Before you think about booking an appointment, let us talk first.
I am not going to give you a time and a price in the first message, because my aim is to understand what is going on with you. If I conclude that I am not the right person for your case, I will tell you straight away and point you in the right direction.
If it makes sense, I explain the terms of the appointment — and, if you agree, we book. It takes five to ten minutes, and this page explains everything that happens next.
The first conversation is free and is not an appointment. Fees are only discussed when there is an appointment to book.What happens, in order.
Seven steps, from the first message to the follow-up between appointments. None of them holds any surprises — this is what happens, and that is why it is written down.
We talk before anything else
Start by writing to me on WhatsApp. From there we carry on by message, or we arrange a call — by voice it is usually easier and quicker, and we agree a time that suits us both.
The person talking to you is me, not an assistant and not a form. I will want to know what hurts, where, for how long, what makes it worse, what eases it, and what you have tried so far.
I also look for signs that cannot wait for an appointment — loss of strength, changes in passing urine or opening your bowels, numbness in the area covered by underwear, fever, or pain that does not ease in any position. If I find any, I tell you straight away, I tell you where to go, and we book nothing.
This first conversation is free, and stays free afterwards: it is not an appointment, it does not replace an assessment, and it leaves nothing outstanding to pay. There is a fee from the moment we book an appointment, and that fee is given to you in full before you book anything.
Talking to me first is free. Fees are only discussed when there is an appointment to book — and you know the full amount before you decide.
I tell you whether I am the right person
Frankly, and straight away. If I see that your case is one for my hands, I tell you and explain how the first appointment works and on what terms. If I do not think so, I tell you just the same and point you to the route that makes most sense — even if that means you leave with no appointment booked with me.
I will never tell you I can help before understanding enough to believe it.
Only then do we book
After we have talked, after I have seen that I can probably help, and after you have agreed to the terms, we book the first appointment — in person at Parque das Nações, or online.
The first appointment: a lot of asking, a lot of testing, everything explained
It starts with questions. Many of them. The story of how this appeared, what you do with your days, how you sleep, what you have tried, what frightens you. A great deal of the clinical reasoning about the spine happens here, before laying a hand on you.
Then we test. Specific positions and movements of the spine, in various directions and repeated, paying attention to what happens to your symptoms in each one — whether it moves, whether it increases, whether it disappears. I tell you out loud what I am doing and why, so that you follow the reasoning in real time.
And at the end of each test, I tell you what it told me. The appointment is not a closed box with a verdict at the end.
Before each test I also tell you what I expect to happen — what would be a good sign and what would be a less good one. It is so that you can interpret your own response, instead of waiting for me to tell you whether it went well.
You leave with an explanation and with work to do at home
At the end I explain what may, on the face of it, be behind what you feel, and what it is reasonable to expect in the coming weeks — including what may happen over the next few days and how to respond if it does.
I also tell you what you can change in your day-to-day life starting today, and I prescribe movement for you to do at home. Usually one specific exercise — not an endless list of them — with the detail that matters: how many times, through what range, and what you should feel. And if it needs adjusting between appointments, we adjust it: that we do on WhatsApp.
That homework is what secures the improvement between appointments. And if there is a next appointment, it is what gets you there as well as you left the last one — or, if possible, better still.
But the underlying aim of all this is another, and it is here that I plant my foot most firmly: that you become able to read what your body tells you when I am not beside you. That you can tell, at home and without me there, whether what you felt in a movement is a sign that you are on a good path, or that it is better not to push in that direction. That ability is worth more than any technique I apply to you inside the treatment room.
The focus of the first appointment is only the first appointment. Whether a course of treatment makes sense is something we look at afterwards.
We talk about follow-up — if it turns out to make sense
With the assessment done, I finally have real information to tell you whether I think we should carry on. If so, I set out the options: single appointments, or a plan of appointments, which brings down the cost of each one.
I recommend what my clinical experience tells me is most suitable for a situation like yours. It is always an approximation — there is no honest way to predict how long a recovery takes, and we adjust to your reality as we see what changes.
And a note about the fee: what you pay for is the time and the clinical work of each appointment. Never the outcome — nor would it be legitimate to charge any other way.
The appointment does not end when you leave the room
We stay in touch on WhatsApp. If the exercise needs adjusting before the next appointment, it gets adjusted. If a question comes up, a new pain, or simply a bad day, I want to know — it is no bother at all, it is useful clinical information that helps me decide the next step.
I say this to everyone I see, and I mean it: you can write to me at any hour, including on a Sunday, a bank holiday, Christmas or New Year. I would far rather get a message from you than find out, weeks later, that you went through a bad spell and said nothing so as not to bother me.
In return, I ask one thing of you: patience with the reply time. Between ten at night and seven in the morning my phone does not ring, vibrate or light up — nobody disturbs me at that hour, and the message simply waits. During the day I may be seeing someone else. But I always end up replying.
Send the message and wait a little. That is the arrangement, and it works well.
The process is the same. What changes is what I can do with my hands.
Choose the format to see what is the same and what is different.
In a room of my own at Parque das Nações — Av. Dom João II 19, Piso 0, 1990-078 Lisboa. It is a few minutes' walk from the metro, the train and the buses, and there is paid street parking, cheaper on Passeio do Báltico than on the avenue, with covered car parks next to the station nearby.
Comfortable clothes that let you move. And if you have scans, bring them too — but do not go and have one done just because of the appointment.
I can use my hands: assessing joint by joint, testing responses, and applying manual therapy when it is warranted.
By video call, from wherever you are — phone, tablet or computer, with internet. You need a space where you can lie down: the floor is ideal, but the bed will do. Have two or three pillows to hand and a chair nearby. That is all.
Comfortable clothes, good light, and the device propped up so that it captures your whole body. If you have scan reports, have them to hand — or send them to me beforehand on WhatsApp.
One thing only: I do not use my hands. I guide the tests, I explain and show how it is done, you repeat it, and you tell me what you feel as I ask. If at some point I think your case needs an in-person examination, I tell you rather than carrying on.
Why the first appointment rarely involves manual therapy
In the first appointment, whenever possible, I do not lay hands on you. It is not reluctance — it is method. If I test movements and apply manual therapy in the same appointment, and you improve, I am left not knowing which of the two worked.
And if it gets worse a few hours later, I am left not knowing why: was it the movement you did? was it what I did with my hands? or was it what was expected to happen anyway?
It is also why I tell many people that the first appointment loses nothing by being done online.
Start by telling me what you feel.
You do not need to write a report. Two or three lines — what hurts, for how long, and what you have tried. I take the conversation from there.
Hello FT Mário. I found your website and I am interested in booking an appointment with you. Can you help me?
When you press the button, WhatsApp opens with this text already written. You just have to send it — and from there you tell me whatever you like.