The Good, The Bad, and the Psychosomatic: Developing Effective Coping Skills for Stress Management

Dr. Hillyer, Director of the Psychology program, and Dr. Herrin, Director of the Physical Therapist Assistant program, will discuss the psychobiosocial aspects of stress and pain as well as introduce “alternative” coping/ treatment methods. We tend to think of stress and pain as things we wish we just did not have to deal with (“The Bad”). Realistically though, we would not be able to live successfully without either, as they teach us how to adapt to and survive threats in our environment (“The Good”).

Therefore, our goal should be to reduce their impact on our quality of life. Because both stress and pain are psychological phenomena that result in physical symptoms (“The Psychosomatic”), there are lots of different ways to limit the consequences of excessive stress and pain and to treat the associated symptoms without relying on drugs or other problematic solutions. In light of the extent of the so-called opioid crisis and the hectic, demanding nature of our modern lives, healthy alternative treatments are more necessary than ever.