What Is RTT® Hypnotherapy — and Is It Different from Regular Hypnosis?
If you've started looking into RTT® and found yourself wondering whether it's the same as hypnotherapy, whether it actually works, or what on earth happens in a session — this is for you.
RTT® gets quite a bit of interest in NZ and Australia, but there's also real confusion about what it is, what it isn't, and whether it's the right fit. Here's a plain-language explanation.
What RTT® Actually Is
RTT® stands for Rapid Transformational Therapy. It's a therapeutic approach developed by British therapist Marisa Peer, accredited by a number of professional bodies including the New Zealand Association of Professional Hypnotherapists (NZAPH) and the International Institute for Complementary Therapists (IICT).
It uses hypnosis as an entry point — but it's not the stage-show kind where someone clucks like a chicken. Hypnosis in a therapeutic context simply means a relaxed, focused state where the analytical conscious mind settles and the subconscious becomes more accessible.
What makes RTT® distinct from traditional hypnotherapy is what happens once you're in that state. Rather than delivering positive suggestions ('you are confident, you are calm'), RTT® uses regression — guiding you back through memories to identify where a particular belief or pattern was formed. From there, the approach helps you update the meaning you attached to that experience and build new neural associations to replace the old ones.
It's grounded in neuroplasticity: the brain's demonstrated capacity to form new pathways. RTT® describes itself as practical neuroplasticity — working with that capacity directly, rather than around it.
How It's Different From Traditional Hypnotherapy
Traditional hypnotherapy typically works through suggestion: you're guided into a relaxed state and given positive affirmations designed to override unhelpful patterns. It can be effective for some things, particularly habit change.
RTT® goes a step further. Rather than working around the root cause, it goes directly to where the pattern came from. The premise is that understanding why a belief formed — seeing it clearly from an adult perspective — changes its hold on you.
Think of it this way: if you've been telling yourself 'I only have worth when I'm productive' since you were eight years old, a positive affirmation won't shift that. RTT® finds where that belief originated and helps your system update it at the source.
What a Session Actually Looks Like
An RTT® session runs for roughly 90 minutes. It's done via Zoom, so you can be anywhere in New Zealand or Australia — all you need is a quiet space and a comfortable place to sit or lie down.
The session has three main phases:
1. Pre-talk — A focused conversation about what you're working on — not a full history, but enough to identify the pattern being targeted.
2. The RTT® session — You're guided into a relaxed hypnotic state and then through three or four memories your subconscious offers as relevant. You don't pick these consciously — they arise naturally. Together, you look at what meaning you took from those experiences and begin to revise it.
3. The transformation — The session closes with a personalised script spoken directly to your subconscious in the hypnotic state, anchoring the new beliefs. You receive a custom transformation recording to listen to daily for 21 days, reinforcing the change as new neural pathways consolidate.
Is It Scary? Will I Lose Control?
These are the most common questions, and the answer to both is no.
You're not unconscious during RTT®. You're in a state similar to deep relaxation or the period just before sleep — aware, present, and in control. You can stop at any point. Nothing happens without your willingness.
The memories that come up in regression can sometimes be emotional — not because they're retraumatising, but because they carry meaning that's been sitting unexamined. The therapeutic framing means you're reviewing them from a safe adult perspective, not reliving them as they felt at the time.
Most people report feeling lighter, clearer, or quietly different in the days after a session. Some experience an immediate shift. For others it's more gradual — which is part of why the transformation recording matters.
Who It's For
A lot of high-functioning professionals have tried therapy or somatic/wellness work — and found that one without the other only gets them so far. Therapy builds insight, but insight doesn't change a physiological stress response. Somatic work builds body awareness, but it doesn't touch the subconscious beliefs driving the pattern in the first place.
RTT® addresses the belief layer — the brain-down half of the equation. In my practice, I use it specifically for the subconscious patterns that keep a dysregulated nervous system stuck: beliefs like 'rest means I'm falling behind', 'everything depends on me', or 'if I'm not performing I have no value'. These sit below conscious awareness, and no amount of rational reframing will shift them. RTT® addresses them at the level where they actually live.
Standalone RTT® sessions are available for people who've already done some therapeutic work and want to target a specific pattern. For those dealing with burnout or chronic nervous system dysregulation, RTT® is integrated into the EMBODY programme as the brain-down component of a broader brain-body integration approach.
Is RTT® Available Online?
Yes. RTT® is equally effective via Zoom — the hypnotic state is accessible regardless of whether you're in the same room as the practitioner. I work with clients across New Zealand and Australia entirely online.
Genevieve Gray BHSc, C.Hyp, RTTP
Nervous System Educator & RTT® Practitioner