COMPLEMENTARY THERAPY

If your goal is to lose weight or to improve your physique and energy levels, a personal fitness session with Gordon Sillence, AlmaVerde's Director of Wellness, will help you work on your posture, breathing, range of movement, stamina and strength, using either a gentle, internal approach or more dynamic powerful techniques drawn from martial arts, tai chi and yoga. Gordon also offers private yoga sessions based on Iyengar yoga, meditation and breathing techniques, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming for breaking your bad habits and negative patterns, and making positive lifestyle changes.

To help release physical and mental tension, you can opt for a Thai yoga or shiatsu massage with Diana Jost or Manuel Lourenco, two dynamic therapists on the team who will ensure that you benefit from the massage that suits you. Diana can also give you dietary recommendations to improve your health and vitality, based on the principles of ayurvedic nutrition, whilst Manuel is also an expert practitioner of Hot Stone Therapy.

If you suffer from stiff or painful muscles/joints, chronic back pain or are even recovering from an injury, Wellness at AlmaVerde specialists include physiotherapist Matthias Franz and chiropractor Christopher Ford.

Or you may wish to explore Bowen Technique with Lindsey Hanson, a holistic approach in which the therapist makes a series of precisely located, rolling-type moves over muscles, interspersed with short breaks to allow the body to respond and adjust, helping to re-balance, relieve tension and reduce pain.

If you are experiencing feelings that may be causing distress or hindering progress in life, then counsellor Gill Blades can help you to explore the issues involved, in a safe environment and in complete confidentiality.

With his extensive experience in the NHS and in private practice, podiatrist Owain Harris deals effectively with any and all problems of the feet.

Marion Muntefer offers Cranio-Sacral therapy, a light but deep-level manipulation of the body that is a restful counter-balance to the stresses of modern living.

To round off your day, why not try a session on the Alphalounger, the only one in Portugal, during which three-dimensional light and sound vibrations gently lull you into a deeply relaxed, meditative alpha state. The Alphalounger can be used either as a way of enhancing the beneficial effects of the other therapies, or simply for deep relaxation.

After your session, you can enjoy a freshly-squeezed fruit or vegetable juice and sit by the private pool. You can even schedule your day to include a game of tennis or an individual coaching session on one of the four new AlmaVerde courts, built to the highest standard, with a synthetic grass surface that minimises stress on joints and ligaments.