EF|Health · DGBI · Information for GPs

A next step to offer the moment the results are clear.

Gut Sense™ is a self-paced gut–brain programme your patient can begin the same day. It puts a complete, clinically developed framework directly in their hands — widening access to psychological care that has until now reached relatively few patients, and asking nothing of your practice.

See the programme → Download the GP sheet →

Gut Sense™ is structured self-management education delivered alongside medical care. It is not a crisis service and does not replace medical assessment. In an emergency, call 111 (NZ).

What it is

A complete programme, ready when your patient is.

Written by a clinical psychologist working specifically with gut–brain presentations, and already delivered to patients individually and in groups. The same clinical framework is now packaged so your patient can begin it the day you mention it.

Self-Paced Workbook

The core programme — psychoeducation, practices and reflection, one part a week.

eLearning modules

The same material online — video, written and audio — with progress tracking.

18-Tool Library

Regulation and symptom-management tools organised by phase, fillable.

S.H.F.T.™ Card

Stop · Hold · Focus · Take Action — a pocket reset for flares, with a practice log.

What the patient actually does

Works through one part per week over roughly eight weeks, at home, in their own time — around 30 minutes a week. They begin within minutes of enrolling and keep lifetime access, so the programme stays available whenever they need to return to it.

See what's included →

Why offer it

Because access is what changes outcomes.

You have completed the investigation and the findings are reassuring. What remains is the gut–brain component — the part that responds well to psychological work. Gut Sense™ makes that work available to your patient straight away, alongside the care you are already providing.

Good news, with a next step attached

A clear result is genuinely good news. Handing over a next step lets your patient leave holding both.

Access, widened

Gut–brain psychology has been available to relatively few patients. This makes the same framework available to any patient you see.

The timing works in your favour

The period straight after a clear result is when this material lands best — and your patient can begin that same week.

It builds on your care

The programme reinforces medical management and returns the patient to you for anything clinical. You remain the treating clinician.

The patient holds the wheel

Self-paced and self-directed — which is what the evidence favours for this population, and what most patients say they want.

Something to report back

Patients arrive at their next appointment with progress to describe, which makes the review a more useful conversation.

Scope & clinical governance

Gut Sense™ is structured self-management education, not psychological therapy, and does not create a psychologist–client relationship or replace medical assessment and management. It is intended for patients whose investigation is complete and whose findings do not account for their symptom burden. It is not suitable where there are red-flag features, active eating-disorder symptoms, or acute mental-health risk. Patients are directed back to their GP for anything outside that scope. No patient data is collected on your behalf or shared with your practice. Where a patient needs clinician-led care, the standard EF Health referral pathway remains available.

How to prescribe it

Three steps, about thirty seconds.

One card, or one line in a letter. Everything after that happens without you.

Hand over the card
A printed patient card sits in your consulting room. Give it to them at the end of the appointment — it carries the URL and a QR code.
Or paste one line
Drop the paragraph below into your letter, discharge summary or patient-portal template.
That's it
The patient enrols online themselves and begins immediately. No referral, no invoice, no administration on your side.

Copy for your letter template

Your investigations have not shown structural disease, which is good news. The gut–brain component of your symptoms is real, and it is the part that responds well to psychological approaches. I recommend Gut Sense™, a self-paced programme developed by a clinical psychologist who specialises in gut–brain conditions — you can begin it yourself at efhealth.co.nz/gut-sense. Please continue with your usual care and come back to see me as planned.

NZ$199

one-off, paid by the patient

Lifetime access to the workbook, modules and tool library.

Nothing invoiced to your practice. No licence fee, no per-patient charge, no administration.

A great deal is free. Information sheets, the S.H.F.T.™ card, the C³ Loop™ practice and the Capacity Check need no purchase at all — browse the library.

Want cards for your rooms?

Printed patient cards and a one-page GP sheet are free — tell me how many you need and where to send them.

Request cards → GP sheet (PDF) →

Questions from GPs

Before you hand it over.

Which patients is this for?

Patients with a DGBI — IBS, functional dyspepsia, chronic nausea, functional constipation or motility disorders — whose investigation is complete and whose findings do not account for their symptom burden. It is most useful where symptom hypervigilance, health anxiety or food-related anxiety are prominent.

Who shouldn't be given it?

Patients with unexplained red-flag features, incomplete investigation, active eating-disorder symptoms or acute mental-health risk are better served by clinician-led care — either your own onward referral or the EF Health referral pathway.

Is this therapy?

No. It is structured self-management education. It does not create a psychologist–client relationship, is not a substitute for assessment or treatment, and carries no clinical record. Patients who need therapy are directed to seek it.

Does anything come back to me?

No. There is no referral, no report, no invoice and no patient data flowing to your practice. If you would like clinician-led care with progress updates instead, use the standard referral pathway.

What if the patient can't afford it?

The free library covers a great deal — information sheets on DGBI, hypervigilance, regulation and food anxiety, plus the S.H.F.T.™ card, the C³ Loop™ practice, the Zone Check-In and the Capacity Check. Hand over the card and point them there; nothing is gated, and many patients get real traction from the free material alone.

Can I still refer patients as usual?

Yes, and you should wherever clinician-led care is indicated. This sits alongside the referral pathway, not in place of it — it broadens what is available to the much larger group of patients for whom a full clinical episode is not the right fit.

Start where your patient is

One card. One line in a letter.

That is the whole of it on your side — and your patient walks out with a complete programme in hand.

See the programme → GP sheet (PDF) → Make a referral → Contact →

Human first. Then performance.