There is a powerful connection between the brain and the gut often referred to as the brain-gut connection. For a number of reasons, this communication pathway can become disrupted or dysregulated, causing and contributing to uncomfortable and disruptive symptoms along the gastrointestinal tract. Stress can also negatively impact physical and mental health, and the GI tract is one of the first systems in the body to experience the consequences of stress. Stress directly and indirectly impacts the GI tract and intensifies GI symptoms by interfering with signaling between the brain and the gut. Moreover, living with chronic and unpredictable GI symptoms is stressful and can affect work, relationships, and overall quality of life.

The Behavioral Medicine team provides treatments that directly target GI symptoms and reduce the impact of stress on health. We provide brain-gut behavioral therapies that give patients helpful skills and strategies to improve physical health and well-being. Our program is beneficial for patients with a wide range of GI conditions, including those with poorly understood symptoms that have not responded to standard medical interventions.

Our Behavioral Medicine team is also integrated with the Northwestern Center for Lifestyle Medicine (CLM) and the Northwestern Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery program. Through that integration, we work with patients who are interested in psychological and behavioral approaches to health improvement and weight loss and we provide psychosocial evaluations and assist with readiness for patients pursuing metabolic and bariatric surgery, respectively.

Outpatient services are staffed by:

All of our providers have specialized training in digestive diseases. We work directly with Digestive Health Center gastroenterologists and other physicians to coordinate patient care.

All of the therapists on our team are trained in cognitive behavioral therapy, medical hypnotherapy, and brief, solution-focused treatments. These treatments have proven efficacy in a number of well-controlled clinical trials and are widely accepted as the most effective behavioral interventions for GI conditions.