James “Jed” Foster, Jr., MA, LMFT

James E. “Jed” Foster, Jr., MA, LMFT, is a licensed behavioral health clinician at Comprehensive Gastrointestinal Health whose work focuses on the role of nervous system regulation in gastrointestinal illness. For nearly eight years, he has worked embedded within a multidisciplinary GI team, bringing a behavioral and systems-level perspective to the care of complex digestive conditions.

Jed specializes in Disorders of Gut–Brain Interaction (DGBI), including IBS and related functional gastrointestinal disorders. Embedded within a medical environment, he brings a systems-level perspective to patient care informed by daily collaboration across specialties and long-term exposure to the full continuum of GI diagnosis and treatment. His work focuses on nervous system regulation, learning, and threat signaling in persistent symptoms, helping patients translate medical findings into practical, stabilizing strategies that support symptom relief and improved quality of life.

Jed completed his graduate training through Saint Louis University’s Medical Family Therapy program within the School of Medicine, where he developed a biopsychosocial approach to health grounded in medical systems. He is formally trained in gut-directed hypnotherapy and individualizes this work based on each patient’s symptom profile, physiology, and clinical history. His training includes participation in a selective Digestive Disease Week (DDW) masterclass focused on DGBI, including IBS, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), functional dyspepsia, and functional esophageal disorders.

Across his work, Jed frequently supports individuals whose gastrointestinal symptoms overlap with anxiety, attentional dysregulation, and chronic pain, reflecting patterns of nervous system sensitization rather than isolated diagnoses. His approach helps patients understand how gut symptoms, emotional reactivity, attention, and pain are shaped by learned patterns of threat and regulation—and how these patterns can change over time. Treatment emphasizes restoring safety, predictability, and agency within the nervous system so that symptoms become more manageable and day-to-day functioning feels more stable and coherent.