I honestly never thought I could be so comfortable and happy!

Thank you so much!
Trigger warning – eating disorders

I am so incredibly grateful to have worked with Kirsten and I really highly recommend her work and the team at the IBS Dietitian!

I have struggled with IBS for years (unknowingly) and finally received a diagnosis in November / December 2024. I started following Kirsten on Instagram, and found her page very useful amongst all the misinformation around IBS. I didn’t relate to a lot of the stigmas around IBS (being told
to avoid fruit, symptoms such as diarrhoea and stomach pain, etc.), so her page really helped me understand my experience with IBS. I started working with Kirsten in January 2025 with the 1-2-1 programme.

A little bit of background to my specific case – I have IBS C type, which Kirsten helped me to understand was induced by years of disordered eating. Over the past few years I had unknowingly continued quite a disordered way of eating, even after I was well passed my eating disorder, as I had never been taught how to have a good relationship with food – and how to eat properly! I genuinely had no idea how much some one of my size etc. should eat. For example, I would only eat when I was really hungry, therefore I skipped a lot of meals, and I would associate any feeling of fullness with over eating (due to my previous history of bingeing and restricting). This meant I accidentally wasn’t eating enough calories, which (unknown to me) worsened my IBS symptoms, and it got to the point that at the end of 2024 I would be full after eating 1/2 a banana. I was in a very low place, crying every night, feeling full and uncomfortable all the time, barely eating, and I really thought I’d never be able to eat properly again. I felt so sad and frustrated as I finally had a good relationship with food, I wanted to finally start enjoying food!. I just hadn’t realised that my symptoms were due to my IBS, and so needed managing differently.

Since working with Kirsten I now eat 3 regular meals per day – something I have NEVER done!! Even as a child, from around 6 years old, I would skip breakfast, due to being told off all the time for eating too slowly and being late for school. I don’t snack now, I have a great exercise routine, I sleep well, I manage my stress much better, and I’m generally so much happier. I finally have an amazing relationship with food which I’ve wanted for years.

I couldn’t have got to this place without Kirsten’s support. It was so useful to have a professional tell me what to do and not to do in a world of misinformation. I had no idea how wrong I was getting my gut health: not eating enough, skipping meals because I felt uncomfortable, and thought my gut needed to ‘rest’, eating too much fibre! (if anything I increased my fibre after my diagnosis as all the sites online tell you you need to), exercising too much (as I felt so full I thought I must need to increase my movement), drinking too much water (again – without someone properly looking into every part of your diet and lifestyle, generalised advice like ‘drink more water’ can be really problematic). And focusing on all areas of your life, not just food, really helped both my IBS and healed my disordered eating <3

Also, I have a vegan diet, and Kirsten was brilliant at validating my beliefs and ethics, and making it work with my IBS, rather than telling me that being vegan was the problem (which everyone around me kept saying…).

My only feedback would be that I felt like the 1-2-1 programme was a bit rushed, and by the end of the 12 weeks I didn’t feel 100% confident in understanding and managing my symptoms. For example, I was still undergoing the fodmap process (the personalisation stage) and I found it very confusing to manage on my own. My suggestion would be for the programme to last a little longer, maybe an extra 2-4 weeks. Or at least for the option of email check ins, or the ability to ask further questions beyond the 12 week programme. It’s very expensive (as all private health care is sadly), and, even though, it was the best money I spent, given the cost, I would have liked a little more continued support beyond 12 weeks.

I also have remaining symptoms (bloating) which does still really get me down and impacts my body image hugely. Kirsten suspects it could be SIBO, which I’m waiting to get support from via my GP. However, again, to be left to navigate this on my own feels very daunting. I think especially because IBS is so often not taken seriously, when you find proper support from someone like Kirsten you don’t want to be let go!

But despite this feedback, I still can’t recommend the IBS Dietitian team enough. I honestly never thought I could be so comfortable and happy! I still can’t believe that I’m eating three meals a day and have pretty much zero anxiety around food. Working with them is 100% worth it, and I thoroughly encourage anyone struggling to reach out 🙂