The Yoga Coaching
for Chronic Disease
Summit.
WWe believe it is time to bring yoga and coaching practitioners together to help people living with chronic disease move their life stories forward — by breaking through the blocks of blame and shame.
When we talk about chronic disease, the word that follows is almost always burden. A burden on the system. A burden in the lives of those who carry it. That narrative was never the whole truth — and it is the one we are here to change.
Let's move life stories forward — together.
Chronic disease is a daily reality for 80% of the U.S. population — and 93% of older adults.
A reality this widespread is not a personal failing. And yet the dominant narrative still treats chronic disease as a burden: something to be managed quietly, blamed on the person carrying it, stigmatized in the workplace, and made to disappear. It is time to stop the blame game and start a bolder, braver story — one that meets the whole person — body, mind, heart, and spirit — and trusts them as the author of a life still to move forward.
A burden to be managed.
The dominant narrative casts chronic disease as something to contain. The body becomes a problem set. The future becomes a forecast of decline. The healthcare system labels people by their diagnosis. Treatment focuses on the problem — and forgets the real-life needs of the human living daily with the problem. Possibility quietly disappears from the conversation.
- Burden, deficit, decline
- The patient as condition
- Treatment focused on the problem
- The blame and shame game
A life to be moved forward.
A different narrative is available — and it begins where the practitioner meets the person living with chronic disease with a combination of healing presence and know-how in the art and science of communication medicine. Because living with chronic disease is about more than lifestyle - it is an opportunity to rewrite and heal your life story.
- Possibility, agency, potential
- The whole person as life author
- Care is co-created with the client
- Self-care becomes self-leadership
It's time we stop the blaming, and start the healing.
For too long, we have approached people living with chronic disease as a burden — and told them to manage it through self-care and lifestyle change. While these practices are beneficial, it is time to expand the conversation to include the life story they are living and telling. In this summit, we will explore how yoga and coaching professionals can support their clients in releasing the shame and blame surrounding illness, moving forward into thriving, and becoming the authority of their own life story.
Opening Chair Yoga Practice for One and All
Our day opens with an embodied practice led by Dr. Suzie Carmack, founder of YogaMedCo and creator of the YogaMedCo Yoga Coaching Method. This is where we gather together to connect and align in our common purpose of supporting people living with chronic disease to move their life story forward.
Why Yoga for Chronic Disease?
What if the real mechanism of yoga has been hiding in plain sight — and what we measure, teach, and prescribe has been missing it? Open the summit with Dr. Avinash Patwardhan, a public health scholar, physician, and lifetime yogi whose pioneering research examines the medicalization of yoga and the gaps that stand between its promise and its real-world impact on chronic disease.
Life Story Medicine
For the first time, Dr. Suzie Carmack opens up about the intersections of her work and life — the complexities of being a health communication scholar, yoga therapist, and coach, while also being a person living daily with multiple chronic diseases. In this session, she debuts her new book Life Story Medicine: How I Moved Through Life's Greatest Plot Twists, sharing how we can support our clients and ourselves in breaking through the stigma surrounding illness identity and reclaiming authorship of who we truly are.
Relationship Medicine
When a person lives daily with chronic disease, that means that the people they love them are living daily with it too. In this session we will explore why relational communication matters so much for patient thriving, and how evidence-based communication practices can move lives forward together.
Community Medicine
Social connection is a pillar of lifestyle medicine — and yet yoga and coaching professionals often work in isolation in their communities. This session explores the science of networking and community building for yoga and coaching professionals, with an emphasis on the role culture and identity play in our experience of personal and professional belonging.
System Medicine
Healthcare is moving towards a value-based system -- but what does that mean for the yoga and coaching fields and the clients (patients) we serve? This session explores how systems-level partnerships can co-create value - and why yoga coaches hold a unique value proposition for advancing patient outcomes to move lives forward.
Let's move life stories forward — together.
One human. Four levels of life story medicine.
In every life story, identity, relationship, community network, and system aren't separate categories — they're four scales of the same person, all in motion at once. When chronic disease enters the picture, it shows up at every scale. So healing has to happen at every scale, too.
Let's Heal the Illness Identity.
Let's stop shaming people experiencing chronic disease and start empowering them to heal how they write, tell and embody their life story.
Show Up Well for Loved Ones.
Let's show up for those we love when they are experiencing a chronic condition with conversations that proote healing - and not harm.
We Belong To A Bigger Purpose
Let's explore why it is vital for professionals to belong to something bigger than ourselves - even while we own our expertise and authority.
Let's Co-Create Value-Based Care.
