Close Up
Helping UB employees cope
EAP coordinator Chris Siuta stays extremely busy, juggling EAP office hours with trips to schools and sports practices, teaching and being a dad. Photo: NANCY J. PARISI
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“It’s the whole work-life balance issue; you’re working like crazy, going home and dealing with other issues there, and not sleeping enough.”
Christopher Siuta’s specialty is self-improvement: helping others learn how to change their negative thoughts and better cope with change and adversity in the workplace, at home or on the athletic field. And he’s at a UB campus near you.
Since 2009, Siuta, a state-licensed mental health counselor, has worked part time for UB’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP), a free referral service for UB employees. Based on the South Campus, he and fellow EAP coordinators Crystal Kaczmarek-Bogner and Neil McGillicuddy travel to UB’s three campuses to assess the needs of individuals, couples or families, and help them access resources ranging from psychiatrists and medical doctors to lawyers and financial planners. EAP also encourages employees to make appointments for face-to-face meetings with the coordinators to help them assess their situations.
A native of West Seneca, Siuta has 15 years experience at local mental health agencies. Prior to joining EAP, as he was finishing his doctorate in psychology, he worked on a grant-based research team in the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology in UB’s Graduate School of Education. Siuta’s team led training and information workshops at high schools throughout New York state, showing teachers how best to help their students—especially those with developmental challenges—transition from high school to employment or college.
Siuta joined EAP the day after the grant ended. In addition to his counseling duties, he leads several work/life balance workshops at UB, including a new one he launched this fall on parenting and a popular series on workplace conflict and change.
“We’re busy,” Siuta says of the office workload, adding that he gets several calls a week to see employees who are concerned about the “uncertain times we’re living in here at UB. Lots of cuts, changing titles, retirement incentives and layoffs, and a new incoming administration. People want to know where UB is headed.”
And, in a society used to getting answers fast, we’re not getting these answers fast enough, he adds. His office advises employees to take control by keeping themselves fit, both mentally and physically. “It’s the whole work-life balance issue; you’re working like crazy, going home and dealing with other issues there, and not sleeping enough.
“My professional background has taught me that, as humans, we think, we behave and we feel,” Siuta continues. “Thoughts trigger behaviors and feelings. My role is to help people construct or reconstruct more rational, positive thought processes. You’ll see behaviors change for the better—more constructive and positive.”
For the past five years, Siuta also has operated a private counseling practice in Orchard Park called the WNY Center for Sports Psychology. The center specifically treats the needs of athletes, from pros playing for the Bills, Bandits and Sabres, to high school-age amateurs looking for help with performance enhancement, including improving self-esteem, concentration and communication with coaches and teammates. He teaches athletes how to combat anxiety with relaxation techniques they can use before or after a game.
Like his UB clients, Siuta says there’s always a hidden reason, or reasons, why athletes struggle on the field. “If there’s something happening on the field, 90 percent of the time there’s more going on at home, like issues with parents, alcoholism or other abuse.”
Siuta stays extremely busy, juggling EAP office hours with trips to schools and sports practices, teaching at Medaille College and St. Bonaventure University, and being a dad to two girls, ages 3 and 8. “It can be crazy at times, but I wouldn’t have it any other way right now,” he says.
With EAP Administrator Deborah Hard, Siuta and the other staff members are in the beginning stages of developing a Family Support Center at UB—an in-house counseling service that would treat as well as refer. “When UB folks come to us for help, we’ll provide it,” he says.
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