Good gut health – and how to get it – is a hot topic right now. Here, we talk getting a microbiome test, nutrition, hypnotherapy in Hong Kong and more with DR EMILIE BERTHET CLAIRET.
What is the “gut microbiome”, and why is it important to keep it healthy?
The gut microbiome is a diverse population of approximately three trillion bacteria in our intestines. A baby’s first exposure to these bacteria occurs at birth, through contact with the mother’s microbiome. This microbial population expands over the first three years of life and establishes crucial connections within the body.
A symbiotic relationship forms between the bacteria and the body during this period. In exchange for being allowed to thrive under the immune system’s regulation, the bacteria produce molecules that enhance the body’s functions. The microbiome interacts with multiple systems, including the immune, hormonal, digestive and nervous systems, by producing essential hormones and neurotransmitters. For instance, it plays a crucial role in producing serotonin. Often called the “happy hormone”, it contributes to our overall wellbeing.
A healthy microbiome supports and strengthens the body, ensuring balance and optimal function. However, when the microbiome is imbalanced, it can send incorrect signals and disrupt the body’s equilibrium. This imbalance has been linked to various medical conditions such as eczema, obesity, diabetes and weakened immunity.
At the Vitality Center, where I practice, we offer a specialised test to evaluate the state of the microbiome. Often, a clear connection between gut imbalances and these conditions can be identified, highlighting the microbiome’s critical role in maintaining health and vitality.
What services do you offer to help people improve their gut health?
The first step involves a microbiome test and keeping a food diary to assess dietary habits. Based on this information from your microbiome test, I provide personalised recommendations to help rebuild the microbiome. While maintaining a healthy, balanced diet is essential, I don’t recommend strict diet plans or drastic changes in eating habits. For any changes to be effective, they must be sustainable and realistic, tailored to the individual’s lifestyle. For instance, if someone travels frequently and has limited access to homemade meals, my recommendations will focus on practical solutions that fit their circumstances.
It’s also important to consider the impact of stress on the microbiome. Imposing rigid or overly challenging dietary changes can create additional stress, which I believe is counterproductive. I also provide lifestyle recommendations to reduce stress and improve overall balance. During our sessions, we explore ways to manage work and relaxation effectively, always with a realistic approach.
Simple practices like easy-to implement. Breathing exercises and vagus nerve stimulation techniques can be incorporated into a daily routine and significantly impact gut health. Hypnotherapy is another powerful tool I use to help clients adopt lasting habit changes and support their gut health journey.
Tell us about your background in and recent shift towards hypnotherapy in Hong Kong.
It’s not so much a shift as a continuum. I have a medical background, having trained as a doctor in France, and I’ve always been more interested in preventive care than curative treatments. When I moved to Hong Kong, I couldn’t validate my French medical degree, so I retrained in nutrition and holistic health, which allowed me to focus entirely on disease prevention. With my background in bacteriology, I became particularly interested in gut health. Training as a hypnotherapist has allowed me to offer a more comprehensive approach to my clients who are open to it.
How do you incorporate hypnotherapy into your offerings?
Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool, but it has one condition: people should be open to it and trust that it will empower their own healing. There is a saying in complementary medicine that “we don’t heal people; we allow the space to heal themselves”. It’s very true for hypnotherapy. The further I go in my practice, from allopathic medicine to nutrition to clinical hypnotherapy, the more it seems obvious that we have much more power over our health than we think.
Hypnotherapy can help to create deep and lasting change, especially when willpower alone isn’t enough. The struggle to change often stems from resistance rooted in limiting beliefs within our subconscious. These beliefs are tied to our survival instincts. For example, if someone turns to food for comfort after a hard day, their subconscious might equate not eating with danger, as if “not eating means we could die.” Similarly, someone unable to disconnect from work might subconsciously believe, “I can’t make mistakes,” so they stay constantly alert to avoid failure. Even if they know these beliefs aren’t rational, their brain perceives them as critical for survival. This makes it difficult to relax, leading to ongoing stress. Hypnotherapy helps to reprogram these limiting beliefs, allowing us to shift our habits more easily and effectively.
How can stress and other emotions impact our gut microbiome?
The health of our microbiome is deeply intertwined with our nervous system, particularly the balance between the two branches of the autonomic nervous system: the sympathetic (responsible for our “fight or flight” response) and the parasympathetic (responsible for relaxation and regeneration). Within the parasympathetic system lies the vagus nerve, a critical connection between the brain and the gut. When the vagus nerve is properly stimulated, it promotes a regenerative process in the gut, allowing for the healthy growth and maintenance of the microbiome.
Think of the gut as a garden, where the bacteria are like plants. Nutrition provides the water that nourishes them, while the vagus nerve acts like sunlight, enabling growth and balance. However, when we remain stuck in a prolonged state of stress, dominated by the sympathetic nervous system, the vagus nerve is under-stimulated – our garden doesn’t get enough “sun.” Over time, this can weaken the microbiome, leading to digestion, immunity and even mental health issues.
This connection between stress, the gut, and overall health reflects what Dr Gabor Maté has long emphasised: the profound link between repressed emotions, trauma and physical illness. Stress, especially chronic stress, is often the result of unresolved emotional wounds or trauma. When we suppress emotions like fear, sadness or anger, these unresolved feelings manifest in the body, disrupting systems such as the immune response and gut function.
Dr Maté points out that emotions aren’t just abstract; they are physiological processes experienced throughout the body. For instance, the gut is often called our “second brain” because it processes many of these emotions. The phrase “gut feeling” highlights how our emotional perceptions directly affect our gut. Chronic stress from unresolved emotional pain can suppress vagus nerve activity, impair the microbiome, and weaken the immune system – creating a cycle that perpetuates both mental and physical health challenges.
What are you excited about for 2025 and your health and wellness services?
I’m excited to discover more about how our minds can empower our healing abilities. Medical treatment in Western medicine or Chinese medicine is key to physical healing. Our mind is also essential in our healing process. Since I started practising Clinical Hypnotherapy in Hong Kong two years ago, I already witnessed a few of my clients enable this “healing power” and improve their health thanks to the power of their minds. It’s an honour to support them in this process, and I look forward to accompanying more people on this journey.
Find out more about Emilie’s offerings at ebc-holistic.com.
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