The clinic is due to open on 28 April in Carcavelos, Cascais, and will focus on tailored care for people on the autism spectrum, as well as support for their families.

According to the founder, the project is driven not only by business goals but also by personal experience, which highlighted the difficulties many families face in accessing appropriate services.

He says the intention is to create a more individualised and accessible approach to care that responds to needs that are often not fully met by existing structures.

The unit is expected to deliver more than 600 therapy sessions per month, offering multidisciplinary care that integrates speech therapy, psychology, occupational therapy, psychomotor therapy, and other approaches under one roof, as reported by Público.

“Depending on each patient’s case, several types of therapy may be needed. We don’t really measure things by the number of patients, but by the number of sessions we can provide. Our capacity depends on our structure,” Amaral explains.

He adds that some of these therapies — including Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) — don’t have to be delivered in the clinic. They can also be delivered in more familiar settings, such as the patient’s home, depending on what works best for each case.

“Our contract with Priorit Brasil covers the Iberian Peninsula — for now, we hold the franchise rights on a preferential basis. The plan is to first see how the clinic is received in the Cascais, Oeiras and Lisbon area, which is our main target market. From there, depending on the response, we can look at expanding to other locations, potentially Porto or Braga,” the businessman says.