Cascais · Portugal · Opening 2026

Metta Medicine

An integrative clinic rooted in lineage, skill, and loving-kindness.

Opening Soon

Medicine that meets the whole person.

An integrative clinic in Cascais, founded by Qilian and Alexander. Lineage-based Chinese acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Manual Therapy, and Integrative Bodywork — held with devotion, offered in service.

Thank you — we'll be in touch. ✦

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What Metta Medicine Is

A genuine integrative clinic,
devoted to the whole human being.

Metta Medicine exists to answer one question: what does medicine look like when it recovers devotion, skill, and the whole human being? We combine traditions with fidelity, not syncretism — and we hold every patient with metta, the Pali word for loving-kindness, as the ground of the work.

Healing as service.Every treatment is an act of care, not a product on a shelf.

Depth over trend.Methods reflect years of training and direct transmission, not weekend certifications.

Individualized care.Each treatment is a response to the person in front of us, not a protocol from a menu.

Integration without dilution.East and West combined through real understanding of each, preserved in their integrity.

Transformation, not maintenance.Our goal is genuine change in the underlying condition.

Metta as working attitude.Loving-kindness is the foundation of the work, not the garnish.

Our Roots

Born through
shared service.

Qilian and Alexander first worked side by side while volunteering in a monastery setting in Myanmar, treating refugees and people recovering from stroke. Their connection began in real service, before it became a relationship, and before it became a clinic.

Years later, they discovered something neither had known at the time: each had independently written a business plan for a community healing center, with exactly the same features. The alignment was not aesthetic. It was structural — two practitioners who had already arrived at the same vision of healing work before meeting each other.

Metta Medicine is the result.

The Name

Why metta.

Qilian first encountered the Pali word metta at a monastery in Thailand, written at the bottom of a note taped to a medicine box. A volunteer nun had been using it as a closing word — the way another person might write "with love."

She looked up what it meant. The word stayed with her.

Metta means loving-kindness. It is not softness. It is the steady stance of caring for the person in front of us — the atmosphere in which skill operates.

How We Practice

Bringing something rare
to Cascais.

Our work here combines traditions, teachers, and techniques that rarely appear under the same roof. Three commitments shape every session.

01

Lineage, preserved

Qilian's acupuncture and Alexander's bodywork both trace to specific teachers and traditions. We keep the methods in their integrity — not averaged, not softened.

02

Roots, not symptoms

Chronic pain, burnout, hormonal imbalance, post-stroke recovery, autoimmune and neurological conditions — these share underlying patterns. We treat the pattern, not just its surface.

03

East and West, integrated

Traditional Chinese Medicine, manual therapy, somatic and energetic healing, and structural clinical thinking — combined with real understanding of each, for people who want depth.

Modalities

What we offer
under one roof.

Each modality is delivered by practitioners trained in its living tradition, and each is applied in response to the patient in front of us rather than from a fixed menu.

01 · Acupuncture

Lineage-based Chinese acupuncture.

Qilian practices a rare, traditionally transmitted style of Chinese acupuncture, passed from master to disciple. This lineage preserves stronger classical needle techniques — thicker needles, deeper stimulation, and refined manual methods — that have become uncommon in modern protocol-based practice. In skilled hands, responses can be fast, clear, and deeply transformative.

For chronic pain, neurological and autoimmune conditions, reproductive and hormonal health, post-stroke recovery, and more.

02 · Chinese Herbal Medicine

Precise, individualized formulas.

Herbal medicine is prescribed after full Chinese medicine diagnosis — pulse, tongue, pattern — and tailored to the person, not the symptom name. We use classical formulas and adjust them to each patient's constitution and current state. Alexander has trained in Chinese herbal medicine for over a decade, including 2,200+ supervised hours in China.

For chronic disease, digestive complaints, immune support, post-illness recovery, and long-term resilience.

03 · Manual Therapy

Hands-on structural work.

Traditional Thai massage, Tui Na, and osteopathic-informed soft-tissue techniques — applied where structural tension is the foundation of the problem. Alexander trained directly with teachers in Chiang Mai (Dot Po, Ajahn Sinchai, Ajahn Pichet) and brings clinical fluency with musculoskeletal pain, mobility restriction, and post-injury recovery.

For chronic pain, restricted movement, post-injury rehabilitation, and orthopedic recovery.

04 · Integrative Bodywork

Shiatsu and energetic work.

Shiatsu combined with trained energetic healing — applied with intention and clinical understanding, not as ritual for its own sake. This is bodywork that addresses the layers conventional palpation cannot reach, particularly where exhaustion, grief, or long-held holding patterns run underneath the body's symptoms.

For burnout, nervous system overload, emotional exhaustion, and patients needing care across body and mind.

05 · Somatic Healing

The body as the doorway.

Somatic work for people carrying the residue of chronic stress, trauma, or prolonged overload in the body. We combine breath, presence, attuned touch, and nervous-system-informed dialogue — always in the service of the patient's own healing, never as a replacement for medical or psychiatric care where those are needed.

For chronic nervous system dysregulation, somatized stress, and patients in meaning-crisis or soul-exhaustion.

And more to come

An open door for aligned practitioners.

Metta Medicine is a growing clinic. If you are a practitioner or therapist whose values and mission align with ours — lineage-based skill, service-rooted work, metta as the foundation — we would like to hear from you. Write to us with a short introduction, your training, and what you would bring.

Write to us →

The Founders

Two practitioners,
one shared mission.

Qilian and Alexander bring complementary strengths — lineage and structure, intuition and intelligence, ancient healing and considered modern implementation. Both are committed to healing as service, to building the clinic patiently, and to eventually passing these methods on the way they were received: in full, as family, without reservation.

Qilian Shang and Alexander Ahamer

Chinese Lineage Acupuncturist

Qilian Shang

Qilian trained directly under her Sifu in China, the traditional way — master to indoor disciple, without charge, as family. He accepted her saying she was "a white paper," ready to receive the lineage without assumptions. She holds an acupuncture diploma from the Netherlands, and carries seventeen years of clinical practice across six continents. Her work is known for classical needle techniques that have become rare, and for clinical responses patients often describe as fast and clear. She treats each patient with full attention, patience, and care. As the Chinese proverb says: the heart of a doctor is the heart of a parent.

Lineage Acupuncture TCM Diagnosis Reproductive Health Chronic Conditions 17 Years Experience
Visit Qilian's site →

Integrative Healer · Manual Therapy · Herbal Medicine

Alexander Ahamer

Alexander has worked with patients since the age of eighteen, starting in emergency care as a paramedic.

His training developed through direct study with experienced practitioners across traditions: Traditional Chinese Medicine under his Sifu in China, Thai Massage with masters in Chiang Mai, a four-year Shiatsu training in Austria, and energetic healing with the Tibetan monk Venerable Namgyel in India. He later deepened his work in advanced Chinese medicine and herbal therapy under Florian Ploberger.

His clinical approach is shaped by hands-on experience in neurological and orthopedic rehabilitation in Austria, working with patients in complex and long-term conditions.

He works with chronic pain, psychosomatic conditions, and cases that have not resolved through conventional treatment. His focus is a precise, hands-on and multidimensional approach — addressing structural, functional, and internal aspects of a condition together, where change is still possible.

Chinese Herbs Manual Therapy Shiatsu Energetic Healing 10+ Years Experience
Visit Alexander's site →

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