Slim at any price: Founder brings new trend treatment to Vienna

Melanie Lehner is a trained physiotherapist, worked in a Burgenland aid organization with developmentally delayed children, in the intensive care unit in Baden and later with competitive athletes – for example at the Rapid and Austria football clubs. Her patients usually came with an ailment, with injuries or because it was prescribed for them. Until summer 2024.

Wer ist Renata França?

Lehner is lying on the beach, swiping through social media and the new lymphatic drainage trend hits her homepage. The Brazilian method is named after its inventor: Renata France. She now has a million followers on Instagram, including supermodels Naomi Campbell swear by their technology. But it can’t simply be copied.

Lehner begins to research. She learned medical lymphatic drainage, but the aesthetic one, which is supposed to make you slim and toned in addition to the health benefits, is not available in Vienna. Not yet.

“Everything goes through the Renata França institution,” she says. If you want to offer the original method, you have to learn it from certified therapists. They also offer courses in Europe. Lehner does the two-day training in Hamburg, pays 4,500 euros and, back in Vienna, the demand is so high that it becomes clear to her: Now she has to go all out. If she doesn’t, someone else will be faster. And once the big hype dies down, usually only those who were there first remain.

The Detox Club

For almost half a year, “The Detox Club” in Vienna’s sixth district has been the first official address for the Renata França method. Since then, a few other studios have jumped on the bandwagon. Lehner is prepared. She has brought four other certified Renata França therapists on board who work with her on an independent basis.

At the end of the month, Melanie Lehner activates the appointment calendar. About thirty minutes later it is fully booked. In the longest case, appointments wait three hours for recipients. And this despite the fact that the price is anything but cheap. The Brazilian Renata França not only specifies a method that therapists have to adhere to, but also a minimum price. This is 150 euros per treatment – but more is always possible.

60 minutes 200 euros, demand is booming

In the “Detox Club” sixty minutes cost 200 euros – shortly after opening it was still 180 euros. “Quality simply has its price,” says Melanie Lehner. In addition, the rush was so great that she had to make selections. “The idea behind it is that I want to reach a certain clientele,” she says.

This group is 90 percent female, health-conscious, between 20 and 55 years old, and well-off professionally – from manager to lawyer to teacher. Ideally, customers come every two weeks to once a month to get rid of lipedema, water retention or bloated stomachs. Once a year doesn’t make sense, says the therapist.

Contrary to what social media suggests, the desired before-and-after effect would not happen all of a sudden, but would be a process. “I therefore try to communicate that there is more than just an aesthetic advantage. If I have a strong lymphatic system, I have a strong immune system. That’s why the treatment also makes sense in winter and not just in summer when you want to look slim.”