Does Hypnosis Work?
Does It Work?
Do Hypnosis Apps Work? Two Big Trials, Opposite Headlines, Different Funders
Two randomised trials of app-delivered gut hypnotherapy. Both real, both over two hundred people, both in serious journals, neither of them fraudulent. One says the app wins. One says it loses. Learning to read the difference is worth more than either headline.
The short answer, before the detail.If you have diagnosed irritable bowel syndrome, a structured six-week programme is the version of this with real trials behind it — and that includes being closer to the tested thing than any single recording, including the ones I sell.
For anything else, the subscriptions are priced well above a one-off download and have nothing in the way of trials to justify the gap.
Written by Ernest McLeodClinical hypnotherapist. An Adelaide practice, seeing clients across Australia by video. Fourteen years in practice. About Ernest →
I earn a commission on the one-off sessions sold through this site and nothing at all on any app named here. On this page that conflict points the wrong way for me, and I have written it anyway.
The two trials, side by side
- Anderson and colleagues, American Journal of Gastroenterology, 2025. 244 people with IBS. Nerva against the same programme with the hypnotherapy taken out — an inert control. The app met the primary endpoint in 81 per cent of people against 63 per cent, P=0.002. Funded by Mindset Health Pty Ltd, the company that sells Nerva, and a co-author developed the product.
- Snijkers and colleagues, Gut, 2026. 230 people, three arms, twelve weeks. Abdominal pain response was 48 per cent with an in-person therapist, 33 per cent with a self-guided app, 22 per cent with psychoeducation. In the authors’ words, “non-inferiority of online to in-person hypnotherapy could not be shown”. Funded by ZonMw, the Dutch public health research body. No industry money.
Same technology. Opposite headline. Nothing here needs a villain: both are competently run randomised trials with more than two hundred participants each, and neither is hiding anything. The difference is what the app was measured against, and who paid to find out.
One point of housekeeping that matters. The Dutch trial does not say publicly which app was in its self-guided arm, and I could not verify it, so I am not going to name one. Guessing would be exactly the behaviour this page exists to complain about.
The trick is not who is lying. It is who chose the comparison.An app-funded trial compared its app with a version of itself that had the active ingredient removed, and won. A government-funded trial compared an app with an actual human therapist, and lost. If you only ever ask one question about a health claim, ask “compared with what?” — and the second question is who paid.
What neither trial found
Neither of these two large IBS trials produced an advantage on psychological symptoms. Anderson’s own paper reports that psychological status improved similarly in both groups — no separation on the depression, anxiety and stress scale it used. That sentence rarely makes it into the marketing.
So if a vendor tells you the audio will lower your anxiety, that is not what these trials found. They found an effect on gut symptoms, in people with a diagnosed gut condition. Everything else is extrapolation, and you are entitled to be told which is which.
The denominator lesson
The best-known number in app hypnotherapy is “64 per cent responded”, from Peters and colleagues in 2023. It is true as written and almost useless as quoted.
Follow the funnel. 2,843 people started the free sessions. 1,428 bought the programme. 253 finished all forty-two sessions. Outcome data existed for 190. The 64 per cent is 64 per cent of those 190 — about seven per cent of everyone who started. The authors were not hiding it; their conclusion opens with the words “adherence… was low”. The number travelled anyway, without its denominator.
Simicich and colleagues in 2024 found the same shape at a larger scale: of 14,898 users, only 31 per cent persisted. Which points at the real question for anyone considering a subscription. The failure mode for app hypnotherapy is not that the audio does nothing. It is that you stop opening the app in week two. Before you pay for twelve months, ask yourself honestly whether you are going to be one of the thirty-one.
The largest trial in the field missed its primary endpoint
Berry and colleagues published the biggest randomised trial of app hypnotherapy there is in 2023: Regulora, 378 people. The primary endpoint came in at 30.4 per cent against 27.1 per cent, P=0.5352. That is a null result. Not a close call, not a trend, not underpowered bad luck — a p-value of 0.54 on the outcome the trial was designed around.
Some secondary endpoints were positive, and the paper was written up as “supporting a role for this intervention”. That is one of the cleanest illustrations of spin you will find in this literature: the question the trial set out to answer was answered no, and the abstract reads like a yes. I could not verify the funding and conflict-of-interest statement for that paper, so I will not characterise it.
