Rebuilding after illness: a year on, Constance Hamel looks back on the La Vie Kintsugi × Map & Match partnership

An alliance for the road back after illness

In 2024, Map & Match started a solidarity partnership with La Vie Kintsugi, an association that supports people affected by cancer, both during treatment and as they rebuild their lives afterwards.

Founded by Constance Hamel, the association works from eight pillars of support to help patients, carers and care staff find energy and meaning again in a period of transition that is rarely simple.

The aim of the partnership is to equip the association's health coaches with the Map & Match approach, making visible what their beneficiaries are drawn to and their Energy Skills™ — so that each person can know themselves better and find momentum again.

"The approach did not change everything, but it lights up the path, especially for people who feel a little lost after their illness. It helps them put words to things again, and set a course." — Constance Hamel, founder of La Vie Kintsugi

The first results

Twelve months in, the partnership can point to an encouraging first assessment:

• 8 health coaches certified in the Map & Match approach;
• 31 profiles completed, including 23 people supported;
• gradual integration within a growing association, but complete alignment with the Map & Match vision.

The feedback from the people supported has been very positive: a better understanding of themselves and greater calm about what comes next.

"This collaboration started gently, but with real alignment on the vision. We are a growing association, so Map & Match is being woven in gradually among our other projects. The feedback from the people who completed their profile speaks for itself."

Integration has moved at a measured pace, in an association that is itself changing. Behind those numbers, though, a real dynamic is taking shape: with each engagement, the approach finds its place, carried both by the coaches' commitment and by the response it gets from the people they support.

Three things the Map & Match approach brings to recovery

1. Revealing what genuinely drives someone

People in remission often describe a gap between apparent good health and how they feel inside. In that transition, the Map & Match approach brings their intrinsic drivers to the surface and gives them a direction as they rebuild their personal and professional lives.

"The people we support were delighted, and it confirmed things for them about who they are, how they work and how they want to work in the future, after the illness."

2. Showing where energy comes from, and where it drains away

After treatment, energy becomes the central question. Some activities give energy, others take it, and Map & Match makes that dynamic visible — a concrete reference point during recovery.

That clarity helps people steer their choices towards what genuinely restores them, and supports a lasting return to physical and psychological balance. It is also a way of taking charge again, because it lets people set priorities by their energy rather than by what is merely feasible.

"Map & Match sheds light on what people in remission are deeply drawn to. It shows them either that what they have been doing for 20 years does not quite match what they want, or, on the contrary, that their current work gives them energy and makes sense to them."

3. Supporting the coach's own stance

The approach does not only affect the people being supported, it changes how the people supporting them work too.

Completing her own profile let Constance redefine her role and get clear on what gives her momentum day to day:

"I understood that coaching was not what gave me the most energy. I am more stimulated as a mentor and an expert. I feel more at ease speaking at a conference or running a group than in some one-to-one coaching."

That realisation helps every practitioner understand their own way of working, and makes their support more natural and more effective.

A partnership that echoes our B Corp mission

This partnership with La Vie Kintsugi is a full expression of the Map & Match mission: putting people at the heart of what we do.

As a certified B Corp, Map & Match lives its commitments by supporting work that gives vitality and meaning back to those who are rebuilding.

The collaboration reflects a shared conviction: people flourish when they can act in their natural energy and be recognised for what makes them singular.

A partnership that keeps growing

After a positive first year, the association wants to continue and deepen the work.

"We want to go further and structure a post-cancer pathway equipped with Map & Match. The idea is to build the profile systematically into the support we give, so that people can see their own path more clearly after cancer."

That ambition follows naturally from a partnership built on care, and on a shared wish to help everyone find energy and clarity again after illness.

Find out more

To learn more about La Vie Kintsugi and their work with people after illness, and about Map & Match:

• The La Vie Kintsugi website
• The Map & Match website

Associations, care organisations and foundations interested in this approach are welcome to get in touch to discuss working together.