Barbara offers Cranio-Sacral therapy, Holistic Pulsing and Energy Alignment in private practice in Wellington and Nelson. She teaches 'How to tune-
up your Energy-Aura' Introductions and is a Holistic Pulsing Accredited tutor in Wellington and throughout New Zealand.

NHE: First of all Barbara, how would you explain ‘mind-body’ work?

Touching with the intent to heal has an ancient pedigree. Eastern philosophy has for thousands of years, studied and treated within a whole mind-body (or soul and body) paradigm of health care.  So modalities like traditional Chinese herbal medicine, yoga, acupuncture, Ayurveda (the ancient Indian sanskrit word 'Ayurveda' comprises the words ayus, meaning 'life' and veda, meaning 'science'), herbal medicine, come from an integrated whole body, or soul-mind-body, perspective.
The mood of modern healthcare is moving with much momentum away from high-technology, pharmacological, invasive… More

NHE: Could you explain a little about the various systems in the body that affect the digestive system – and how that affects the treatment of digestive disorders? For example, are there things that need to be taken into account that perhaps aren’t, in conventional medicine?

A natural Mind-Body therapist does not think of a 'health condition' or body system in isolation from the whole body/person. An energy healer senses the physical 'seen' body (that is the physical body that most of us can 'see') as just one visible layer of an inter-connected resonating field or the 'aura' of an individual - a 'dynamic light-filled field of different densities'.

Sensing the auric field of an individual, depending on the skill-set and focus of the practitioner, can be a real advantage if you're …More

NHE: It seems that stress can play a large part in digestive dysfunction. What kinds of stress appear to factor most, if any?  For example, would you say that childhood abuse plays a bigger part in digestive problems than the stress of overwork? Or are they often connected?

As a Mind Body therapist, I see each individual as a unique energy system and as such, having a unique 'stress signature'.

This is in part based on family physiology (as in what you've inherited as your physical structure, then conditioned emotionally and mentally as you grow up). And this will include family pre-dispositions (genetic ways of expressing dis-ease).

For instance, if your grandmother had bowel cancer or indigestion …More

NHE: Thinking of clients you have had with digestive problems, do you find any common emotional themes or habits of thinking that they share? If so, what are they?

As an energy healer, (I find) there is commonly extreme congestion in the astral-emotional level of a clients field, and often un-resolved content in all 3 lower chakras, which can contribute to emotional extremes of behavior, either conscious or non-conscious.

Congestion leads to irritation, intensity, wants and needs, which will express in many ways, depending on that person’s stress signature. If the person’s field is constantly congested or irritated, it may reach saturation, becoming overwhelmed, which could express as migraine, stomach indigestion, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory conditions, cancer, Crohns disease.  … More

NHE: What natural treatments would you recommend for people who have been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome, or who have some of the symptoms?

Well irritable bowel is actually a perfect example of how this can work because it ties in with the level of congestion and irritation that we've talked about. So again, there's levels of looking at how to support the whole person.   … More

NHE: I’ve heard the enteric nervous system (the part of the nervous system that regulates the digestive system) referred to as the ‘gut brain’. How much truth is there in that description – and is it relevant to the mind-body approach?

It is true that the gut is a little brain and it's been scientifically verified now.  There’s a largely quoted reference (I have it here in a newspaper article) that says:

"The gut's brain, known as the enteric nervous system, is located in sheaths of tissue lining the oesophagus, the stomach, the small intestine and the colon. It's packed with neurons, neurotransmitters and proteins that zap messages between neurons, support cells like those found in the brain proper, and a complex circuitry that enables it to act independently, learn, remember and, as the saying goes, produce gut feelings. “

“The brain in the gut plays a major role in human happiness and misery, and few people know that it exists.”
From the Mind-Body perspective, the gut brain often holds … More