“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive” Howard Thurman
My journey to becoming a Relationship Coach and a Culture Advisor didn’t start with the goal of adding a fancy new title to my name.
It began a long time ago, in Portugal, in the most organic way possible.
Since a very young age, I was always the go-to friend for dating questions, but the real “practice” started while I was serving drinks and meals in a small coffee shop in Lisbon when I was studying to become a psychologist.
Some customers would go there to ask me for relationship advice because they thought a psychologist-to-be seemed like the perfect lifesaver.
Others would come because my friends had spread the word that I had a knack for untangling love and dilemmas. Men or women, young people, mothers, even married couples — they’d stop by for tips that could rescue their love lives… all while enjoying a slice of their favorite cake, of course.
And from there, things just grew…
In 2019 I moved to Germany and began supporting CEOs in different IT start-ups.
And it was finally at Cognigy (a Conversational AI start-up) that I settled as a culture advisor, when the VP of Engineering asked me to help him build and scale an Engineering department using my psychology and coaching expertise.
Together with other managers and recruiters, we grew the department to over 80 people, maintaining a 99% yearly retention rate made up of high-performing professionals and genuinely lovely human beings.
In 2025, we led the company to an exit that became known as the largest AI acquisition in Europe to date.
And that’s the story that led me here today.
Degree in Psychology by the University of Lisbon
Master in Clinical Psychology (CBT) by the University of Lisbon
Dating Coach Certification by Hart Coaching Academy
PSM I (Professional Scrum Master I) by Scrum.org