Law enforcement personnel are 54% more\nlikely to die by suicide than decedents\nwith other occupations, according to a\nU.S. assessment published in Policing: An\nInternational Journal<\/em>.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his work as a chaplain, Matt Domyancic \u201997 strives to prevent that from happening, long before it\u2019s even considered. He likes to use the analogy of giving someone swim lessons before they\u2019re drowning in rough waters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI talk to them about mental, emotional,\nphysical, and spiritual health,\u201d Domyancic\nexplains.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n He specializes in working with police officers, firefighters, and other first responders \u2014 occupations that have a few commonalities: high-stress routines, witnessing trauma, and a masculine culture in which expressing emotions is thought to be a sign of weakness (even for women). Because of this prevalent mindset, Domyancic builds trust and rapport by \u201cspending time in the trenches, riding along with them on shifts, lifting weights at the stations,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd they share their stories with me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Officers aren\u2019t hesitant to talk with Domyancic because they see him as one of them. It\u2019s not a far stretch. Domyancic is a medically retired police officer who, before a botched surgery ended his career, dedicated his life to being a SWAT team member, police academy instructor, Georgetown University strength coach, and sports minister. He was living in the Washington, D.C., area and enjoying his multiple responsibilities. But after the surgery, he had medical complications, needed more surgeries, and was prescribed medications that \u201ckilled my immune, digestive, and endocrine systems,\u201d he says. \u201cI ended up obese, chronically ill, and I was forced to retire. I went through a very difficult period.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n A psychiatrist suggested he go to\nCalifornia, where a holistic approach of\nfunctional and integrative medicine was more\navailable at the time. So in 2009, he moved\nto Los Angeles (where he still lives today) and\nspent two years building himself back up. \u201cI\nhad to eat clean, meditate, stretch, journal,\ndo therapy, do neurofeedback,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\nwasn\u2019t taking a pill to get [quick] results.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Domyancic has understood the importance of physical, mental, and spiritual health since he was a football-playing political science major at Colgate. He transferred to the University from the Air Force Academy his junior year after a cadet broke his eardrum in boxing class. Domyancic visited Harvard, Cornell, and Colgate \u2014 which he chose based on Coach Ed Argast \u201978, who took a genuine interest in him beyond football and introduced him to administrators and career counselors. It also helped that there were 13 other players from Domyancic\u2019s hometown area of Pittsburgh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Early on, though, he had a setback:\nDomyancic tore his calf during practice and\nthought he would never run again. This led to\na spiritual crisis. Raised Catholic, he\u2019d learned\nabout other religions when starting his college\ncareer and had a desire to learn more about\nother faiths. Domyancic met with the campus\npriest as well as professors from different\nreligions to learn their perspectives. This was\nthe start of a 10-year \u201cinvestigation of my\nown,\u201d he says. \u201cI exposed myself to different\nbranches of Christianity, to Buddhism, to\nNative American spirituality. I studied the\ncontemplative practices and the depth\npsychology of different traditions because I\nnever wanted to only serve people who think\njust like me.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Domyancic earned a pastoral theology\ndegree from Loyola Marymount University in\n2018, and he began doing chaplaincy with\npolice departments in Los Angeles. Today, he\nworks with approximately 400 police officers\nand firefighters. He also receives invitations\nfrom organizations helping first responders\nwith mental health issues around the country.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI try the proactive approach,\u201d he says. \u201cA\nlot of times, mental health professionals and\npeer support are only for PTSD, addiction,\nand suicide. But there\u2019s a long road to that.\u201d\nBy building long-term relationships with the\npeople he helps, Domyancic finds that they\u2019ll\ntalk to him before a critical incident occurs.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n His methods involve \u201cnormalizing therapy and improving fitness, nutrition, stress management, self-regulation \u2014 different things to holistically help people live better lives before they end up broken down.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n A linebacker, Domyancic was a member of the 1997 team that won Colgate\u2019s first Patriot League Championship. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Men in these occupations are hesitant to share their feelings, so Matt Domyancic builds rapport and helps them with mental health struggles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":11837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[1481,1485,1484,62,1482,81,1486,293,1483,596],"coauthors":[388],"class_list":["post-11833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alumni-spotlights","category-alumni-updates","tag-chaplain","tag-firefighters","tag-first-responders","tag-football","tag-law-enforcement","tag-mental-health","tag-patriot-league-championship","tag-political-science","tag-suicide-prevention","tag-therapy"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-34R","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/04\/Matt-Domyancic-97.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11833"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12038,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11833\/revisions\/12038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11833"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}