# Residential Anxiety Treatment in Spain | Sierra Recovery > Residential anxiety treatment in Malaga alongside addiction: 28 days at a published GBP 9,900, graded exposure, three group sessions a day and UK aftercare. [Home](/) / [Mental health](/mental-health-and-dual-diagnosis/) / Anxiety Anxiety, panic and OCD # Residential anxiety treatment in Spain A licensed 28-day residential programme in the Málaga countryside, run by an English-speaking team, for anxiety that has taken over the shape of your life, particularly where alcohol or tablets have become part of managing it. A private room as standard, a price published in full, and no referral fees paid to anyone for sending you here. Clinically reviewed by[Nerea Encinas Sánchez](/clinical-team/)Director of the centre, MSc General Health PsychologyRegistered psychologist, COPAO AO13857 Checked for accuracy on 28 July 2026. Next review due July 2027. This page is general information about our programme and is not a substitute for advice about your own situation. Anxiety is treated at Sierra Recovery inside a 28-day residential programme in the Málaga countryside, published in full at £9,900, alongside any alcohol, benzodiazepine or drug use rather than separately from it. The treatment targets avoidance directly, through graded exposure and response prevention, because avoidance is what makes anxiety grow. Sierra is a registered health centre authorised for addiction healthcare, not a psychiatric hospital, and where benzodiazepines are involved a medically supervised taper is completed in an appropriate medical setting before you arrive. Below is what the programme actually involves, who it suits, and where the line is. Programme 28 days residential Published price £9,900 Group work 3 sessions a day Room Private, as standard Language English throughout Registration N.I.C.A. 67331 ## What an anxiety disorder actually is Anxiety is a normal and useful response to threat. An anxiety disorder is that response running when there is no threat, at an intensity that does not match the situation, for long enough that life has been rearranged around avoiding it. The distinction is not the feeling. It is the cost. The forms differ and so does the treatment. Generalised anxiety is persistent worry that moves from topic to topic and never settles. Panic disorder is discrete attacks of overwhelming physical fear, with the fear of the next attack doing much of the damage. Social anxiety is an intense fear of judgement that shrinks a life quietly. Obsessive compulsive disorder is intrusive thoughts and the compulsions performed to neutralise them. Health anxiety is the same machinery pointed at the body. What they share is a mechanism: avoidance. Every time the feared thing is avoided, or neutralised with a compulsion, a drink or a tablet, the relief teaches the brain that the danger was real and that only the avoidance prevented disaster. That is why anxiety reliably grows over time, and it is why effective treatment is uncomfortable by design. A panic attack is not dangerous, but chest pain can bePanic attacks are frightening and physically intense, and they are not harmful in themselves. Chest pain, breathlessness or a racing heart should still be assessed medically the first time, because a cardiac cause has to be excluded rather than assumed away. In an emergency call 999 in the UK or 112 anywhere in Europe, or NHS 111 for urgent advice that is not an emergency. ## The signs that it has become a disorder What you might notice What it usually means Avoiding places, people or situations you used to manage Avoidance. It is the engine of the disorder and the thing treatment targets first. Needing a drink before anything social or difficult Chemical avoidance. Alcohol is a very effective short-term anxiolytic, which is precisely why it makes anxiety worse over months. Carrying a tablet in case, and never being without it Safety behaviour. The tablet does not have to be taken to maintain the anxiety, only carried. Physical symptoms with no medical cause found Anxiety expressed somatically. Chest tightness, gut symptoms, dizziness and fatigue are all common and all real. Checking, counting, cleaning or seeking reassurance repeatedly Compulsions. The relief is real and very short, and each repetition strengthens the loop. Sleep that will not start because the mind will not stop Distinct from the early waking of depression, and it responds to different techniques. A world that has quietly got smaller each year The cumulative cost, and usually the reason someone finally asks for help. If several of those land, our [short self-check](/self-assessment/) takes under a minute and stores nothing. ## Where the treatment actually happens People ask for photographs before they ask about therapy, and they are right to. You are deciding whether you could live somewhere for a month. This is the place, not a stock library. The pool and terrace, open through the day Your own private room, included as standard The veranda, where most groups spill out to Cooked by our Michelin-trained chef, three times a day The horses live here, on the land Forty hectares of working farmland, forty five minutes from Malaga [See the full gallery](/facilities/) · [how people get here](/travelling-to-spain-for-treatment/). ## What we are, and what we are not Sierra Recovery is entered in the Registro Andaluz de Centros, Servicios y Establecimientos Sanitarios (the Andalusian register of health centres, services and establishments) under N.I.C.A. 67331, authorised by the Junta de Andalucía for the care unit atención sanitaria a drogodependientes (healthcare for drug dependency, authorised care unit U.71). That is a registered health centre with a supervised treatment residence. It is not a psychiatric hospital and it is not an inpatient mental health unit. We treat anxiety inside a residential addiction and dual diagnosis programme, which suits people whose anxiety sits alongside alcohol, drug or benzodiazepine use, or who need intensive structured psychological work in a residential setting. If your anxiety is severe and there is no