Transformative experience vs. incremental adaptation in reboot and recovery

I started a book by a philosopher on the nature of transformative experience today, and it naturally got me thinking about the potential impact on recovery. Often when we talk about it it's about setting lines around the behavior, whether it's full on abstinence or something else, but of course we know that doesn't necessarily change our mind or even ourselves - at least not very quickly.

The potential of a transformative experience is it goes much further than a gradual, time bound process - but I think massive rather than gradual rewiring can and does happen - although MAKING it happen does seem to be hit or miss. As I'm writing this now though I'm reminded of something from a different context, probably decades ago I read about a story where this therapist, who was a bit of a maverick got one of his clients to go to a place out of town somewhere with nothing in her pocket except change to call him from a landline pay phone (yes it's that long ago) in case of an emergency only. She did alright apparently, stayed at a youth hostel and basically felt she is more in control of her life and not as anxious even though there was some question as to her security and just generally the unknown. I guess putting yourself in an environment where a deep shift is more likely to happen, rather than the familiar all the time is one way to increase your chances of having such an experience.

It may be hard to think up something really novel, one might want to default to something chemically induced like ayahuasca, ibogain or something but I don't think it has to be something like that and I'm aware some here have a substance issue. Sometimes it's just a chance happening in life.

So practically, of course I don't think we should bank on that kind of experience, and when it happens in another context sometimes it doesn't necessarily translate to changing this behavior, or it just doesn't last indefinitely. But for anyone who has experienced something like this, I think it's safe to say it lasts longer than just a cold shower or a workout and if you can repeat even a smaller experience of this kind, like going on a meditation retreat, it would be interesting to see what happens with some repetition or if you do different things and change it up. Recently someone told me they had a zen teacher who would have them meditate in the desert one time, and then randomly another time go to a busy urban environment.

But anyway, does anyone have thoughts about it or had an experience this type? How do you think it may, or does impact your reboot?