A specialist in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), she incorporates training in awareness and presence into campus-wide wellness programs to bolster resilience and coping skills among students and healthcare providers. Her teenage bout with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following her mother’s sudden death ignited a passion: Melnyk vowed to find ways to bring young people the support and coping skills they need to weather life’s challenges. We sat down with Melnyk to discuss her current work and to learn more about her perspective on wellness.
What are you working or focusing on now?
I’m focusing on several exciting initiatives. One of my biggest projects at Ohio State is to improve well-being and resilience on campus. I’m working with a terrific team to implement a new multicomponent, five-year wellness strategic plan that improves the health and well-being of faculty, staff, and students and creates a strong wellness culture that makes healthy behaviors the norm. Our evidence-based programs and strategies target individuals, the family and social network, the workplace culture and environment, and organizational policies. We also are integrating wellness into the curriculum for our students. Another project is the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience. The goal here is to reduce the high prevalence of burnout in clinicians. We know that healthcare professionals, students, and trainees suffer from significant stress, depression, and suicide. So at Ohio State we’re working to bolster overall well-being and resilience by using evidence-based cognitive behavioral skills-building and employing strategies taught in our seven-session MINDSTRONG program for students and clinicians. The program focuses on turning negative thoughts into positive ones to emotionally feel better and engage in healthful behaviors. It also integrates other coping strategies and mindfulness; learning how to focus on the present moment.
Dr. Melnyk on Stress
We all need to be better informed about stress. What is something we should know to increase our stress IQ?
We should be aware of the effect of our own thoughts on our feelings and behaviors. As a CBT specialist, I’m convinced that negative thinking triggers most stress. We need to question, rather than react to, our internal assumptions. CBT teaches us to identify thoughts and challenge or change them to better serve us. It requires learning these ABCs: “A” is the activating event triggering a negative belief, which is the “B.” “C” is the consequence of the negative thought — anxiety, stress, or depression. MINDSTRONG teaches people how to monitor thinking to catch negative thoughts and turn them into more positive ones, so that they feel emotionally better. Sixteen research studies on this skill-building program, called COPE, have confirmed that it can lower depression, anxiety, and stress among those with elevated symptoms.
Dr. Melnyk on Resilience
How do you define resilience?
I would define resilience as the skills needed to overcome overwhelming stress in your life.
We all at one time or another have a life experience that challenges our resilience. Can you describe what you learned about your own resilience after such an experience?
It’s amazing what these experiences teach you about your own strength. I was 15 when my mother sneezed, stroked out, and died. Afterward, I suffered with terrible PTSD. But I discovered that I was stronger than I first believed, and that discovery helped determine my path for a lifetime. Currently, my MINDSTRONG cognitive behavioral therapy program, which is being rolled out for students at Ohio State, focuses on helping our students develop the CBT thinking skills that can enable them to remain “present” before a crisis arises and they get depressed. It takes work and practice, but it is very successful.