substance use at all, a specialist mental health service may fit you better and we will say so at assessment rather than admit you. You can [check our registration yourself](/regulation-and-licensing/) on the Junta's public register. Where benzodiazepines are involved, and with anxiety they very often are, a medically supervised taper is arranged and completed in an appropriate medical setting before admission, billed separately. Benzodiazepine withdrawal can cause seizures and is never done abruptly. See [benzodiazepines](/benzodiazepine-addiction-treatment/) and [Xanax](/xanax-addiction-treatment/). ### Not sure whether this is the right setting? The assessment answers that honestly before you commit to anything, and it happens before you travel. A clinician will tell you plainly if something closer to home would serve you better. [How admission works](/admissions/) [+44 1202 653136](tel:+441202653136) ## What a day here looks like Nobody arrives knowing how twenty eight days are actually spent. This is the real timetable, Monday to Friday. Time What happens 08:00 Breakfast, cooked by a Michelin-trained chef 09:15 Planning: the day is set out together 10:30 Process group, the harder one 12:00 Therapeutic group 13:15 Lunch 14:30 Psychoeducation, working through the curriculum 16:00 Group activity, often outdoors or with the horses 18:30 Dinner 20:00 Day closing, together Saturdays turn to holistic and body-based work. Sundays are a supervised excursion, because reconnecting with the world outside a clinic is part of the treatment rather than a break from it. 28days, the typical stay 3group sessions a day 17curriculum modules 1986PROMIS method, developed in ## What the treatment actually involves The programme runs Monday to Friday on a fixed structure, with Saturdays given to holistic and body-based work and Sundays to a supervised excursion. Rather than list therapy names, here is what each part of the week is for. Group work Facing it Psychoeducation One-to-one Body Aftercare ### Three group sessions a day, five days a week The day opens with a process group at 10:30, a second therapeutic group runs at midday, and a psychoeducation session follows lunch. A group activity fills the late afternoon and the day closes together in the evening. For social anxiety in particular, a group that meets three times a day for four weeks is not incidental to the treatment. It is the treatment, delivered in the only place it can be practised. ### Exposure, done gradually and on purpose Anxiety is maintained by avoidance, so treatment involves approaching what has been avoided in a planned, graded way, staying with the discomfort until it falls on its own, and doing it often enough that the brain updates. For OCD this means resisting the compulsion rather than only questioning the thought, which is uncomfortable, effective, and much easier to sustain with a team around you than alone at home. ### A seventeen-module curriculum The curriculum covers emotions, trigger recognition, crisis identification and management, self-esteem, perfectionism and the inner critic, boundaries and decision-making, and values. The cognitive work uses the ABC model: the event, the belief you attach to it, and the consequence that follows. In anxiety the belief is usually a prediction, and predictions can be tested rather than argued with. ### Individual therapy three times a week Where the material that will not surface in a group gets worked. With anxiety that is often a specific event, a fear that feels ridiculous to say aloud, or the thing the worry is standing in front of. You are treated by the same small team throughout, in the same house, with no rotation of therapists mid-stay. ### Breath, sleep and the physical side Saturdays turn to yoga, meditation and mindfulness, breathwork, art and time outdoors. Anxiety is a physiological state before it is a thought, and learning to influence the body directly gives you something usable at three in the morning. Sleep is addressed with fixed hours, daylight, activity and the self-care module, because sleep loss and anxiety amplify each other. ### What happens when you go home Aftercare is planned before you leave. For clients returning to the UK, care continues online or in person at the PROMIS clinics in London, with a weekly session for a full year, more than 48 in the twelve months after discharge, and a written handover to your GP. The relapse plan for anxiety is specific: which avoidances are most likely to creep back, and what to do in the first week they do. ## Who will actually treat your anxiety A small team, in one house, in English. You are not handed between departments and there is no rotation of therapists halfway through your stay. ### Nerea Encinas Sánchez Director · General Health Psychologist MSc General Health Psychology. Leads clinical standards, the assessment you have before you travel, and admissions. ### Berenice Paramés Jones General Health Psychologist Individual and group psychological work inside the house, crisis follow-up and coordination of the group programme. ### Marta Leal Social worker Family mediation, links to services back home, and preparing for independent life after discharge. ### Robin Lefever Founder of Sierra Recovery; MD, PROMIS Clinics UK Founder of Sierra Recovery and Managing Director of PROMIS Clinics, whose method this programme adapts. PROMIS has been treating addiction in the United Kingdom since the mid-1980s, and Robin has worked in addiction treatment for around 35 years, with thousands of patients treated with the PROMIS method in the United Kingdom. [Meet the whole clinical team and their qualifications](/clinical-team/). ## What is treated, and what that looks like day to day What you arrive with How it is worked Panic attacks Interoceptive and situational exposure, so the attack stops being catastrophic and starts being survivable. The aim is not to prevent panic but to remove its power. Avoidance Mapped in the first week and dismantled gradually across the stay, in planned steps rather than by being pushed. Compulsions and checking Response prevention, practised with