Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool that I have been using in my coaching practice since I started my business nearly 20 years ago, so when I learned about RTT Therapy, I was immediately intrigued.
RTT Therapy is a hybrid form of therapy created by Marisa Peer that combines hypnotherapy with Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), psychotherapy, and the science of neuroplasticity.
About 7 years ago, I had two personal experiences with RTT Therapy and my results were so impactful that I felt very strongly, almost a moral obligation that I had to be trained in RTT Therapy and use it to help my clients.
I want to share one of those two experiences with you today.
I come from a family where nearly every situation could be celebrated or mourned with a Coke. If you were having a great day or accomplished a big achievement, you would have a Coke over ice to celebrate. If our parents were fighting or there was some kind of tragedy or setback, we had a Coke over ice. Even as an adult, almost every time my mother and I would get together, one of the first things we would say to each other was, “Do you want a Coke with ice?”
I also had some health issues as a child and when I was sick, my parents would give me a Coke with ice to feel better. In my mind, a Coke with ice 3-4 times a day was a typical day. I had always recognized that I didn't want to drink that much Coke or rely on it, so I would occasionally give it up for a period of time, but it never really lasted.
While I was doing my RTT training in London in 2016, I wasn’t focused on my reliance on Coke, but as one of the other students was playing “patient” I was in my own RTT session. Throughout the session, my focus was not on Coke but after the session I recognized that something had changed. I wasn’t even cognizant of what had changed, I just knew something had. I spent the next couple of days in London and carried on normally.
About 2 weeks after I got home from London, my husband was putting out the trash one evening and when he came back inside, he said, “Oh, you’re laying off the Coke,” and I replied, “What do you mean?” to which he said, “Well, we usually have a whole bin full of recycled Coke cans and there’s hardly any in there. And there's been a Coke on the top shelf of the refrigerator for a week now and you haven’t touched it.”
I looked at him and said, “I haven’t even thought about it.” My husband, who had given up smoking and some other things, looked at me like I had two heads and asked, “What do you mean you haven’t thought about it? You’ve always had a Coke.”
At that moment I realized that it wasn’t a struggle to give up Coke, I just didn't feel like I needed it anymore… That is what RTT does.
The things you are struggling with suddenly lose their power over you, but not in a big struggle… The power they have over you simply dissolves. It was that experience that really drove me to become an RTT hypnotherapist even though I already had many years of hypnotherapy experience.
To this day, I can have a Coke when I want it but I don't need it and my life isn’t centered around it. I don't feel the need to have a Coke after a bad day or to celebrate something exciting.
I gained my power back.
Oftentimes we have things in our lives that are ruling our lives and making us feel like we need them and it causes us to feel out of control. Using RTT can help you overcome those feelings of attachment to certain things in your life, turn those needs into preferences, and gain your power and your control back.
A caveat, when I had my RTT experiences, I was also doing deep inner-work at the same time. If I had been using RTT as my only tool, my results would have been different. As I mentioned earlier, I had been doing hypnotherapy for over 15 years before I trained in RTT.
What experience has taught me, even though RTT is a powerful tool, RTT alone is not going to give you long-term sustainable results. The best results come when RTT is combined with other Brain-Science and Emotional Intelligence-based tools. RTT or any kind of hypnotherapy done in a single session or even in a couple of sessions can give you results, but most often those results aren’t sustainable and within a short period of time, the issues return.
Anyone who tells you that RTT alone, with just one session or even a couple sessions, is going to “cure” you is either misinformed or misleading you.
Realistically speaking, if deep-seated, long-standing issues could be treated in just one session or even a couple of sessions everyone would be doing it and RTT therapists would be so booked, you would have to wait years for an appointment.
An important note, when I trained with Marissa Peer in 2016, acceptance into the program entailed a rigorous application process, was only done in-person, and all students had previous experience in the “healing arts” …. There were doctors, nurses, therapists, experienced coaches like myself, and social workers in the program. Over the years, the program has changed.
Today, anyone can become a trained RTT Practitioner, and there are no prerequisites. Most of the training is done online and often not led by Marissa. While this isn’t inherently bad, it does make choosing an RTT Therapist more challenging. When you are dealing with long-standing and/or traumatic issues, or dealing with depression and acute anxiety, experience matters. Choosing someone who has previous experience and can offer you a more comprehensive approach will dramatically improve your experience and results.
Because of my experience, I do not do standalone RTT sessions. I do combine RTT + Coaching because experience has taught me that it leads to permanent RAPID RESULTS.
While traditional “talk” therapy often lasts for months if not years, my RTT + Coaching clients begin to see RAPID RESULTS with their first session and after completing the program (typically within 8-12 weeks), have reached and often exceeded their goals!
The majority of my clients (over 50%) have tried traditional therapy and not gotten the results they needed and are seeking a more “outside of the box” innovative approach.
Tune in next week to read about my other RTT experience surrounding a more personal, emotional event in my life that had a much more powerful impact on me for years to come.
