GUT HEALTH & IBS NUTRITIONIST PERTH
Find Relief from Bloating, IBS & Ongoing Digestive Issues.
Whether you're dealing with IBS or digestive symptoms that don't seem to have an obvious explanation, the aim is to help you better understand what's happening and give you a clearer way forward.
In-person in Karrinyup, Perth + online Australia-wide
When Your Gut Symptoms Keep Coming Back
Some days your gut feels relatively settled. Then the bloating returns, your bowel habits change, or a meal you've eaten many times before suddenly seems to leave you uncomfortable.
It can become exhausting trying to work out what your gut is going to do from one day to the next. You might find yourself thinking about what you've eaten, questioning which foods are safe, or planning around whether you'll have easy access to a bathroom.
And when symptoms improve for a while only to come back again, it can leave you wondering what you're missing.
Digestive symptoms and IBS can be complex, and there isn't always one obvious explanation. Diet, bowel habits, stress, medications, previous gastrointestinal infections and other health factors may all be relevant depending on the person.
That's why I don't look at your symptoms in isolation. I look at the bigger picture, connect the dots between what's been happening, and help you make sense of what your gut may be telling us.
Have You Tried Everything But Still Feel the Same?
As a Perth-based IBS nutritionist, I see this pattern all the time. You may have already tried:
✓ Cut out gluten, dairy, sugar or other foods
✓ Followed a low FODMAP or elimination diet
✓ Tried probiotics, prebiotics or digestive supplements
✓ Googled your symptoms and experimented with different “gut health” advice
✓ Tried to identify your trigger foods
✓ Had some improvement, only for your symptoms to return
Sometimes these approaches help. But when you're making one change after another without really knowing what you're responding to, it can become difficult to know what's helping, what's unnecessary and what to try next.
True gut healing isn’t about restriction or perfection. It’s about understanding what your body needs to function well. When the gut is supported from the inside out, digestion improves, energy returns, and food no longer feels like the enemy.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) can look very different from one person to another.
For some people, constipation is the main concern. For others, it's diarrhoea, urgency or frequent bowel movements. Some alternate between the two, while bloating, abdominal discomfort and excess gas can occur regardless of bowel pattern.
You may also have digestive symptoms without having been formally diagnosed with IBS.
What matters is understanding your particular symptom pattern and what may be relevant in your case.
IBS & Chronic Digestive Symptom
Common Contributors to IBS & Ongoing Gut Symptoms
IBS is complex, and there isn't one single factor that explains symptoms for everyone. Depending on the person, several areas may be relevant.
Gut Microbiome Imbalance
An imbalance in gut bacteria can increase gas production, alter bowel habits & heighten gut sensitivity, commonly seen in IBS patients.
Chronic Stress
Ongoing stress can overstimulate the gut–brain axis, triggering abdominal pain, urgency, bloating and irregular bowel movements.
Blood Sugar Instability
Fluctuating blood sugar can worsen gut motility, inflammation and nervous system reactivity, contributing to IBS flare-ups.
Hormonal Changes
Hormonal shifts can affect gut movement & sensitivity, often worsening IBS symptoms such as constipation, diarrhoea or pain.
Past Gut Infections
Previous infections can alter gut bacteria & nerve signalling, leading to ongoing IBS symptoms even after the infection has cleared.
Restrictive Dieting
Extended food restriction can reduce gut bacterial diversity and increase food fear, both of which can worsen IBS symptoms over time.
Your gut is home to trillions of microbes that influence digestion, immunity, energy, and mood. These tiny ‘bugs’ could hold the key to your health
Why Choose Nurture Mantra for Gut Health & IBS Support in Perth?
We start with you.
Your symptoms, bowel habits, diet, health history, medications, supplements, previous pathology and what you've already tried can tell us a lot.
From there, we can work out what deserves our attention first.
Depending on what's happening, your plan may involve changes to your diet and meal structure, identifying and managing relevant food triggers, supporting digestive function, lifestyle strategies and targeted supplementation where appropriate.
And when there are questions we can't answer from symptoms and history alone, we can consider whether further investigation or functional testing would actually add something useful.
The goal isn't to make your diet more complicated. It's to give you a clearer, more personalised way forward.
Gut Microbiome Testing & Functional Insight
Sometimes your symptoms and health history give us a good idea of where to begin. Other times, there are still questions we can't answer from symptoms alone.
This is where functional testing can sometimes be useful.
When might gut microbiome testing be considered?
Persistent bloating, gas or abdominal discomfort
Constipation, diarrhoea or irregular bowel habits (IBS)
Heartburn, reflux or ulcers
Fatigue, brain fog, low mood or anxiety
A history of food poisoning, gastro, or frequent antibiotics
Food intolerances or sensitivities
Difficulty managing weight or metabolic health issues
Frequent illness or immune issues
Skin issues such as acne, eczema or rashes
What Does a Gut Microbiome Stool Test Assess?
A comprehensive microbiome mapping stool test is the most accurate way to assess for overall gastrointestinal function, including:
Levels of beneficial (healthy) bacteria
Markers of intestinal inflammation
Gut pH balance
Signs of systemic inflammation
Gut barrier integrity (leaky gut)
Indicators of digestive and immune function
Presence of infections such as parasites, worms, pathogenic bacteria, yeast/fungi, and viruses
At Nurture Mantra, the comprehensive stool test I use is the GI360™ Profile by Doctor's Data.
