Life, Redesigned
August 5, 2026
“Nothing has helped me with my anxiety and my depression and my life more than occupational therapy,” says Jennifer Hong, a psychiatrist and Keck School of Medicine of USC psychiatry fellow who has been participating in Lifestyle Redesign, a program supporting students to improve their mental health and everyday lives through meaningful routines.
Chan in the Media Clinical Health and Wellness Lifestyle Redesign
Lifestyle Redesign is an innovative framework created at USC Chan to coach patients — mostly USC students — to develop daily routines that promote health and wellness. (Illustration/Sam Falconer)
By Chinyere Cindy Amobi (USC Today)
Several years ago, psychiatrist Jennifer Hong was brutally attacked by a patient. The attack deprived her brain of oxygen for almost a minute; the resulting physical and mental health effects were devastating, both professionally and personally.
Now in the last year of her child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) fellowship at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, Hong credits the Lifestyle Redesign program at the USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy with helping her get her life back on track.
“Because of this program, I have tons of optimism for the future,” Hong says. “Nothing has helped me with my anxiety and my depression and my life more than occupational therapy.”
Lifestyle Redesign is an innovative framework created at USC Chan to coach patients — mostly USC students — to develop daily routines that promote health and wellness.
The program takes a broader interpretation of occupational therapy beyond traditional associations with surgery recovery and workplace optimization.
Read the full story at USC Today.
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