Main Image: Not hot off the runway for A/W 2025, but the latest in neurocognitive therapy. Because the new generation of spa treatments deliver far more than a relaxing massage. (SHA Wellness Spain)
The new gen of spa-goer is interested less in aesthetics and more in longevity and maxing out potential. Lysanne Currie reports on the innovations in the medi-spa sector and the growing number of elite businesspeople turning the retreat into a recurring meeting.
Say you have a milestone birthday approaching. How do you mark the occasion? A lavish party for 200 or something more adventurous, like skydiving or trekking across Mongolia? How about diving headlong into an adrenaline-fueled pursuit you’ve never attempted before?
After a highly successful career in business, one man decided to mark his 60th birthday by taking up racing sportscars. Professionally. But before this particular gentleman could start his engine at the level he aspired to, he had some issues to consider, recounts Alejandro Bataller, vice president of the pioneering SHA Wellness Clinic. “He had ADHD, so lacked concentration and focus, and didn’t have great hand-eye coordination – all essential for racing sportscars. He had invested a load of money in the hobby but after two years still hadn’t won a single race.”
With his next race approaching in just a couple of weeks, the new racer wanted to boost his brain so that he could start winning. So he became a client of SHA Wellness by making an appointment with Dr Bruno Ribeiro, Head of Cognitive Development and Brain Stimulation.
SHA Wellness Clinic offers a Leader’s Performance Programme, an intensive 7-day reset “designed to improve the physical health and mental performance of people in leadership positions”. (SHA Wellness Spain)
The SHA team went to work. The clinic’s cognitive health program begins with brain mapping, which measures performance across each area of brain function, such as focus, coordination and sleep (or insomnia). The clinic then either prescribes brain exercises or suggest one of two brain treatments.
At the SHA Wellness Clinic in Alicante, Spain, the aspirational Lewis Hamilton changed his brain with one of the treatments, TCS (Transcranial Current Stimulation; the other is Brain Photobiomodulation, developed by NASA for its sunlight-deprived astronauts). TCS is used by Navy SEALs to work their brains into elite condition and involves a low-intensity electrical current delivered to the prefrontal cortex via a rubber cap fitted with electrodes. The current stimulates specific brain cells to boost the performance of that area of the brain. “And it’s trackable,” Bataller explains. “When you repeat the brain mapping, you see the evolution of that area’s performance.” It worked for the aspiring racing driver, who “began treatment and started winning races.”
Cognitive health is one of the key areas of focus for spa-going CEOs, starting with a neurocognitive assessment. (SHA Wellness Spain)
SHA Wellness has been the clinic of choice for a niche group of business leaders for over a decade. Founded in Spain in 2008, the clinic launched in Mexico in 2023 and is planning a world first – a 155-residence wellness island in Abu Dhabi, due to open in 2026.
However, the surge in uptake of CEO-focused wellness programs has been relatively recent. It wasn’t so long ago that products geared towards business leaders and UHNW individuals skewed towards the hedonistic and extravagant: think magnums of Moët Esprit du Siècle, Turkish celebrity restaurateur Salt Bae’s 24K gold tomahawk steaks, cigars and rare single malts at raffish private members’ clubs. Hardly a surprise given the corporate world of the early 2000s was one that exulted in a work-hard, play-hard ethos with its ‘lunch is for wimps’ catchphrases, 5am inbox-clearing sessions and high burnout rates worn as a badge of honor.
In C-suites across the world, there's a growing awareness of the vital role health plays in business success… being physically and mentally fit allows people to perform at their peaks, enhances focus and fuels clear, big thinking.
Talk to a business leader today and a different story has taken root: you’re more likely to find them enthusing about ice baths, mushroom macchiatos and meditation. The wellness industry is now worth £5.65trn according to Knight Frank’s Wealth Report 2024. And in C-suites across the world, there’s a growing awareness of the vital role health plays in business success: maintaining a carefully balanced diet, being physically/mentally fit and having a solid sleep regime allows people to perform at their peaks, enhances focus and fuels clear, big thinking.
Comprehensive consultations that involve analysis of a range of physical indicators are key to SHA’s ‘well-aging’ programme. A refreshing alternative to ‘anti-aging’ cosmetic treatments. (SHA Wellness Spain)
Bataller has also seen an increase in C-suite returners, keen to try out new treatments. “They have the resources, the curiosity and the ambition to achieve the best version of themselves. For an individual who has achieved many things in life – professionally, economically – the main wealth now is health…”
“Eighty per cent of our guests are leaders and decision-makers and like to take at least a week every year to reset their thoughts and find balance. Currently the four most popular requests are for improved performance, focus, memory and sleep.” Bataller adds that there has been a notable rise in the number of male guests at SHA: “We are now 45% men / 55% women, with the average age younger than it was, now around 47.”
