Building a Life Beyond Your Past: Amanda Marino on Resilience and Reinvention

It is possible to build a life that looks nothing like the one you once expected for yourself. Amanda Marino’s story makes that possibility feel real. Her journey includes childhood abuse, years of destructive behaviour, financial hardship, motherhood, and eventually a business built around helping others. None of it happened through one decision or one sudden moment of confidence. It involved support, difficult choices, and a willingness to keep learning.

In her conversation with Aaron Spivak on the Founder2Founder podcast, Marino talks openly about that process. She shares how her experiences shaped her work at Next Level Wellness and Behavioral Health, alongside her approach to relationships and parenting. What emerges is a personal account of resilience that leaves room for fear and uncertainty. Her life has changed considerably, but she continues doing the work of understanding herself.

When Your Past Shapes What You Believe About Yourself

Marino grew up in Fort Lauderdale, where she experienced sexual abuse and witnessed domestic violence against her mother. Leaving that environment did not immediately bring stability. She recalls being on the run with her family and witnessing her sister’s kidnapping before her sister was eventually returned. These experiences made safety and trust difficult to understand. She began therapy as a child and remembers a therapist who used play to help her talk.

One of the most painful parts of her account is how she interpreted what happened. She came to believe she was damaged and destined for a troubled life. Those beliefs affected how she saw herself long after particular events had ended. When other people treated her badly, their behaviour seemed to confirm what she already feared. Looking back, she can recognise the difference between what she endured and who she was.

Spivak connects her experience to the stories people carry about themselves. Not everyone has the same history, but many recognise the feeling of being inadequate or fundamentally flawed. Marino emphasises that pain does not need to look dramatic from the outside to matter. Different circumstances can leave people with similar feelings of loneliness or rejection. Her story invites that recognition without pretending everyone’s experiences are identical.

The Search for Relief Took Her Further From Herself

Marino describes looking for ways to escape how she felt from a young age. Shoplifting became one of those outlets, even when she did not need what she was taking. Getting away with it brought excitement, while being caught brought attention. She also sought out children who were getting into trouble. Being placed in gifted classes did not change the negative picture she held of herself.

Later, those patterns affected her work in entertainment. Marino had spent years modelling, dancing, and appearing in videos and commercials. Yet she remembers reaching a point where she could no longer perform familiar routines properly at auditions. In her mind, she was still connected to the career she had built. In practice, her life had become increasingly dark and lonely.

She does not describe that period to make it sound glamorous. Instead, she explains how far someone can drift while still holding onto an outdated picture of their situation. Looking successful in one area did not mean she was doing well personally. Her account makes room for the confusion that can exist between those realities. It also gives context to the patience she now tries to bring to other people’s struggles.

Helping People Begins With Hearing Them

Today, Marino describes her central aim as helping at least one person each day. Through Next Level Wellness and Behavioral Health, she works with a team supporting individuals, families, and organisations through complex situations. She clearly states that she is not a clinician. Her work involves collaborating with experienced clinicians rather than presenting her personal history as a substitute for clinical expertise. That distinction matters throughout the conversation.

For Marino, the first consultation deserves undivided attention. Someone may be making their first call for help or describing a situation they have kept private for years. Families may arrive frightened, exhausted, or unsure what to do next. Before discussing a plan, she wants to hear what they are experiencing. Listening is part of how she begins building a relationship with them.

She also explains that the person visibly struggling is rarely the only person affected. Partners, parents, children, and colleagues may all need support of their own. Her team considers those relationships when learning about a situation. That broader view helps explain why she talks about working with families rather than focusing exclusively on one individual. The conversation starts with the person, but it does not ignore the people around them.

Speaking publicly became another way for her to reach people. Marino says she realised that conversations familiar within her professional circle were unfamiliar to many outside it. She began sharing openly online, hoping someone might recognise their own experience. Her purpose was to make a difficult first conversation feel more possible.

Change Does Not Always Start With Complete Readiness

Marino’s approach leaves room for people who are uncertain about change. She describes working with individuals who want to examine their relationship with alcohol but have not decided what their next steps should be. Others may be willing to make one adjustment while feeling resistant to another. She sees that willingness as an opening for conversation. Her team’s response, she says, is to explore it rather than dismiss it.

That perspective also shapes how she thinks about progress. Some clients work with her team for months or years, and their experiences do not follow a dramatic transformation story. Marino says her company recognises smaller gains along the way. She resists the idea that everyone must arrive ready to do everything at once. In her account, the relationship creates space to keep discussing what comes next.

Her questions are personal and direct: what has helped before, what has felt uncomfortable, and what does the person want? These questions reflect her emphasis on involving someone in their own plan. She describes those plans as adjustable when circumstances or needs change. This is an account of her team’s approach, not a single formula for every situation. The recurring principle is that the person’s voice belongs in the conversation.