Let's work together to ease the healthcare system burden by partnering with payers, policymakers, patients and providers to move life stories forward.
Four Levels of Communication Medicine. To Move Life Stories Forward - Together.
Day 1: A full day of yoga coaching, from theory to practice.
Day 1 is our convening day. In the morning we explore four levels of communication medicines that support people living with chronic disease at the identity, relationship, community, and system levels. The afternoon provides an opportunity to activate and experience the YogaMedCo yoga coaching model through round-robin practice labs.
8:30 — 9:00
Check-in & welcome.
Doors open. Coffee, registration, workbook pickup, and a chance to settle in before the day begins.
9:00 — 12:30
Agenda Setting and Om-bodiment Centering for the four healing conversations.
Our day opens with an open live community practice session with Dr. Suzie Carmack, creator of the YogaMedCo Yoga Coaching Method. This session prepares us for a day designed to move lives forward — one conversation at a time.
- Opening · Practice with Dr. Suzie Carmack. Setting the field, the framework, and the embodied tone for the day.
Speaker: Suzie Carmack, PhD, MFA, MEd, ERYT 500, NBC-HWC, PCC, Author and Founder, YogaMedCo - Session 01 · Yoga for Chronic Disease. Learn more about what the research has to say about yoga and chronic disease - and where our efforts to examine this intersection can go next.
Speaker: Avinash Patwardhan, MD, DGO, MS, ERYT 500 - Session 02 · Life Story Medicine. Real talk about the role identity pleays in navigating life's toughest plot twists, and what we can do individually and collectively to empower people living with chronic disease to become the author of their life story.
Speaker: Suzie Carmack, PhD, MFA, MEd, ERYT 500, NBC-HWC, PCC, Author, and Founder, YogaMedCo - Session 03 · Relationship Medicine. Yoga coaching tools for partners, parents, and loved ones — empowering the people closest to the client to become partners in life story healing.
Speaker: Announcement Coming Soon! - Session 04 · Networking Medicine. Becoming a community catalyst through networking — building rooms where yoga and coaching professionals feel seen, heard, and thrive in their business and their life.
Speaker: DeJuan Stroman-Price, DBA, Researcher and Founder, the Networking Doctor - Session 05 · System Medicine. Working as partners in healthcare to co-create value for people experiencing chronic disease - to move life stories forward, together.
Panel Facilitated by Dr. Carmack with Panelists: April Thurfield, Global Practice Leader, Nonprofits and Social Innovation, Mercer; Phyllis Strand, Author and Coach, StrongByStrand; and One Surprise Guest (To Be Announced).
12:30 — 2:00
Lunch is served at the venue.
Provided on-site, and included in your registration. Take a real break in your day, with plenty of time to eat, talk, and meet fellow attendees. Awardees from our YogaMedCo community will be recognized by the collective!
2:00 — 4:30
Moving Lives Forward — Together.
The Yoga Coaching Labs. A real-time review and practice of the YogaMedCo yoga coaching model, followed by a community discussion that closes our learning day.
Facilitators: Dr. Suzie Carmack and the YogaMedCo Team
- 2:00 — 3:30 · COACH Model Review & Yoga Coaching Labs. A walkthrough of the YogaMedCo COACH model, followed by round-robin practice in pairs — give and receive peer feedback on your yoga coaching, in real time, with the model in front of you.
- 3:45 — 4:00 · The Genius Break. A live and embodied experience of the YogaMedCo movement framework led by its creator and author, Dr. Suzie Carmack.
- 4:00 — 4:30 · Q&A & Closing Thoughts. Open conversation with Dr. Carmack — your questions, the field's questions, and where we're going next.
4:30 — 5:00
A book signing with Summit Speakers.
A chance to meet our presenters and get their books personally signed before the celebration begins.
5:00 — 6:00
The Yoga Coach Toast — a celebration.
An hour to celebrate the yoga coaches in the room who have completed the self-paced YogaMedCo Yoga for One Coach Training. Photo ops with Dr. Carmack (poses welcome), a glass to raise, and time to network with yoga coaches from around the globe. Open to all Day 1 attendees who have completed the self-paced Yoga Coach training prior to the event.
Day 2: For practitioners ready to move the field forward.
Day 1 convenes yoga and coaching professionals together to explore the impact of yoga coaching in one-on-one settings. On Day 2, we debut and launch the YogaMedCo Group Yoga Coaching certification — empowering yoga coaches to transform their communities through the power of evidence-informed group yoga coaching.
9:00 — 12:30
The Group Yoga Coaching Model: Setting the Standard.