When somebody tells you the biggest study in a field was positive, ask which endpoint they mean.
Being fair to Nerva, including where it costs me the sale
Nerva is made by Mindset Health, an Australian company based in Melbourne. It is A$249 for twelve months, or A$186.75 with a practitioner referral, with a seven-day free trial and a money-back guarantee. It is a structured six-week programme rather than a library of tracks. And it is the only product in this space with real randomised trials behind it — two of them now, including one that did not go its way.
Here is the part I would leave out if I were being commercial about this. The IBS evidence, all of it, was built on structured four-to-six week courses. A six-week programme with a fixed sequence is much closer to the thing that was actually tested than a single twenty-five minute recording is — including the single recordings on this site. If your problem is diagnosed IBS and you are choosing between a structured programme and one download from me, the structured programme is the better match to the evidence. That sentence costs me money and it is the true one.
One criticism, and it is a straightforward finding rather than an accusation. Nerva’s own page states no contraindications and carries no driving warning. The free recordings from the British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis, which cost nothing and ask for nothing, tell you not to listen while driving, tell you to speak to your doctor if you have active mental health issues, and tell you never to stop prescribed medication without approval. A product charging A$249 a year can manage three sentences.
What these things actually cost
| Product | Price | What is behind it |
|---|---|---|
| BSCAH free recordings | Free | Fourteen tracks, no signup, made by healthcare professionals. No trials of their own. |
| A single session from this site | US$18.95 (about A$27) | One topic, ninety-day refund. No trial of that recording. |
| Reveri | US$99.99 a year, or US$24.99 a month | Seven-day trial, no free tier. No randomised trial located. |
| Nerva | A$249 for twelve months (A$186.75 with a practitioner referral) | Six-week programme, seven-day trial, money-back guarantee. Two randomised trials, one company-funded and won, one publicly funded and lost. |
Notice what that table does and does not show. The most expensive option is the one with the most evidence, which is at least the right way round. It is also true that A$249 buys about nine single sessions, and that a free set of recordings sits at the top of the list.
So should you pay for a hypnosis app?
- If you have diagnosed IBS — the structured programme has the evidence and a single recording does not. Use the free trial first, and go in knowing that roughly two-thirds of people stop. If you can get to a clinician who does gut-directed hypnotherapy in person, the Dutch trial says that is still the stronger option.
- If your gut symptoms have not been investigated — see a doctor first. Undiagnosed abdominal pain is a diagnosis problem, not a relaxation problem, and no app should be standing between you and that appointment.
- If you are here for anxiety, sleep, confidence or weight — the subscriptions are priced far above a one-off download and there are no trials to justify the gap. The two big IBS trials found no psychological advantage at all. A free recording or a single paid one is the proportionate spend.
- If you are not sure you will keep at it — start free. Every honest number in this field says adherence is the thing that fails, not the audio.
And the wider context is on the hub page: the largest review of hypnosis for pain ever run found it no better than plain relaxation, and both studies that put a recording head to head with a therapist found the recording came out lower. An app does not escape that. It just charges annually for it.
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Common questions about hypnosis apps
Do hypnosis apps work?
For irritable bowel syndrome, partly and conditionally. Against an inert control an app beat it 81 per cent to 63 per cent in a company-funded trial of 244 people; against a real therapist a self-guided app came in at 33 per cent against 48 per cent and failed its non-inferiority test in a publicly funded trial of 230. Outside IBS there are no comparable trials, and the largest app trial of all — 378 people — missed its primary endpoint.
Is Nerva worth A$249 a year?
If you have diagnosed IBS, it is the only product in this space with randomised trials behind it, and its six-week structured format is much closer to what the evidence actually tested than a single recording is. Use the seven-day free trial first. If you do not have IBS, the price is hard to justify against a free recording or a one-off download, because the trials do not extend to anything else.
Do hypnosis apps help with anxiety?
Not on this evidence. Both large IBS app trials measured psychological symptoms and neither found an advantage — Anderson’s reports that psychological status improved similarly in both groups. A vendor claiming the audio reduces anxiety is not quoting these trials, because these trials do not say that.
Why do different studies of the same app disagree?