Compassion Comes With Preparation

When Marino discusses interventions, she often uses the phrase family meeting. She prefers, where appropriate, to let someone know a meeting is happening instead of surprising them. She wants to understand their background and the family’s concerns before entering the room. The meeting itself may look informal, but she describes considerable preparation behind it. Individual conversations and work with the team’s psychologist are part of that process.

She also explains why she prefers working alongside another professional. One person may connect with the individual while the other supports relatives or helps them understand what is happening. Someone might need to leave the room or take a moment away from the group. Having a partner allows attention to remain with both sides. Marino connects that preference to lessons learned through training and experience.

Her descriptions make clear that caring deeply does not make these situations predictable. People can react differently from what a family expects, and plans may need to change. She spent two years participating alongside others before conducting a meeting alone. That preparation sits alongside her warmth and willingness to listen. The work she describes requires both human connection and an experienced team.

Supporting Others Includes Caring for Yourself

Spivak asks how Marino continues doing demanding work while attending to her own experiences. Her answer includes a regular weekly therapy appointment, meditation, prayer, and time with people she feels connected to. She also mentions retreats, time alone, and days when she deliberately shuts down from work. These are practices she uses in her own life. She does not present herself as someone who has finished growing.

Some of the things she values are ordinary and personal. She enjoys the water, spending time in nature, and giving her children her full attention. She has also tried diamond art because it asks her to slow down and concentrate on something detailed. Her list shows curiosity about what helps her feel present. There is room for trying something new alongside maintaining familiar routines.

Gratitude is another recurring part of her account. She remembers being a single mother relying on food assistance, and those memories shape how she experiences her life today. Taking her children abroad carried meaning beyond the travel itself. She could share experiences that once felt far outside her reach. Her appreciation comes from remembering the distance between those chapters.

Reinvention Happens With Other People

Asked who helped her along the way, Marino names several people rather than one rescuer. Her godmother Claire provided love and a sense of stability that remained important after Claire’s death. Marino also credits her mother with continuing to believe in her during difficult periods. That belief mattered when Marino struggled to see a positive future herself. Support took different forms at different times.

She describes always having a mentor while also mentoring others. Learning and giving back are connected parts of her life. At the time of the conversation, a spiritual mentor was helping her explore questions she had previously found difficult. Marino appreciated that the relationship did not involve pressure to adopt someone else’s beliefs. Hearing another person’s experience gave her room to become curious.

Spivak relates this to the value of community and shared values. Marino agrees that she prefers working with partners and teams. She reaches out when travelling and actively makes opportunities to connect. The relationships she values are not simply available by chance. Her story includes the effort of participating, asking, and showing up for other people.

Growth Can Change Your Relationships

Marino also acknowledges that progress can complicate existing friendships. She describes feeling that some people were more comfortable with her when she was struggling. As her circumstances changed, those relationships sometimes felt different. Recognising that was painful because she had wanted people she loved to remain close. Over time, she became more willing to notice when the effort was uneven.

Spivak cautions against ending a relationship because someone responds imperfectly to good news. A person’s reaction may be connected to their own disappointment or difficult season. Marino says she tries to address problems and have conversations before stepping back. She can care about someone while changing how much energy she puts into the relationship. Compassion and limits can exist together in her account.

Both speakers also recognise that people move through different stages of life. One person may be focused on building a business while another wants more rest or family time. Those differences do not automatically mean someone has stopped caring. Understanding the circumstances can make room for a relationship to change shape. Marino’s emphasis is on finding connections where mutual support can continue.

Belief Becomes Meaningful Through Action

Marino uses manifestation to describe how she approaches some of her ambitions. Her examples, however, involve much more than imagining an outcome. She talks about preparing, reaching out, auditioning, and taking steps while frightened. Appearing on television through her professional work followed years of interest and relationship building. Delivering her talk also required patience while others around her reached similar milestones first.

For Marino, returning to television through this work held particular meaning. Earlier appearances had been connected to modelling and entertainment. This time, she felt recognised for her ability to connect with people and contribute professionally. The setting was familiar, but the role represented a different chapter in her life.

Parenting offers another example of the space she tries to create for growth. Rather than expect her son to know his future immediately, she introduced him to people in different careers. She wanted him to explore before choosing a direction. With her children, she also describes allowing anger and difficult feelings while maintaining expectations about respectful behaviour. Listening remains central at home as well as at work.

When asked what she would tell her younger self, Marino returns to love, safety, and the possibility of a better future. It is a tender ending to a conversation about rebuilding. Her story does not suggest that pain disappears when life improves. It shows someone continuing to seek support, make decisions, and create connections. The future she once struggled to imagine has become a life she can actively participate in shaping.

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