The morning is an in-depth review of the YogaMedCo Group Yoga Coaching Model and Curriculum, mapped against the National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching's Group Health Coaching Competencies. By lunch, you'll know the model, the curriculum, and exactly how the work meets the field's evolving standard for group practice.
- Review of the YogaMedCo Group Yoga Coaching Model. The framework, the assumptions, and the design principles that make group yoga coaching work for people living with chronic disease.
- Walkthrough of the Curriculum. Every module of the YogaMedCo Group Yoga Coaching certification, opened in the room, with your questions answered in real time.
- NBHWC Group Health Coaching Competencies. What the field's standard for group health coaching actually requires — and how the YogaMedCo curriculum prepares you to meet it.
12:30 — 2:00
Lunch is served at the venue.
Provided on-site, and included in your registration. An intentional break in the day — a chance to talk through the morning's content with the practitioners who will be your founding cohort.
2:00 — 4:30
Designing your community launch.
The afternoon turns evaluation-based program design into your own real-world plan. Step by step, you'll walk through the decisions involved in launching your first group yoga coaching program — from choosing the right population, to setting outcome measures, to building the promotional plan that fills it. You leave with the tools to actually launch.
- Evaluation-Based Program Design. The fundamentals of designing a group yoga coaching program with measurable outcomes — built in from the start, not bolted on at the end.
- Choosing & Customizing Your Program. Walk through the YogaMedCo program library, identify the program that fits your community, and customize it to your population, schedule, and goals.
- Promoting & Filling Your First Program. The promotional toolkit, the launch playbook, and the marketing decisions that turn a designed program into a filled cohort. You leave with a plan and the assets to execute it.
- Cohort Q&A & Closing. Open conversation with Dr. Carmack and the founding cohort — your launch questions, the cohort's questions, and what we build from here.
10 group yoga coaching programs, ready to deliver.
Day 2 is the doorway to Group Yoga Coach certification — which includes access to ten evidence-informed group yoga coaching programs, each with promotional tools, session materials for participants, and a referral pathway through the YogaMedCo app. Program requirements include attendance of both days of the Summit, plus completion of a group yoga coaching program in your area with mentoring support from Dr. Suzie Carmack and the YogaMedCo team.
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i.
Become a Community Healing Pioneer. The time has come for facilitated group yoga coaching experiences — where people experiencing chronic disease practice yoga together safely, get coached through the journey of living well, and stop going it alone. Be one of the first practitioners trained to deliver this work where you live.
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ii.
Receive a Full Year of Mentorship. Full certification requires completion of one program in your area within a year of the summit, with mentoring support from Dr. Suzie and the YogaMedCo team — and the option to partner with YogaMedCo to publish your findings.
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iii.
Stop Trying to Move Lives Forward Alone. The Group Yoga Coach Training is a year-long cohort experience inside the growing YogaMedCo community. The practitioners sitting beside you on Day 2 become the people you'll train, present, refer, and grow with — for the long haul.
What you need to step into Day 2.
- Active status as a board-certified health coach with NBHWC (NBC-HWC) and/or RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance).
- Completion of the Yoga for One Coach Training — available as an add-on registration for those new to YogaMedCo.
- Summit Day 1 registration and attendance.
- Completion of a pre-event interview with Dr. Carmack — scheduled upon registration to review requirements and expectations.
Hi, I'm Dr. Suzie Carmack.
PhD · MFA · MEd · ERYT 500 · NBC-HWC · C-IAYT · PCC
Many people know me as the founder of YogaMedCo, the author of four books on coaching and yoga, and a peer-reviewed scholar and speaker in health communication. What fewer people know is this: I am a 14-year cancer survivor, and I live every day with Hashimoto's Disease — an autoimmune condition that shapes my mental, physical, and emotional well-being on a daily basis. For a long time, I carried real shame around these diagnoses. As someone trained to help others live well with chronic conditions, I felt I wasn't supposed to have them myself. I often felt like a hypocrite — offering my work to clients while quietly navigating the daily management of my own. But the deeper I went into the research, the more clearly I saw a different truth: over 93% of older adults experience chronic disease — myself included. The problem was never my diagnosis. The real problem is the shame and blame that surround chronic disease itself. In the clients I have been honored to serve, in the research I have conducted, and in my own lived experience, I have come to understand something I now believe deeply: the plot twist of a diagnosis asks for more than healthcare treatments and lifestyle adjustments. Every chronic illness is a sacred plot twist in the patient's life story — and that means the patient holds the power to become the true author of what comes next. That's why I feel called to invite my colleagues in the yoga and coaching fields, along with our healthcare partners, into one shared mission: to move life stories forward. Together, I believe we can transform healing conversations at every level — individual, relationship, community, and system — and with them, the experience of every person living with chronic illness. The plot twist of illness is an invitation to transform our lifestyle and our life story. And we don't have to do it alone. That's why I would be honored to have you join us for this summit! Together we can heal the shame and blame surrounding chronic disease through the power of yoga coaching - and move life stories forward, together.
