VCU hosts presentation on well-being and prolonged stress

By Malorie Burkett

The Virginia Commonwealth University School of Nursing’s Center for Biobehavioral Clinical Research recently hosted a talk presented by an internationally known expert in stress and coping.

Susan Folkman, Ph.D., director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California-San Francisco, focused on positive emotion and stress with her presentation titled “Maintaining Well-Being in the Midst of Prolonged Stress: The Role of Positive Emotions in the Stress Process.”

Folkman’s presentation included theory, research and clinical application regarding the role of positive emotions in the stress process. She summarized findings regarding the co-occurrence of positive and negative emotion in the context of severe stress.

“People should be reminded that it is not only possible, but common to experience positive emotions in the midst of stress,” said Folkman. “Clinicians should give as much attention to strategies that help people maintain positive affect as they do to the strategies that help regulate stress.”

In addition, Folkman discussed how positive emotions matter, what their adaptive functions might be and emotion-focused, problem focused and meaning-focused coping.

Folkman is internationally recognized for her theoretical and empirical contributions to the field of psychological stress and coping.

Since 1988, her work has focused on stress and coping in the context of HIV disease and other chronic illnesses, especially on issues related to caregiving and bereavement. Her research has been supported by multiple grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Nursing Research and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

VCU’s Center for Biobehavioral Clinical Research, funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research, is designed to enhance research programs related to improving biobehavioral outcomes associated with critical health experiences. For more information, visit http://www.nursing.vcu.edu/faculty_research/cbcr/index.html.