The Placebo Response in Manual Therapy presents a knowledge-based approach to augmenting your patients’ own healing systems. It explains how to:
- maximize the placebo response in your patients, using knowledge from 60 years of research
- “turn on” an individual’s inner healing system, even with challenging patients
- increase your success rate and your patients’ health outcomes within your current methods of practice
- use the client-practitioner relationship as a ‘technique’ for improving health outcomes in your patients based on research concerning the therapeutic encounter.
The placebo effect of touch is an important factor in the effectiveness of all manual therapy treatments. However most manual therapists are not taught how to make use of the placebo response and many remain unaware of its potential and unsure of how to harness it as part of their therapy. This book is for them.
Table of Contents
Forewords
Leon Chaitow
Ruth Werner
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction to the book
Part 1 Understanding the Placebo Effect
Definition of a Placebo
Enter the Placebo
A Historical Perspective
The Nature of Belief
Body/Mind Medicine
Performance of the Placebo
Do Placebo Effects Last?
Objective Results from Placebos
The Nocebo
Criticism of the Placebo Effect
Biological Pathways and Theories
The Placebo Responder
Ethics and Informed Consent
Part 2 Concepts and Application
Introduction to Part 2
Conditioning
Expectancy
Motivation and Desire
Trust
The Power of Listening
Feelings of Care and Concern from the Practitioner
Establishment of a Feeling of Control
Reducing your Patients’ Anxiety Levels
Receiving Adequate Explanation of the Pathology
The Narrative: How We Make Sense of the World
Acceptance of the Mystery of Healing
Certainty of the Patient
Time Spent By the Practitioner
Use of Ritual
The Clinician’s Persona
Clinical/Healing Environment
Practitioner’s Use of Humor
Helping Patients Maximize Their Own Healing Response
Conclusions
Part 3 Perspectives on Healing
Introduction to Part 3
Where Do We Go from Here?
Quantum Healing
Appendix: Developing Strong Social Support
References and Further Reading
Index
