Placebo-Enhanced Hypnotic Intervention (PEHI)™
Placebo-Enhanced Hypnotic Intervention™ blends the science of placebo with the art of hypnosis to produce targeted healing responses. It was developed to activate your body's internal pharmacy through the use of precise mental imagery and suggestion.
Unlike traditional hypnosis alone, sessions specifically incorporate guided visualization of an imaginary pill (or similar) traveling through your body, triggering measurable responses such as endorphin release, immune system enhancement, and hormonal regulation.
By incorporating placebo-enhancing elements, you create a powerful approach that leverages both the science of expectation and the heightened suggestibility of hypnosis.
What Can It Help With?
Sessions can address concerns including stress management, pain relief, mood support, sleep quality, energy levels, digestive wellness, general well-being, and relaxation. PEHI™ doesn't replace traditional medicine or therapy, but offers a complementary wellness approach that recognizes and works with your body's remarkable capacity for self-healing.
Your Internal Pharmacy
Your body houses an incredible internal pharmacy capable of producing numerous chemicals that influence everything from pain perception to mood regulation, including endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and anti-inflammatory cytokines.
Understanding Placebo
The placebo effect isn't "fake" or "all in your head." It represents the activation of real neurobiological pathways that trigger healing responses. Modern research shows that when you expect healing to occur, your brain can stimulate the release of specific chemicals that create genuine physical changes in your body.
What's most remarkable is that this effect works even when you know it's happening. Studies show that people who take "open-label" placebos (when they're told it's just a sugar pill) still experience significant symptom improvements. This shows that our conscious awareness doesn't diminish this ability, in fact, understanding the process can enhance it.
About Your Session
You'll experience deep relaxation, allowing your mind to become receptive to positive suggestions. You'll be guided through vivid visualizations of healing processes moving through specific areas of your body that require attention. You'll also receive training to self-activate these responses, empowering you to continue the benefits on your own.
Ready to Begin?
Contact Harley today to schedule your PEHI™ session and discover how you can activate your body's natural healing abilities.
A Case Study: Chronic Arthritis Foot Pain
An 80-year-old client from New York City has suffered for years with severe arthritis in both feet, with additional mallet toe deformity in his right foot. The pain, sharp and stabbing from the base of his toes to his ankles, had recently escalated beyond what compression sleeves or cushioning pads could manage. At initial presentation, he rated his pain as 7 out of 10 on the Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS). His podiatrist had recommended MLS laser therapy to reduce inflammation, but he faced a two-week wait before treatment could begin.
"I've had a really bad couple of days of arthritic pain in my foot and it is driving me absolutely crazy," he wrote. "I need a quick fix."
My Approach
I used Placebo-Enhanced Hypnotic Intervention™, which combines neuroscience education with hypnotic visualization. The approach works in two steps:
Understanding the mechanism: I explained how the brain can activate its own pain control systems, releasing endogenous opioids (natural painkillers chemically similar to morphine) when expectation is properly engaged. Research shows these aren't imaginary effects, they're measurable neurobiological responses.
Targeted visualization: Using hypnosis, I guided him through detailed visualization of the laser therapy he would eventually receive. I had him imagine the laser's therapeutic warmth penetrating deep into his inflamed joints, triggering his body's natural anti-inflammatory response and flooding the area with his own natural painkillers. We followed actual pain pathways from his foot to the brain regions that process and modulate pain. By leveraging his knowledge of the laser treatment, we created a powerful expectation effect and credible framework his brain could translate into physiological changes.
The Results
After the first session focusing on his left foot, his response was immediate: "You helped my foot pain unbelievably. This is like something out of the movies!"
One week later, he requested a session for his right foot, reporting his left foot had experienced sustained relief. After a third session targeting both feet, he reported: "It has been about four weeks since I had a session with you and I have not felt pain in my foot since. Amazing!"
Most significantly, he added: "Based on these results, my doctor is holding off on any kind of treatment for the arthritis." This represents objective, third-party validation that the intervention produced meaningful results.
At twelve weeks post-initial intervention, he reported his pain had remained at 0/10 on the NPRS, a complete elimination of the 7/10 pain experienced at baseline. This represents a 7-point reduction sustained over three months. He was taught self-activation techniques that will allow him to maintain relief independently.
What This Means
This case demonstrates the power of open-label placebos. The quantitative outcomes are particularly striking: a 7-point reduction on the NPRS far exceeds the Minimal Clinically Important Difference (MCID) of 2 points typically used to determine meaningful pain reduction. This improvement, sustained for twelve weeks, represents substantial functional restoration. The client understood he was using visualization and expectation, yet this didn't diminish effectiveness. The pre-talk explaining placebo science actually enhanced results by providing a scientifically credible framework. At 80 years old with degenerative arthritis, he achieved significant pain relief without pharmaceuticals or medical procedures.
The combination of placebo education, anatomically-informed visualization, and self-activation training created outcomes substantial enough that medical intervention became unnecessary (the decision to postpone medical treatment was made by his doctor based on observed outcomes). Results were replicated across multiple sessions targeting different areas (left foot, right foot, bilateral), demonstrating a learnable, sustainable pain management system rather than a one-time placebo response.
Supporting Research: (1) Pagnini, F., Barbiani, D., Grosso, F. et al. "Enacting the mind/body connection: the role of self-induced placebo mechanisms." (2) Anne Schienle, Wolfgang Kogler, Arved Seibel, Albert Wabnegger, "The pill you don’t have to take that is still effective: neural correlates of imaginary placebo intake for regulating disgust." (3) Buergler, S., Sezer, D., Bagge, N. et al. "Imaginary pills and open-label placebos can reduce test anxiety by means of placebo mechanisms." (4) Bagge, Niels. "Harnessing the Placebo Effects Using Imaginary Pills to Transform Emotional Pain." (5) de Shazer, Steve. "The Imaginary Pill Technique."
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