After completing her secondary education at the Liceu Nacional in Funchal, she attended the University of Lisbon, receiving her medical degree in 1973.

She then worked as an assistant professor in the psychology department of the university's Faculty of Medicine and took post-graduate courses in mathematics and computer science at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência.

[3][4] In 2002 she was appointed Coordinator of Mental Health Services at the Hospital de Santa Maria in Lisbon and subsequently became the head of its Psychiatric Department.

The following year she co-founded the journal Bridging Eastern and Western Psychiatry with the Italian psychiatrist Mario Di Fiorino.

[5] Figueira received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Forum of Psychosis and Bipolarity in 2010 and is the President (as of 2013) of the Sociedade Portuguesa de Psiquiatria e Saúde Mental (Portuguese Society of Psychiatry and Mental Health).