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I came across Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT), a type of therapy created by the British psychologist and best-selling author Marisa Peer, which claims to be able to cure almost every personal "problem". Hypnosis is a key element of the therapy, with the idea that the deep cause of many issues, from acne to phobias to depression to allergies, is something in the subconscious, and the solution being its acknowledgment and liberation.

All I can find online about this (very expensive) therapy is praise after praise, mostly from self help and other light sites. I have found no scientific assessment of it. There are a few peer psychologists complaining about it, but how much this is just envy is hard to tell.

I am interested in a scientific appraisal of RTT. Is it as effective as the online presence of her seem to indicate? Is there evidence about it, perhaps comparing it to other therapies?

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There are no research papers on RTT present on Google Scholar.

Therefore, I think it is straightforward to presume that it has not been scientifically evaluated, which makes any claim whatsoever about its efficacy quite dubious. It's up to the people promoting an approach to demonstrate scientifically that it is effective, rather than for others to demonstrate it is ineffective.

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    $\begingroup$ +1 The web-site suggests that RTT is a variant of hypnosis. Several studies suggest that hypnosis has a similar effect to a placebo. As such, RTT is likely to be no more effective than a placebo. $\endgroup$ – Tony Mobbs Aug 19 '20 at 0:12
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    $\begingroup$ @TonyMobbs Additionally if you want to convince other people to use a therapy and believe it's legit, you'd do a scientific study of it. If, on the other hand, you want to sell your book you wouldn't want a negative result to kill your sales... $\endgroup$ – Bryan Krause Aug 19 '20 at 0:35
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RTT's online forum was used to enquire as to whether there was any peer reviewed literature supporting RTT. RTT's company lawyer replied with:

There are no current published papers on RTT that we can provide. However, we have two feasibility studies starting in September. From what we have collected so far, we have statistically significant results in multiple therapeutic areas, however we can not yet share this information as we are still working on the data collection.

A second line of inquiry was to note that RTT is endorsed by the International Institute of Complementary Therapies(IICT). The IICT also endorses techniques such as Quantum Photo-Somatics, Suspended Yoga, and Tibetan Pulsing. The peer reviewed literature seems to have overlooked RTT and these other 'vital' therapies. It is noteworthy that endorsement by the IICT can be obtained by a simple registration process and the payment of $179 per annum.

Given that the data collection is starting next month, it doesn't seem that any scientific appraisal will be available for a few years (assuming that the claimed statistical significance still exists when the data is collected). RTT self-identifies as a complementary therapy. Complementary medicine can generally be equated with being non-scientific.

Further to the prior comments, a very expensive placebo.

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    $\begingroup$ "We have statistically significant studies that start next month" is one of the funniest things I've ever heard in support of a treatment. $\endgroup$ – Bryan Krause Aug 21 '20 at 20:05

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