From the practitioners doing this work.
A few words from YogaMedCo Yoga Coach Graduates — practitioners who have learned the model, taken it into their own work with clients, and shaped what yoga coaching looks like in practice.
"Yoga and coaching are a natural duet for helping people to facilitate integrative well-being. Safety is a priority for coaching or facilitating whole-person wellness."
"Yoga Coaching is about guiding transformation, not just teaching poses. The COACH model provides a structured approach to help clients achieve sustainable wellness."
"Many people come to yoga with medical concerns, and utilizing the Traffic Light Method helps people have a safe and personalized yoga experience — equivalent to meeting people where they are in coaching."
"I had not thought of using coaching principles in yoga practice. The COACH acronym is a wonderful, succinct method that I can reflect on — how I am doing, how I am showing up for my clients."
Three ticket options for one Om-Mazing experience.
Choose the entry point that meets you where you are. Tier I is your seat at the Day 1 Summit. Tier II includes the self-paced YogaMedCo Yoga for One Coach Training — required for completion prior to Day 2. Tier III is the full path: Summit Day 1, Yoga for One Coach Training, and Day 2's launch of the Group Yoga Coaching certification — the founding cohort offer.
Live In-Person Summit Day 1
- Full Day 1 convening with Dr. Suzie Carmack
- Featured speakers leading each healing conversation session
- Opening plenary & community yoga coaching practice
- Morning training in the four healing conversations
- Lunch on-site, included
- Afternoon Yoga Coaching Labs & round-robin peer practice
- The Genius Break — Traffic Light Method, demonstrated live
- Q&A & Closing Thoughts with Dr. Carmack
- Yoga Coach Toast & book signing for YogaMedCo alumni
- Listing as a Yoga for One Coach in the YogaMedCo App
- Continuing Education: approved by Yoga Alliance; other organizations coming soon
Summit Day 1 + Self-Paced Yoga Coach Training (Prep)
- Everything in the Tier I Day 1 ticket
- Featured speakers leading each Day 1 session
- Yoga for One Coaching certification — self-paced, online
- The full Traffic Light Method & COACH model curriculum
- Access to the YogaMedCo training community
- Listing as a Yoga for One Coach in the YogaMedCo App
- Continuing Education: 14 additional hours of CE credits for the self-paced Yoga Coach Training, from:
- American Council on Exercise (ACE)
- National Board for Health & Wellness Coaching (NBHWC)
- International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT)
- Yoga Alliance
Both Live In-Person Days + Self-Paced Yoga Coach Training + Group Yoga Coach Certification
- Everything in Tier I and Tier II
- Day 2: live launch of the Group Yoga Coaching certification
- Founding-cohort pricing — only offered for this official launch of the Group Yoga Coach Training
- A full year of monthly online meetups and group case mentorship with Dr. Suzie Carmack
- Featured designation as a Group Yoga Coach in the YogaMedCo App's Yoga Coach Directory
- 10 group yoga coaching programs to deliver in your community (with promotional materials, curricula, and handouts)
- Continuing Education: all CE credits from Tier II, plus additional CE for Day 2 — details to be announced June 1, 2026
Tickets are refundable through August 15 only · Seating is limited · Day 1: 150 seats · Day 2: 40 seats · First-come, first-served
Questions practitioners actually ask.
Should I attend Day 1 or both days?
I'm a yoga teacher with no formal coaching background. Will Day 1 be relevant?
I'm a credentialed coach (NBC-HWC, ICF) and not a yogi. Will I be out of my depth?
Is Yoga Coaching trying to replace yoga therapy or somatic work?
What is the YogaMedCo yoga coaching model?
Is yoga coaching evidence-based or evidence-informed?
Can I attend virtually or get a recording?
Will continuing education credits be available?
I live with a chronic condition myself. Will the summit be accessible?
The Time to Move Lives Forward is NOW.
For too long, chronic disease has been carried as a burden — by the people living with it, the families holding it, and the systems counting its costs. Yoga coaching is how we begin to put that story down, and write a different one.
— Register Now so We Can See You in September!