RTT Client Assessment & Goal Setting 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An RTT client's stated goal is to improve their relationship with their mother. During assessment, it emerges that the client also struggles with all authority figures. How should this affect the therapeutic goal?
- Narrow the goal to focus only on the mother relationship as stated
- Broaden the goal to address the underlying pattern of authority relationships that the mother represents (Correct answer)
- Refer the client to a couples or family therapist instead
- Set two entirely separate goals and address them in consecutive sessions
Correct answer: Broaden the goal to address the underlying pattern of authority relationships that the mother represents
RTT assessment identifies patterns across relationships, and addressing the root pattern produces wider, more lasting transformation than targeting one relationship.
Question 2: During RTT intake, why is it useful to ask a client 'If you woke up tomorrow and this problem was gone, what would be different?'
- To test the client's imaginative capacity for hypnotic trance
- To help the client articulate a vivid, specific vision of their desired outcome (Correct answer)
- To assess whether the client has realistic expectations about therapy
- To identify co-morbid conditions that require additional medical referral
Correct answer: To help the client articulate a vivid, specific vision of their desired outcome
The miracle question creates a concrete, sensory-rich picture of the goal state that can be embedded in the RTT recording and future-pacing techniques.
Question 3: Which of the following would be considered a POORLY formed RTT goal?
- 'I am confident and calm when speaking in public'
- 'I want to stop feeling so anxious all the time' (Correct answer)
- 'I trust myself to make good decisions'
- 'I feel worthy of love and healthy relationships'
Correct answer: 'I want to stop feeling so anxious all the time'
Away-from, vague, and negatively framed goals ('stop feeling') are weak because the subconscious focuses on the unwanted state; RTT goals should be positive and specific.
Question 4: In RTT, what is the significance of asking a client when they FIRST remember feeling the way they feel about their issue?
- To identify the exact age at which a diagnosis should have been made
- To locate the earliest sensitizing event that anchors the root belief (Correct answer)
- To determine whether the client's memory is reliable enough for regression
- To gather biographical data for session notes
Correct answer: To locate the earliest sensitizing event that anchors the root belief
The first memory of the feeling points toward the earliest sensitizing event, which is where the root belief was formed and where RTT regression aims to go.
Question 5: A client's assessment reveals they have very high expectations of perfection tied to fear of failure. How should the practitioner incorporate this into goal setting?
- Set the therapeutic goal as 'eliminate all perfectionism'
- Frame the goal around developing self-compassion and an identity as someone who grows through effort (Correct answer)
- Advise the client that perfectionism is adaptive and should not be changed
- Avoid addressing perfectionism as it may increase the client's anxiety
Correct answer: Frame the goal around developing self-compassion and an identity as someone who grows through effort
RTT reframes perfectionism at the identity level, replacing fear-of-failure beliefs with growth-oriented self-beliefs that are more adaptive.
Question 6: What is the purpose of the RTT practitioner maintaining a 'neutral and curious' stance during client assessment?
- To appear professionally detached and avoid emotional investment in the outcome
- To avoid projecting assumptions or interpretations onto the client's experience and allow authentic disclosure (Correct answer)
- To maintain strict clinical boundaries required by RTT certification standards
- To prevent the client from becoming emotionally activated before hypnosis
Correct answer: To avoid projecting assumptions or interpretations onto the client's experience and allow authentic disclosure
Neutrality and curiosity preserve the client's own narrative, ensuring assessment reflects their authentic experience rather than the practitioner's assumptions.
Question 7: When an RTT client has multiple issues they wish to address, what is the BEST practice for goal setting in a single session?
- Address all issues simultaneously by combining them into one complex goal
- Identify and focus on the most impactful root issue, as resolving it often creates positive ripple effects across other areas (Correct answer)
- Refuse to work with clients who present with multiple issues
- Split the session time equally across each separate issue the client mentions
Correct answer: Identify and focus on the most impactful root issue, as resolving it often creates positive ripple effects across other areas
RTT's root-cause approach recognizes that a single underlying belief often drives multiple surface problems, so targeting the root creates the broadest change.
RTT Client Assessment & Goal Setting 5
An RTT client's stated goal is to improve their relationship with their mother.
During assessment, it emerges that the client also struggles with all authority figures.
How should this affect the therapeutic goal?