What Does Working Together Look Like?
Step 1: Initial Gut Health Consultation.
Your journey begins with an initial consultation where we take a comprehensive look at your digestive symptoms, diet, lifestyle, stress levels and health history.
If appropriate, we will decide together whether gut microbiome testing would be beneficial and order a Gut Microbiome Stool Test Kit.
Step 2: Complete Your Gut Microbiome Test
The gut microbiome stool test is simple and non-invasive, completed at home using a test kit, then posted to a specialised Australian laboratory, with results typically available within four weeks.
Step 3: Review Results & Create a Plan
Once your results are ready, we meet for a follow-up consultation to review them in detail. I translate complex data into clear, actionable recommendations, including nutrition, lifestyle and targeted supplement support where appropriate, so you understand what’s happening in your gut and how to support healing.
Step 4: Ongoing Support & Progress Tracking
For best outcomes, most clients continue with ongoing follow-up consultations. These sessions allow us to track progress, fine-tune strategies and provide ongoing guidance as your gut heals.
Gut health takes time, but with consistency and the right support, sustainable improvements are possible.
What Clients Are Saying
I’ve suffered from poor gut health for a very long time. When I was clinically diagnosed with IBS, I didn’t really know what to do and the symptoms started affecting my quality of life. From bloating to diarrhea and experiencing complete discomfort, I was not happy at all. Sonali was extremely patient with understanding the root cause of my symptoms and working with me to create a sustainable lifestyle. After a few months of healing my gut, it’s fair to say that the quality of life has drastically improved and I highly recommend Nurture Mantra! An absolutely fantastic experience and a life-changing journey.
-Sinal
Highly recommend Sonali at Nurture Mantra for all health guidance, especially gut health. My IBS has been carefully maintained with her insightful nutri-facts. I walk out feeling inspired each session!
-Angela
Super happy with Sonali at Nurture Mantra. She is very professional and really knows her stuff. Helped with my ibs journey a lot. I’ve worked with many dieticians and nutritionists before, who never followed up and just provided me with hard-to-follow plans that were not customised. Totally opposite experience with Sonali. The supplements she provides also come at a great price as compared to online stores. She clearly loves what she does and is super passionate about it. Would recommend everyone to see her.
-Dipen
Frequently Asked Questions
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No. Many clients come to me with ongoing gut symptoms such as bloating, constipation, diarrhoea or digestive discomfort, whether or not they’ve been formally diagnosed with IBS. We focus on understanding your symptoms and supporting gut health, regardless of labels.
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Nutrition support for IBS goes beyond simply giving you a list of foods to avoid.
We'll look at your symptom pattern, bowel habits, current diet, health history, lifestyle, medications, previous investigations and what you've already tried. From there, we can identify dietary and lifestyle strategies that may be relevant to your symptoms and determine whether further investigation should be considered.
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That's very common.
A low FODMAP diet can be useful for managing IBS symptoms in some people, but it isn't intended to be a permanently restrictive diet.
If you've already tried it, we'll look at what happened: which symptoms changed, which foods appeared problematic, how foods were reintroduced and what your diet looks like now. That information can help us decide what makes sense next rather than simply starting the same process again.
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Not necessarily
Food restriction isn't automatically the starting point. If there are foods that appear to be contributing to symptoms, we can investigate them in a structured way while trying to maintain as much variety in your diet as possible.
The aim isn't to leave you with an increasingly small list of “safe” foods.
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Where appropriate, I may recommend targeted supplements to support gut health. Supplements are used selectively and always alongside nutrition and lifestyle strategies.
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There isn't one timeframe that applies to everyone.
It depends on your symptoms, how long you've been experiencing them, what may be contributing, whether further investigation is required and how you respond to the changes we make.
We'll review your progress during follow-up consultations rather than expecting everything to change at once.
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Yes. Online gut health consultations are available Australia-wide.
Your assessment, treatment plan and follow-up consultations can all be completed via telehealth. If functional testing is appropriate, many testing kits can also be delivered for completion at home.
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No. You can book directly with Nurture Mantra without a GP referral.
If I believe your symptoms require medical assessment or further investigation, I'll recommend that you speak with your GP.
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Depending on your level of cover and health fund, you may be eligible for a rebate for nutritional consultations. I recommend checking directly with your insurer to confirm whether consultations are eligible.
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No. Consultations are not eligible for Medicare rebates or Care Plans. All appointments are privately billed.
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The first step is booking an Initial Gut Health Consultation, where we explore your symptoms, history and goals and decide on the most appropriate next steps together.
Meet Your Gut Health Nutritionist
I'm Sonali Shah, BHSc, Clinical Nutritionist and founder of Nurture Mantra, based in Karrinyup, Perth.
I work with clients experiencing ongoing gut and digestive concerns using personalised nutrition, detailed health assessment and functional testing where appropriate.
II'm registered with the Australian Natural Therapists Association (ANTA) and offer in-person consultations from my clinic in Karrinyup, Perth, as well as online consultations Australia-wide.
Gut Health Consultations in Karrinyup, Perth
Nurture Mantra is based in Karrinyup, in Perth's northern suburbs, conveniently located for clients from Scarborough, Doubleview, Innaloo, Gwelup and surrounding areas.
If you're outside Perth or prefer the convenience of an online appointment, consultations are also available via telehealth Australia-wide.
Whether we work together in clinic or online, you'll receive the same personalised assessment and ongoing support.