“When you “overcome depression” you can restore and instill an inner feel-good self-belief – and lift the heavy fog that clouds your mind to take your power back.”
M. Peer
Introduction
Depressive disorders (as a medical diagnosis) are states characterized by sad and irritable mood and/or a feeling of emptiness, accompanied by physical changes (for instance, altered sleep patterns, changes in weight and appetite, significant loss of energy) and also cognitive changes (for instance, a feeling of being worthless and indecisive) which significantly hamper the individual’s ability to function (DSM-5TM, 2013, 155; Barlow, Durand & Hoffman, 2017). Depression is often accompanied with somatic disturbances and other disorders: anxiety, panic, obsessive-compulsive, phobias, etc. (Ivanov, 2022).
An estimated 3.8% of the population experience depression, including 5% of adults (4% among men and 6% among women), and 5.7% of adults older than 60 years. Approximately 280 million people in the world have depression (WHO, 2023).
Most often depression occurs at the age from 18 to 43 years old. (Nakov, 2021). The first depressive symptoms might occur at the age of teen years and until the mid-20s (Torres, 2020).
Medication has been the primarily tool for dealing with depressive disorders. The duration of the pharmacological therapy might be supported effectively with applying cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy (Barlow, Durand & Hoffman, 2012, 255); emotions-focused therapy is also appropriate because it helps the individual work through the emotional aspects of their life experience, and psycho-dynamic therapy helps individuals understand how the depressive symptoms developed (Rey, 2019); various approaches from positive psychology can also be applied (Seligman, Rashid & Parks, 2006), client-centered therapy by C. Rogers, psychoanalytic and psycho-dynamic methods can also be used (Ivanow, 2022). There is data confirming the increased effect of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy for mild-to-moderate depression when combined with hypnosis (Alladin, 2012; Fuhr et al., 2017).
Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT) which was created by Marisa Peer (a British therapist, writer and transformational leader) is an effective tool for overcoming depression without medication. RTT is a hybrid method because it combines ideas, principles and techniques from hypnotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, neurolinguistic programming, etc. The feedback from thousands of RTT clients shows that RTT helps the client find out the root, the reason, and the cause for the emotional, physical and cognitive issues they experience in the present. RTT changes how you think and what you believe about yourself as a human being (or rather helps you remember who you truly are), which in turn changes how you act and behave, thus helping you achieve permanent positive change (Peer, 2023).
My Story With Depression
Looking back and thanks to the work I did with a Certified RTT Therapist, I realised that I was tormented by depressive episodes as early as 8 years old. I felt totally disconnected from my family, I felt isolated and alone, and most of all, I felt like a heavy burden to them, like I was too much. All these negative feelings manifested in deep sadness and a feeling of not belonging anywhere. I felt unworthy and unlovable on a deep level. I felt as if I had no ground under my feet and like there was no one who could listen or understand what I was going through – no one could validate or explain this feeling that was keeping me within some kind of a hard, suffocating shell.
I started reading self-help books as a teenager and strived so much to see all the good stuff that was already part of my life. I also tried keeping a positive focus on the present moment and tried hard to build a brighter future vision for myself. Nothing seemed to work, though. As I went to university, I was under a lot of stress and inner pressure to perform well but I could barely survive emotionally at times. As a very sensitive person, all of this was often too much for me. I did a lot of pushing down and repressing my own emotions because they seemed invalid. I tried hard to concentrate and did my best but it never seemed enough.
Out of fear of not being enough and not being capable to do it on my own (because of all the negative evidence I had gathered about my own self), I made very important decisions and I had to take all consequences for them for years. My relationships failed, I had no idea what was wrong with me and I was very angry at myself for not being what others expected me to be. All of this made me even sadder and more miserable.
Everything changed when I came across an interview of Marisa Peer back in 2020. I finally found someone whose words resonated so deeply with what I was going through! I finally started getting it! I enrolled in the online course and in December 2020 I got my certificate for RTT Practitioner.
