Many patients with UC need to take the immunosuppressive drug, azathioprine, in addition to a 5ASA drug, to keep their disease under control. While azathioprine is usually effective in maintaining remission of UC, it does require regular drug checks and carries the risk of possible side-effects. We now plan to undertake a study of hypnotherapy to see whether it can prevent relapse (worsening) of UC in patients who normally need to take azathioprine to keep their UC inactive. To do this, we shall ask 66 patients who agree to participate in the trial to stop their azathioprine. They will then be allocated to receive either gut-focussed hypnotherapy (44 patients) or, as a control, non-emotive educational sessions (22 patients) once a month for 3 months, with intervening self-hypnosis daily in the active arm. We shall then record the numbers of patients in each group who develop relapse of their UC after 6 months and after a year. We shall diagnose relapse from patients' own diaries recording diarrhoea and bleeding, and by sigmoidoscopy. As part of these studies, we shall also do particular blood tests and take specimens from the lining of the rectum during the sigmoidoscopy to assess by special laboratory testing how hypnotherapy might be working to reduce inflammation in the bowel.