Episode Description:

Can coaching help people move beyond surviving to truly thriving, even in the face of chronic illness? In this episode, Coaching Revealed host, Austin Matzelle, interviews Dr. Maria Benzo, an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Research Associate at the Mayo Clinic, and Professor of Positive Psychology at Life University. Dr. Benzo shares her journey from medicine to coaching research and the findings of her groundbreaking work on how health coaching impacts patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

In this episode, Maria and Austin cover:

The sustained impact of health coaching on individuals living with a chronic illness.

The use of motivational interviewing, mindfulness, and value clarification to drive behavior change.

The impact of Self-Determination Theory and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as frameworks for health coaching.

The development of an AI-assisted fidelity tool to ensure coaching quality and consistency.
 

Episode Summary:

How can coaching empower individuals to not just manage disease, but to thrive with chronic illness? In this episode of Coaching Revealed, host Austin Matzelle sits down with Dr. Maria Benzo, an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Research Associate at the Mayo Clinic, and Professor of Positive Psychology at Life University, to explore this question through the lens of her research on the impact of health coaching. 

Dr. Benzo shares her professional journey - where she navigated a career from medicine to coaching research - as she saw firsthand the transformation of patients finding purpose and meaning. This led her to the concept of "positive health," a framework that leverages biological, psychological, and social assets to help people move toward a state of flourishing. 

Dr. Benzo’s research, presented at the IOC’s 2024 annual conference, is a large-scale randomized controlled trial involving patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The study's results indicated that a 12-week health coaching intervention led to significant and sustained improvements in patients' quality of life

This conversation also highlights key insights for coaches, including the critical role of value clarification. Dr. Benzo explains how her team developed concrete questions to help clients identify their core values, which became a powerful tool for sustainable motivation. 

To close out the episode, Dr. Benzo looks to the future - sharing her work on developing an AI-assisted tool to help scale high-quality coaching by measuring fidelity and adherence to evidence-based practices.