Hair, Skin, and Soul

     As a child, she wanted to be a doctor. She pored over her grandmother’s book on the anatomy of the human body, fascinated by the way the body worked. She was deeply interested in human illness, and she wanted to understand what made people sick and what made them well.
    As a teenager, she became her neighborhood’s “hair girl.” She loved making others more beautiful, and she decided to become a beautician. When she shared her plan with a high school guidance counselor, however, he told that she could do much better than that.
    Now, through her work as the director of BYU’s office of Women’s Services and Resources, Lanae Valentine has found that the answer to her childhood question of what makes people healthy lies in their relationships with others.
    That belief is obvious to those around her. “She has honestly been my mom here,” said Bianca Rosenhan, a native of Blackfoot, Idaho who is majoring in recreation management and works in the office of Women’s Services and Resources. “I could get so emotional about [this office]. It really is home here.”
    Valentine became the director of the Women’s Services and Resources office 12 years ago, after a long career that included inpatient work at a depression unit and teaching as a professor at BYU. She had discovered her that her real passion was health psychology while working on her master’s degree. She continued researching the ties between physical illness and relationship problems while obtaining a PhD in marriage and family psychology.
    Valentine has used her study of health psychology to expand the program at Women’s Services. She focuses on two main issues: body image and eating disorders. “We see too much that a way a woman has power can be to sexualize herself,” she said. “College is really where you shape your life.”
    Elise Peterson, the office manager for the Women’s Services office, sees women come to Valentine in for one-on-one help with some of these issues. “Women will come in crying, and often leave with a smile on their face,” she said.
    Rosenham told one story of happier tears. Valentine had shared an email she had just received from a past participant in the program’s 10-Day Challenge. The girl was currently in a center for eating disorders. She had reread the challenge and shared it with the other girls in the center, and they had all made “beautiful” t-shirts. “By the end of the email, we were all in tears,” said Rosenham.
    Valentine tailors the events put on by the office to meet the needs of college-age women. Breast cancer awareness, for example, is no longer part of the program, although Valentine added that preventative measures should begin early in life. Yoga, on the other hand, is a new addition.
    Valentine began doing yoga after attending a seminar where yoga was used as a cure for psychiatric problems. She sees it as a way of increasing the health of the mind and body. “There’s a spirit inside the body, and the spirit can get sick,” she said.
    At the same time, Valentine is concerned by the modern fitness craze. She promotes activity as part of a healthy lifestyle. “It’s important to find balance and not get caught up in all the crazes,” she said.
    Valentine finds joy in helping women find balance, healthy relationships, and good priorities. “And I still like to fix people’s hair,” she added.