What Is Rapid Transformational Therapy?
The following is adapted from Tell Yourself a Better Lie by Marisa Peer.
It’s a fair question to ask just what Rapid Transformational Therapy is and how it differs from other therapeutic methods.
Where other therapists try to be a blank slate, to be neutral, and to follow a strict protocol, I do not. My approach is to be tenacious, resilient, and a little bit intuitive. I start from the premise that clients can help themselves, because I truly believe the core truth that serves as the basis of these methods — that every single person is enough — is a life-changing belief that everyone can instill in themselves. I’ve seen it happen too many times to think otherwise. But the beautiful thing is when you start from the premise that there is an answer and a solution, you can allow the client to lead you to it. While I may be tenacious, I am never domineering or demanding of a client; they lead the way to their own healing, and my job is to help facilitate that.
In essence, RTT is the culmination of my life’s work, taking influences from modern psychology, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, healing, counseling, and coaching. While I have deep respect for these more traditional approaches, I wanted to simplify therapy to make it faster, more efficient, and more solution-oriented for everyone. Albert Einstein said to simplify, simplify, simplify — so I did.
It will come as no surprise to you that clients want rapid help when they are in pain. It is really no different than going to the emergency room and saying, “I’m in so much pain. Please help me!” Imagine if the physician then said, “We need to talk about this every week while building up a relationship that allows you to trust me before I can relieve your pain.” That would be absurd. When we are in pain of any kind, we wish to be free of it as fast as possible. RTT operates from the belief that emotional and psychological pain require fast and incisive intervention, just as an emergency room doctor would treat pain.
How does RTT work so quickly?
RTT is designed to extract the root cause of every client’s issues as soon as possible. In my long history of practice, I observed that none of my clients were born with negative beliefs and habits; they acquired them somewhere along the way. RTT rapidly and permanently removes limiting beliefs and habits by exploring with the client how, where, and when they acquired them and then helping each client understand and reframe the beliefs that hurt them and held them back. That last part is crucial: in the process of removing their pain, RTT also helps them understand where it comes from, which means it won’t come back again. Clients see RTT as a worthy investment because they get exactly what they want: freedom from the painful problems of their past.
One of RTT’s most powerful tools is the line of questioning used to elicit what has happened to the client and, just as important, how they feel and what they believe about what happened. It is designed to rapidly uncover what lies beneath the client’s feelings and behaviors and then fast-track an awareness for the client. But also, crucially, it ensures that the client leads the way.
One thing that’s often misunderstood about my method of RTT is that we can never prove if the exact memories brought up when we do “root cause work” in hypnosis are 100 percent accurate or unimpeachable. Similarly, it would be difficult to prove that childhood memories brought up in a regular therapist’s office were remembered perfectly and accurately. The point is not that we verify those memories’ exact truthfulness, but rather that we accept that the emotions triggered by those memories are creating an unhelpful storyline for the person. We allow that person to tell themselves a better story about what happened so they can heal.
When it comes to fixing the issues that plague us, it is the feeling that matters as much as, or maybe even more than, the truth. Say a person vividly recalls being abandoned as a child in a crib when they were eleven months old. This may or may not have happened exactly the way the client remembers it, and it would be impossible to prove. However, the fact that they are bringing it up in hypnosis may mean they have a related belief they are unloved and will always be abandoned by the people they love. That belief is very true, and it’s probably ruining their relationships in their present-day adult life. In effect, with RTT we are treating the storyline and the belief that underpins it, not the exact memory. The storyline will always feel true, even if the memory isn’t exact.
Today, RTT is a powerful training method for therapists who learn the culmination of knowledge gained over more than thirty years. And for clients, it is a stand-alone, results-orientated method to be used in place of or alongside other therapies. After countless requests from other therapists, I finally agreed to teach people all about RTT, and in doing so, I began to pull together an archive rich with case studies of amazing client successes.
So far, the evidence that RTT is effective lies in the wealth of anecdotal evidence and case studies amassed by both myself and the practitioners I’ve trained. However, I’m so excited that we are beginning to study RTT’s efficacy in a more robust and rigorous way. In 2020, we began gathering empirical evidence to test our hypothesis that RTT is an effective therapeutic intervention and have accrued robust case sizes around our three most common presenting issues, namely confidence/self-esteem, anxiety, and depression. Early results are very promising, and I’m so excited to make this information more public as we collect and analyze more data, and continue to measure the sustained impact of RTT over time.
I want to be clear here about what RTT is and what it is not. It’s true that I’ve been influenced by lots of methodologies, including hypnosis, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), psychotherapy, psychology, healing, and neurolinguistic programming (NLP). However, it would be incorrect to say my method is simply a summation of these parts. I truly believe Rapid Transformational Therapy is one of a kind, and its foundation is guided by the unconventional idea that you don’t need a lifetime to learn, master, and change the processes of the mind, nor do you need weekly sessions. With the right therapy, you can find relief from problems like depression, anxiety, addiction, confidence issues, weight issues, money, career and love blocks, as well as fears and phobias, much faster and more directly.
RTT makes what seems difficult and complex simple. As such, it is easy to think it’s a simple program that is missing out on the sophistication of long-term therapies. That is not the case at all. Popular hypnotherapy trainings are frequently too concerned about being perceived as unprofessional, as the poor relative of therapy, as too “woo woo,” so they use particularly academic jargon to add a sheen of authenticity. They also assume that if the problem is complex, then the treatment must be complex too. This is not only untrue but undermines the unique power of using the subconscious to access the root of our problems. I am not interested in appearing academic and intellectual — I am interested in results.
RTT may be perceived as a shortcut to therapy; however, the only thing we shortcut is the length of time therapy takes before the client gets relief and the life they want. The methodology of RTT is sophisticated, while the transformation is dynamic and powerful.
For more information on RTT, you can find Tell Yourself a Better Lie on Amazon.
Marisa Peer is an internationally recognized therapist, bestselling author, and founder of Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT). Influenced by the fields of hypnotherapy, psychotherapy, NLP, CBT, neuroplasticity, and neuroscience, RTT emphasizes stunning in-the-room results that can radically change people’s lives.
With more than three decades of one-on-one work and a client list that includes international superstars, CEOs, royalty, and Olympic athletes, Marisa brings an unparalleled breadth of experience, candor, and compassion to her work as a therapist, trainer of RTT, and writer. As the creator of the I Am Enough movement, Marisa is a sought-after speaker and television personality. You can find her online at MarisaPeer.com.
