Growing up, Adam Hanley was always interested in the power of the mind. As the grandson of a preacher, he became intrigued by the combination of both spirituality and therapy as a tool for healing.
Hanley, a licensed psychologist and an associate professor at the College of Nursing’s Brain Science and Symptom Management Center, embarked on an academic journey that was inspired by the physical pain he felt when his professional basketball career ended in 2012. After playing five collegiate seasons at the University of Georgia (2000-03) and Middle Tennessee State (2003-05), he then played overseas in countries like the Philippines, Venezuela and Indonesia before retiring due to injury.
“That’s when the mindfulness practice became more of a practical direction for me,” Hanley said about the end of his playing career. “It was a way of dealing with some of the physical discomfort as well as some of the confusion about what comes next.”
Realizing he could no longer rely on his athletic skill set for his profession, Hanley enrolled in FSU’s Counseling Psychology Program and was guided by former professor and mindfulness therapy expert Eric Garland. Under Garland’s watchful tutelage, Hanley discovered that he could make a career out of teaching mindfulness practices for those who experience chronic pain.
Hanley is currently affiliated with a research team that has used a therapeutic technique called Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE), which may facilitate neural changes associated with the brain’s response to healthy, natural rewards. This intervention has been linked to enhanced mood, increased focus on positive experiences and diminished opioid cravings. He has been studying the practice for 10 years, creating an eight-week program for patients who can use techniques such as meditation in their free time to calm their minds and bodies before medical appointments.
“We’re doing this in surgical settings, for cancer treatment, just anywhere where folks are in the medical system and idle,” Hanley said of MORE. “We’re trying to help treat the mind while their bodies get taken care of by conventional medicine.”
The results have been startling. Patients have seen a dramatic reduction in pain through Hanley’s mindfulness techniques — a 30 percent drop that is equivalent to about five milligrams of the pain killer oxycodone. Patients frequently experience emotional improvements, particularly reductions in anxiety, as they prepare for medical appointments.
Hanley’s research shows that MORE can decrease opioid use and misuse up to about nine months after a patient’s treatment ends.
“We see pretty dramatic decreases in the dose of opioids that folks are taking as that treatment ends,” Hanley said. “We also see that treatment fundamentally changing the way some of the brain works.”
Participants in Hanley’s study are hooked up to an Electroencephalogram (EEG) device that measures electrical activity in their brain. Some studies have shown that during a self-guided mindfulness practice, low-frequency brain waves known as theta waves form because of the patient’s deep relaxation, reaching the front part of their brain — a possible predictor of less opioid use.
“We’re changing the person’s relationship with their pain medication as well as their physiology,” Hanley added. “That helps them feel better and use less pain medication months into the future.”
Hanley recently published research on MORE’s ability to combat opioid cravings that suggests the therapy is a promising tool to fight a crisis that resulted in more than 80,000 deaths in the United States in 2024. The study shows MORE teaches mindfulness skills to regulate opioid cravings, relieve pain and recover the ability to savor natural healthy pleasure, joy and meaning in life.
The technique has proven to be a necessary alternative for patients whose health conditions do not allow them to have certain types of medications.
“Expanding their toolbox of treatments is a really gratifying thing,” Hanley said. “It’s heartening that we can offer techniques that help people feel better.”
“Expanding their toolbox of treatments is a really gratifying thing. It’s heartening that we can offer techniques that help people feel better.”
– Adam Hanley, College of Nursing
Several patients have experienced a feeling of “self-dissolving” during meditation, going through an altered state of consciousness that allows them to have the best clinical outcomes, Hanley said.
“My shorthand for this is ‘no self, no pain,’” he said. “There’s no house or body to instantiate that pain. We’re looking to exist in this space of openness and possibility where there’s not a lot of discomfort.”
For Hanley, improving people’s quality of life is the goal. When his patients marvel at their positive results, it’s a rewarding feeling.
“Getting to hear from a patient that ‘My pain decreased’ or ‘This thing I’ve been living with for years feels manageable now’ — that’s a wonderful way for me to leave the office each day,” Hanley said.