Life Coaching
How My Journey Began
Marcia Amaral
My journey into life coaching was not something I planned. It was shaped by life itself.
I have always been drawn to people — their stories, their pain, their resilience, and their ability to keep going even when life feels impossible.
In 2002, I left school determined to become a psychologist. I believed my path was clear, but life had lessons for me that no textbook could ever teach.
After studying, I began working as an ABA therapist. At the time, I felt like I was living my “perfectly planned life.” I was building my career and pregnant with my first son. Everything seemed to be moving exactly as it should.
Then, three weeks before my due date, I lost my son to stillbirth.
To say that this changed my life would be an understatement. Everything I believed, valued, and thought I understood was shaken. I was left searching for meaning, direction, and a way to survive a pain I could not explain.
During that season, an opportunity came my way to work at an in-patient addiction rehabilitation centre. At the time, I still felt broken myself, but slowly I began to understand that even the most painful chapters of our lives can shape our purpose.
I found myself working with people who felt ashamed, stuck, lost, and unable to see a way forward. Watching them rebuild their lives, make brave choices, and begin to believe in themselves again changed me too. It reminded me that healing is possible, even when it feels far away.
I wish I could say life became easier after that, but life often brings more than one difficult season.
Over the years, I experienced more deep personal loss, including miscarriages, the heartbreak of caring for my mother through her final months after she was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, my own mental health struggles, my daughter becoming severely ill, and eventually having to make the difficult decision to go into surgical menopause at the age of 35 because of a debilitating hormonal condition.
Although I had done a lot of inner work and overcome many obstacles, I still felt that something was missing. I had gained insight. I had found tools. I understood many parts of my story. But I still struggled to fully move forward.
That was when I realised something important:
Sometimes people have done the hard work of understanding their past, but they still do not know how to take the next step.
That is where my passion for coaching began.
For years, I had helped people understand the root of their struggles and how their past had affected them. That work was valuable, but I often felt that the journey was only half complete. Understanding the pain matters — but learning how to move forward matters too.
So I began studying coaching, researching, learning, and developing a more practical way to support people who were ready for change but did not know where to begin. I started helping clients move from insight into action, and the results were powerful.
For the first time in a long time, I felt re-energised, inspired, and excited by the work I was doing.
Then, in 2024, my family and I made another life-changing decision. We chose to leave the only life we knew in South Africa — our family, friends, routines, and familiar surroundings — and move to Portugal.
Starting over in a new country is not just a practical change. It is an emotional one.
As someone who understands what it means to be connected to more than one culture, I know how difficult immigration, identity, change, and starting again can be. I know what it feels like to grieve one life while trying to build another. I know what it feels like to be strong for everyone else while quietly struggling inside.
And I know that children and families feel these changes deeply too.
This is why my work is so close to my heart.
Today, I support children, adults, couples, parents, and families through life transitions, emotional challenges, relationship struggles, divorce, immigration adjustment, parenting difficulties, addiction recovery support, and personal growth.
My approach is warm, honest, practical, and deeply human.
I do not believe people need to be “fixed.” I believe they need to be heard, understood, supported, and guided back to their own strength.
I have lived through loss, grief, motherhood, uncertainty, immigration, and starting over. That is why I do this work.
Sometimes you do not need someone who has lived a perfect life. Sometimes you need someone who understands what it means to navigate an imperfect one.
My role is to walk beside you, help you find clarity, and gently guide you toward the next step. I believe that no matter how difficult the obstacle may feel, there is always a way through.
And what waits on the other side is worth the courage it takes to begin.