Just a couple of RTT sessions lifted the veil of depression and I started getting rid of all unnecessary and untrue beliefs I had acquired so far. When I finally realised why I always felt like a burden, this was a game-changer for me. I understood everything I wanted to know in the past. And now I am able to keep on going from a place of feeling whole and enough as I am. Feeling like a close friend to your own self is so profoundly healing! I never took any medication. I just followed the RTT protocol and things simply happened like it was some kind of magic. Thanks to RTT now I am a confident person. I feel capable of dealing with difficult challenges because I feel deep love and respect for myself as a human being. I trust myself, I believe in myself, and this feels amazing! I am able to support myself and be there for myself, always. This profound transformation of my own self inspires me to guide my clients on their beautiful journey back to their true authentic self! I am proud to say that I guide them to writing not only a new chapter, but a whole new, fulfilling story about their lives.
My Clients Stories
I’d like to share the story of one of my first clients – he was about 30 years old back then and came to me because he had been suffering from depression for years. He had been diagnosed by a psychiatrist and my client also took antidepressants for some time.
When he came to me, he was feeling stuck in a state of procrastination, a sad mood, he was unable to concentrate, he was suffering from a lack of motivation to deal with daily activities and his duties at work.
We did a couple of RTT sessions, each followed by a 4-week period of weekly one-hour meeting and some additional homework he did on a daily basis (as part of the program he chose). What came up during the sessions was the acquired sense of not belonging to his own family because he was a much more sensitive person, he felt different and isolated and could not connect. He felt that he was not enough as he was because he never got what he needed emotionally from the environment he grew up in. The overall sense in the scenes was one of helplessness, hopelessness, and darkness. This is what he was feeling inside for years. He understood what events caused him to think that he was not a capable person and that he cannot do the things he wanted to do.
As a result of using RTT, he was able to shed light on the roots, the reasons and the causes of all negativity that seemed to be flowing out of him. After the program was completed, he was already able to cultivate a sense of being enough, whole and capable. He started doing creative work again, he started getting more active at work, he started doing gradual changes in his lifestyle. He was also noticing another curious change – he became more open, more communicative and was fascinated that people responded very well and were friendly and open to him too. In the following months he became a project lead for several big company projects and he was successfully working with a variety of people. He started cultivating a feeling of belonging to the people and activities which were right for him. Every time we catch up, he is in a lovely mood, smiling and talking enthusiastically about all the great things he is bringing into his life because he got his power back!
Another client was struggling with a deep sense of depression, lack of energy, a deep disliking of herself and not being able to enjoy life and everything she was already accomplishing as a business-owner.
During the RTT sessions she realized that because of how depressed and stressed her mother was during her pregnancy, my client absorbed this emotional state and this was her “normal” state of being. Feeling happy and joyful seemed unfamiliar to her. Also, she felt as if she was never good enough because of her strict and perfectionistic mother. The lack of deep emotional and safe connection with her mother left her feeling as if my client was too sensitive. My client’s feelings and choices were never accepted as valid. As a result, having a negative body image and disliking herself deeply became her normal self-perception model at a very early age.
This was a very heavy burden to shake off but my client was able to see the connection between the scenes that came up and how she was feeling and this helped her realise that she is actually enough, whole, capable and deeply lovable. She was able to understand that all that negativity was never her own, it was her mother’s experience. My client was able to give this model back to her mother, giving her back all unnecessary responsibilities she had been given over time. After her program was completed, she was already feeling like that heavy burden was lifted off her shoulders. She started realising that all her power is in the present moment and that she can choose what to believe in. She chose to see her strengths and her beauty. She chose to see her true self!
In the time after we worked together, she has become much more confident and started putting healthier boundaries in the communication with the people around her. She started supporting herself in a constructive way. She learned to relax and give herself enough time to rest and recover. She is updating her priorities as needed. She is eating healthy and is in a great physical and emotional shape. My client is able to concentrate, she is reading and listening to many books. She is beautifully expressing her unique potential and talents by working with people. She is appreciated and cherished by everyone who is around her, including me.
