What if supporting patients with chronic illness meant more than adherence to medical treatment and instead included empowering them to navigate their daily lives with greater resilience, clarity, and purpose? Health coaches play a unique and essential role in bridging the gap between medical treatment and real-world behavior change. In this evidence-informed webinar, Dr. Maria Benzo explores how coaching complements clinical care by helping patients build the psychological skills, emotional resources, and mindset shifts needed to flourish — even in the face of ongoing illness. Grounded in positive psychology, mindfulness, and behavioral science, her approach illustrates how coaching interventions can address what medicine alone often cannot: motivation, meaning, and self-leadership in the journey toward health.

Drawing from her clinical and academic experience, Dr. Benzo will illustrate how personalized coaching interventions can:

• Build competence by strengthening self-efficacy and adaptive behaviors, empowering patients to confidently manage their health.

• Promote autonomy through value-aligned choices, shifting patients from compliance to authentic engagement.

• Enhance relatedness by leveraging social support and cultivating coaching relationships rooted in empathy, trust, and emotional connection.

• Integrate mindfulness and self-compassion to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, fostering emotional resilience.

• Support psychological flexibility through presence, acceptance, and committed action — helping patients stay grounded, embrace discomfort, and take meaningful steps aligned with their values.

Key Takeaways:

• How coaching and behavioral interventions drive clinical change in chronic illness management.

• The role of mindfulness, and self-compassion in emotional regulation and resilience.

• How Self-Determination Theory (competence, autonomy, relatedness) informs effective health coaching
• Practical strategies from Acceptance and Commitment Coaching: be present, allow and accept, do what matters.