Former Bahrain resident Maria Steene is transforming lives as an internationally-certified breakup and divorce coach, empowered by her personal journey of love and loss.

The English expatriate, who lived and worked in the kingdom for 15 years, went through a devastating divorce and, three years ago, decided to return to the UK.

While there, she came across Heartbreak to Happiness – a podcast by Sara Davidson, who is a world-renowned expert on breakups, divorce, and domestic abuse. Known globally as ‘The Divorce Coach’, Sara founded The International Divorce Coach Centre of Excellence in 2018. She is a four-time bestselling author of books like Uncoupling and The Split.

Initially, Maria signed up to become a coach while navigating her own healing journey. As she delved deeper into the material, she found that the subject matter resonated with her ongoing interest in researching the psychology behind specific life-partner behaviours. 

Divorce and breakup coaching is specialised, forward-focused support for individuals dealing with the emotional, practical, and legal complexities of a relationship ending. While the concept has been around since the 1990s, it has rapidly risen in popularity during the 2020s. 

“I returned to the UK with more than suitcases and memories,” the Briton from Hastings, East Sussex, told GulfWeekly.

“I carried lived experience of one of my life’s most destabilising transitions: navigating relationship breakdown as an expat thousands of miles from home,” she added.

“When I trained with Sara, I realised that my lived experience, combined with structured coaching tools and strategies, meant I could support others in a deeply authentic way.”

After 25 years in the education sector, Maria decided to pursue a career as a divorce and breakup coach full time and has been practicing for the last five years.

What sets her apart is that she draws from both lived experience and practical expertise for her consultations, which can be booked in-person or online. Unlike traditional couples counselling, Maria works individually and privately with clients, focusing on emotional resilience, clarity, empowerment and forward planning.

While she helps with navigating separation and divorce, infidelity in relationships and toxic or abusive relationships, she also consults those who want to explore the possibility of saving their relationship. Additionally, she is a trained toxic relationship and domestic abuse recovery specialist, and facilitates exclusive small-group retreats.

If needed, she refers clients to legal or financial professionals as well.

Marking the culmination of her career as a coach, Maria published her chapter entitled ‘From Expat Heartbreak to Global Impact’, as part of an anthology last month.

Emotional Alchemy features the transformational journeys of 17 authors, who are all break up and divorce coaches trained by Sara.

The 175-page book is now a number-one Amazon international bestseller and offers practical guidance, with each story revealing how personal transformation can spark strength, clarity and hope.

Maria’s story touches upon her experience being far away from family during a separation. She believes this can be doubly challenging. Expats going through a breakup or divorce risk stability in terms of their job, residency status and financial stability, among other things. According to her, many expat couples remain in broken relationships ‘for the sake of the children’ – and for the lifestyle.

The digital e-book format is now available on Amazon, with the digital flip book, hardback and paperback editions set to be launched soon.

“Now that I’ve established myself fully in the UK, I am in a strong position to extend my busy UK online coaching services to welcome in clients from Bahrain and across the wider Middle East,” she said, talking of near future goals.

Visit mariasteene.com for more details.