Because they compared it with different things and were paid for by different people. A trial funded by the company that sells the app compared it with the same programme minus the hypnotherapy, and it won. A trial funded by the Dutch government’s health research body compared an app with an in-person therapist, and it lost. Both results are real. Always ask “compared with what?” before you ask how big the number was.
What does “64 per cent responded” actually mean?
It means 64 per cent of the 190 people who had outcome data, out of 2,843 who started — about seven per cent. The study’s own conclusion opens by saying adherence was low. A separate analysis of 14,898 users found only 31 per cent persisted. Adherence, not the audio, is where app hypnotherapy usually falls over.
Is an app better than a single hypnosis download?
For diagnosed IBS, a structured six-week programme is a closer match to the evidence than any single recording, including the ones sold on this site. For everything else there is no trial evidence favouring either, and the app costs roughly nine times more per year. Both are weaker than seeing a practitioner, on the only two studies that have compared them directly.
Where these numbers come from
- Anderson EJ, Peters SL, Gibson PR, et al. Comparison of digitally delivered gut-directed hypnotherapy program with an active control for irritable bowel syndrome. Am J Gastroenterol. 2025;120(2):440-448. doi:10.14309/ajg.0000000000002921
- Snijkers JTW, Bosman MHMA, Winkens B, et al. In-person therapist-delivered hypnotherapy versus smartphone-based self-guided hypnotherapy in IBS: a multicentre three-armed randomised controlled trial. Gut. 2026 Jul 25:gutjnl-2026-338385. Online ahead of print. doi:10.1136/gutjnl-2026-338385
- Peters SL, Gibson PR, Halmos EP. Smartphone app-delivered gut-directed hypnotherapy improves symptoms of self-reported irritable bowel syndrome: a retrospective evaluation. Neurogastroenterol Motil. 2023;35(4):e14533. doi:10.1111/nmo.14533
- Simicich L, Muniz V, Scheffrahn K, et al. Nerva, a mobile application of gut-directed hypnotherapy for irritable bowel syndrome: user characteristics, patterns of use, and predictors of persistence. Digit Health. 2024;10:20552076241263257. doi:10.1177/20552076241263257
- Berry SK, Berry R, Recker D, et al. A randomized parallel-group study of digital gut-directed hypnotherapy vs muscle relaxation for irritable bowel syndrome. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2023;21(12):3152-3159.e2. doi:10.1016/j.cgh.2023.06.015
- British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis. Free audio downloads [Internet]. BSCAH; [cited 2026 Sep 24]. bscah.co.uk
- Yim TH, Derbyshire SWG. A systematic review of hypnosis for clinical pain relief. Eur J Pain. 2026;30(8):e70369. doi:10.1002/ejp.70369
- Forbes A, MacAuley S, Chiotakakou-Faliakou E. Hypnotherapy and therapeutic audiotape: effective in previously unsuccessfully treated irritable bowel syndrome? Int J Colorectal Dis. 2000;15(5-6):328-34. doi:10.1007/s003840000248
- Better Health Channel (Victorian Government). Hypnosis [Internet]. Melbourne: Victorian Government; [cited 2026 Sep 24]. betterhealth.vic.gov.au
- Prices checked 18 September 2026.
Two things this page deliberately does not say: which app was used in the Dutch trial’s self-guided arm, and anything about who funded the Regulora trial. Neither could be verified, and a page about spin does not get to guess.
Related
- Does hypnosis work?The 2026 review of 106 trials, and what it found against relaxation.
- What is genuinely freeFourteen recordings from a professional body, no signup, better warnings than the paid apps.
- Is hypnosis real?Yes, the effects are measurable and you stay in control. What it is, and who should not try it.
- All 56 sessionsThe whole catalogue, with prices and running times.
- What a live session costsAustralian prices, rebates, and what an association badge is worth.
If you have IBS, the programme with the trials is not the one I get paid for. That is the most useful sentence on this page.
These are self-help audio sessions, not medical treatment, a diagnosis, or a substitute for professional care. No therapeutic outcome is claimed for any session sold on this site, and nothing here is an endorsement of any app. Irritable bowel syndrome should be diagnosed by a doctor; abdominal pain that has not been investigated needs investigating, not managing. Better Health Channel advises avoiding hypnosis with severe depression, psychosis, or a drug or alcohol problem. Never listen while driving or operating machinery, and under no circumstances stop prescribed medication without your doctor’s approval.