  We study the Efimov effect in a harmonic oscillator in the hyperspherical
formulation, and show how a reduced model allows for a description that is a
generalization of the Efimov effect in free space and leads to results that are
easily interpreted. Efimov physics may be observed by varying the value of the
scattering length, since in the regime where the trimers have a mixed harmonic
oscillator and Efimov character, the inelastic properties of these states are
still manageable. The model also allows for the study of non-universal Efimov
trimers by including the effective range scattering parameter. While we find
that in a certain regime the effective range parameter can take over the role
of the three-body parameter, interestingly, we obtain a numerical relationship
between these two parameters different from what was found in other models.
