Each indication shares the same model, and gets a program shaped around the specific neurobiology of the condition.
Nerva is the most studied digital program for IBS in the world. A six-week, audio-led program built with Dr Simone Peters (Monash University) on the gut-directed hypnotherapy protocol she developed, recalibrating the brain–gut axis through guided mental imagery, psychoeducation, and adherence support.
AJG 2025 RCTMonash protocol300K+ usersFor half of all chronic illness, the dominant pathology lives in the nervous system. Not in cells, not in chemistry, not in tissue. The behavioral approaches that address the wiring work. The reason they haven’t reached most people who need them is operational, not scientific. We’re closing that gap.
The vagus nerve, the enteric system, and the HPA axis form a continuous feedback loop. When that loop becomes dysregulated (by stress, illness, or a learned pattern), symptoms emerge in the gut, the muscles, the menstrual cycle, or the mood. Pharmacology touches receptors. Behavioral techniques reshape the loop.
Chronic pain, anxiety, visceral hypersensitivity. These are predictions the brain has learned. Targeted, repeated practice can update the prediction. Five-to-six-week programs produce clinically meaningful change with persistent benefit at follow-up across our published trials.
We started collecting outcome data in 2019, when the first Nerva users went through the program. Every session since has produced a small, labelled record of what was happening, what we delivered, and how the user responded. That depth compounds. It’s why we can run real-world cohorts at scale, and why a competitor starting from scratch can’t catch up by buying compute.
No two users move through the program the same way. Content sequences adapt based on user preferences, completion pace, and engagement patterns. Someone who prefers shorter sessions and a gradual build will have a different experience from someone who wants to go deeper faster. Adherence is one of the strongest predictors of outcome across digital health programs, so we optimise for the combination of meaningful change and people actually finishing, not either alone.
Every program follows the same steps a pharmaceutical peer does: registered protocols, comparator arms, peer-reviewed publication. We build with the academic centres that wrote the original protocols, and we benchmark against the clinical guidelines that govern each indication.
The American Journal of Gastroenterology · 120(2):440-448
Neurogastroenterology & Motility
Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics · 44(5):447-459