The RTM Protocol™ removes the distressing linkage between the brain and the client’s memory of the traumatic event. It was developed by Dr. Frank Bourke and was initially used to treat over 250 World Trade Center survivors. Multiple independent RTM Protocol™ clinical trials have demonstrated over 90% effectiveness in eliminating PTSD symptoms. (See our research page.)
The RTM Protocol™ has proven particularly effective for treating veterans who have experienced combat, sexual, childhood, and other severe traumas. The focus of the RTM Protocol™ is to separate the traumatic feelings from the memories using a relaxed re-imaging process. Clients are guided to dissociate themselves from the traumatic memories, and while separated from feelings of fear, terror, and/or helplessness, make changes so that the memory no longer signals fight, flight, or danger. Following the RTM Protocol™ treatment, people find they no longer feel preoccupied with trauma events and their nightmares and flashbacks no longer trouble them.
The RTM Protocol™ is a non-drug, non-traumatizing treatment that re-programs the neurological connection between the brain’s feeling center and specific traumatic memories. It requires 3-4, ~90-minute therapy sessions. The sessions are clinician-led during which the client sits in a comfortable chair and visualizes pictures on an imagined movie screen in a way that separates the traumatic memories from the traumatic feelings.
The sessions require no homework or practice outside of the therapy. Clients remain completely relaxed and comfortable while they construct the images on the imagined movie screen during the treatments. The treatment has been found to be highly effective in eliminating traumatic nightmares, flashbacks, and directly related emotional problems. After the RTM Protocol™, people can remember past traumatic events with no traumatic feelings.