Shopping wants to take care of mental health

​If, in the past of heated consumption, many people went to the mall to try to cure anxiety by shopping, today, in times of burnout and falling income, the mall wants to show that it can also be the solution.

Multiplan, one of the largest shopping center administrators in the country, announces next Thursday (11) the MultiSer banner, the first “Emotion Management Center” in the world inside a shopping mall, according to the company. R$ 4 million were invested in the project installed at Ribeirão Shopping, in Ribeirão Preto (SP), which will be managed by Dreamsellers, owned by psychiatrist and writer Augusto Cury.

The psychotherapy project covers 500 m² and comprises nine treatment rooms, an interactive room with 70 places for courses (both free and paid), mezzanine and a social square.

According to the president and founder of Multiplan, José Isaac Peres, the idea is to offer service at affordable prices. “Each consultation should revolve around R$ 100”, said the businessman to sheet. “We want to demystify the idea that a consultation with a psychologist is something expensive, something for the rich,” he says.

The space will have a team of 16 psychologists for clinical care, a psychologist who is the project manager, a director and the project’s ambassador, Augusto Cury, who developed the idea together with Isaac Peres. The proposal is to listen to patients about topics such as fear, anxiety, grief, sadness and emotional suffering.

“People are fragile, we want to treat the human soul”, says Isaac Peres, who says he has already undergone years of therapy and now talks to a therapist every 15 days about different subjects. “In this business world, there are many problems and conflicts that cannot be resolved with money, emotional intelligence is needed”, says the businessman.

Asked how much a mall service can offer psychological support to a population that is indebted, often for spending more than it earns, Isaac Peres says that the shopping compulsion can indeed be a sign of depression. “People need to learn that the credit card is secondary, what matters is managing your own emotions.”

The level of indebted families has never been so high: 74%, according to the latest Consumer Debt and Default Survey by CNC (National Confederation of Commerce of Goods, Services and Tourism), for September. According to the organization, Brazilians are using more and more credit to compose income. In other words: what he can’t buy with what he earns, he buys with a credit card or loans and the debt turns over.

Multiplan’s foray into the healthcare area is not new. In 1994, the company launched a complex of clinics inside Barra Shopping, in Rio. Today, the Rio Medical Center serves around 300,000 people a month, according to Isaac Peres. “At the time, I thought it was interesting to combine a pleasure activity – the shopping trip – with something resembling pain – a doctor’s appointment,” he says.

Today, BarraShopping Medical Centers I and II have more than 11,000 m² of built-up area, 150 offices of physicians and specialists, including cardiologists, dermatologists, angiologists, neurologists, dentists, ophthalmologists and gynecologists. There are a total of 50 clinics, including diagnostic imaging and pediatric emergency laboratories.

In 2017, Multiplan opened the Medical Center also in Ribeirão Shopping. The company’s fourth Medical Center will be developed at ParkShopping Barigüi, in Curitiba (PR), which will gain a third floor with a new expansion.