For an individual who has achieved many things in life – professionally, economically – the main wealth now is health…”
Guests at SHA are broadly categorized into four segments, Bataller explains:
Firefighters – already suffering and need a solution
Immediate results – want to lose some weight, detox and rest
Healthy living – wellness retreats are their perfect holiday
Longevity seekers – the fastest growing group
This fourth group, he says, “are already investing a significant amount of time and money on achieving optimum health and they want to try new and pioneering treatments.”
He credits their interest in longevity to the changing nature of later life: “In the last half century, we’ve been able to increase life expectancy by around 35 years – mainly through controlling infection. However, illness in the third chapter is still expected, even though 80% of those diseases are avoidable or preventable through lifestyle. Longevity seekers are looking to be their best right now, and to maintain [wellness] for as long as possible.”
Scheduled to open in 2026, SHA Emirates will be a second-home community wellness destination – a self-contained island retreat between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. (SHA Wellness)
Another route to a vital, pain-free later life is behind the increasing popularity of a centuries-old therapy – fasting – said to be one of the most powerful therapeutic methods of promoting longevity.
Buchinger Wilhelmi is the leader in the field. A family-run business now in its fourth generation, Buchinger Wilhelmi clinics (in Marbella, Spain or Überlingen, Germany) are not only the world’s largest clinical centers for research on therapeutic fasting, but also the only ones that test and validate their program via clinical trials.
Often described as a means by which to ‘reset’ the body, the impact of fasting has been shown to positively impact every internal organ. From lowering cholesterol and reducing the risk of heart disease to clearing diseased tissue, the reported benefits are vast and profound.
The team at Bad Pyrmont, Germany c. 1938, Otto Buchinger’s first sanatorium, which espoused the principles set out in his book, The Therapeutic Fasting Cure. (Buchinger Wilhelmi)
A slightly more relaxed vibe prevails at Buchinger Wilhelmi today, where guests take “the cure” in luxurious accommodation at its retreats in Spain and Germany. (Buchinger Wilhelmi)
London-based private dental surgeon Patrick Tarrant took a 10-day break from looking after his own jet-setting clients and booked into a fast at Buchinger after being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. For eight of Tarrant’s 10 days, he was on a daily regime of 250 calories: vegetable broth and juice consumed twice a day. “When the hunger pangs fade and energy levels return, you feel completely revitalized,” he says. “The 6am walks helped, as did the 30-minute meditative trances. And the fast reversed my diabetes.”
Tracey Woodward, former Global CEO of Aromatherapy Associates and now a wellness-sector NED, has been doing an annual Buchinger fast for over a decade. She also makes a regular journey to Italy’s Palazzo Fiuggi – the retreat with healing waters and a mantra “for a longer life, better lived.” Fiuggi’s retreat combines the power of nature with advanced medical research to replenish and rebalance mind, body and soul. “This is beauty merged with the medi spa – it’s a spiritual place,” Woodward observes.
Surprised to see a chef at a retreat renowned for fasting? It’s not a zero-tolerance regime for calories. Under the creative direction of Chef Phillipp Troppenhagen, meals here are vibrant, nutritionally balanced and major on beautifully presented plant-based dishes. (Buchinger Wilhelmi)
The growing rise of spirituality as part of a therapeutic program is taken one step further by new(ish) kid on the block, Greece’s Euphoria Retreat. Founded in 2018 by former investment banker Marina Efraimoglou, who had had cancer in her twenties and came close to burnout in her forties.
Efraimoglou brings Eastern and Western medicines together and, alongside the innovative medical offering (including personalized IV infusions and “body charging” sessions that use NanoVi technology – originally designed for cancer treatment), guests undergo a mandatory emotional consultation.
The organic curves of the Sphere pool at Euphoria Retreat in Greece, which preaches a spiritual element to holistic health for emotional and physical transformation. (Euphoria Retreat)
“Longevity is a consumer issue,” says Efraimoglou. “We consume more food, more clothes and now we want to consume more years. We insist on asking our clients ‘What are you going to do with these extra 10, 20, 30 years? Will you be of service to yourself or society, are you mentally healthy, will you give something back? Emotional harmony is essential if you are going to live longer.”
The wellness sector shows no sign of slowing down – indeed predictions are that it will be worth $8.47 trillion in 2027. And with a growing number of decision makers prioritizing wellness, longevity and now also, as Efraimoglou says, deep thinking about their personal potential, service and purpose, it will be interesting to observe how a healthier C-suite impacts broader business and society. Watch this space.
Euphoria Retreat’s spiritual focus doesn’t ignore the role of tech in wellness treatments. It’s not the only wellness clinic to offer the Human Regenerator device, which uses CAP (cold atmospheric plasma) technology to treat pain and other health issues through cell rejuvenation. (Euphoria Retreat)
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