support. The urge is allowed to rise and fall without being obeyed, which is how the loop weakens. Alcohol or benzodiazepine use Treated in the same programme rather than referred out, because both are avoidance in chemical form and neither anxiety nor dependence resolves while the other continues. Sleep Fixed hours, daylight, activity outdoors and the self-care module. It is usually among the first things to improve. Trauma Where the anxiety is trauma-driven it is worked as trauma rather than as worry. See [trauma and addiction](/trauma-and-addiction-rehab-spain/) and [PTSD](/ptsd-treatment/). Medication Reviewed and continued through the appropriate medical route, coordinated with whoever prescribes it. We do not start, stop or adjust it ourselves. ## Treatment options for anxiety disorders, and how they compare Residential rehab is one treatment option among several, and it is not automatically the right one. Being straight about that is more useful to you than a page that pretends otherwise. Option What it involves, and who it suits Residential rehab inpatient treatment Living at the centre for the whole programme. It suits anxiety that outpatient treatment has not moved, or where alcohol or benzodiazepines have become part of managing it. Outpatient treatment day programmes and therapy sessions Attending sessions and going home between them. The usual and appropriate starting point. CBT for anxiety is effective and available free through NHS talking therapies. Community and NHS services Free local drug and alcohol treatment services, reached through your GP or by self-referral. Waiting times vary and residential placements are rationed, but the support is real and it costs nothing. For many people this is the right first step rather than a lesser one. Mutual aid and support groups Free peer support meeting in person and online, everywhere, with no waiting list and no cost. Worth using alongside whatever else you choose rather than instead of it. A treatment plan should be built around your circumstances. If an outpatient or community route fits you better, we will say so at assessment and we will not charge you for the conversation. ## The therapies used, in plain terms Every centre lists the same acronyms, so here is what each one actually is and where it appears in the week. Therapy What it is, and when you would meet it here Cognitive behavioural therapy CBT, and the related REBT Evidence-based work on the link between an event, the belief you attach to it and what you then do. Taught through the ABC model in psychoeducation, practised in group therapy and applied between sessions. It is the backbone of the cognitive work rather than an optional extra. Acceptance and commitment therapy ACT Learning to have a difficult feeling without having to act on it, and choosing behaviour by your values instead. Module eight, on emotions, is built on it. Dialectical behaviour therapy DBT Distress tolerance, emotional regulation and interpersonal skills, used where emotions arrive faster and larger than they can be managed. See [DBT](/dialectical-behaviour-therapy/). EMDR A structured trauma therapy, used where trauma is driving the use and always after stabilisation rather than before it. See [EMDR](/emdr-therapy/). Group therapy Three group sessions a day, five days a week: a process group, a therapeutic group and psychoeducation. It is the largest single component of the treatment programme. See [group therapy](/group-therapy-for-addiction/). Individual therapy one-to-one counselling Three therapy sessions a week with the same clinician throughout, where material that will not surface in a group gets worked. Family therapy Offered where it is wanted, in person or online, because the people around you are part of what happens next. See [the family programme](/family-programme/). Motivational interviewing Used throughout rather than booked as a session. It is the stance the team takes: working with your reasons for change rather than arguing you into someone else’s. Holistic therapies Yoga, mindfulness and meditation, breathwork, art and equine work, on Saturdays and through the week. See [equine therapy](/equine-therapy/) and [all our therapies](/therapies/). Every element above is delivered by the clinical team as part of the residential programme. Your treatment plan sets out which of them apply to you, and it is reviewed during the stay rather than fixed on day one. ## Where else to get help, free Not everyone needs residential rehab, and nobody should be waiting on a private programme before they get any support at all. Everything below is free, and none of these organisations pays or receives a fee from us. Organisation What they do [NHS talking therapies](https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/nhs-talking-therapies/) Free psychological therapy for anxiety and depression in England, available by self-referral without going through your GP first. [Mind](https://www.mind.org.uk/) Mental health information, advocacy and local services across England and Wales. [Samaritans](https://www.samaritans.org/) Free and confidential, 24 hours a day on 116 123, for anyone struggling to cope or having thoughts of suicide. [NHS drug and alcohol services](https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/addiction-support/drug-addiction-getting-help/) Free local treatment services, reached through your GP or by self-referral. The usual starting point for community-based drug and alcohol treatment. [We Are With You](https://www.wearewithyou.org.uk/) Free, confidential support for drug, alcohol and mental health problems, in person in many areas and by webchat. [Adfam](https://adfam.org.uk/) Support and information for families and friends affected by someone else’s drug, alcohol or gambling use. Sierra Recovery neither pays nor accepts referral fees, so nothing on this list depends on where you go. If a free or community service is the right fit for you, use it. ## How to get ready - Compare on licence, not on photographsAsk any centre abroad for its registration number and the register it sits on, then look it up yourself. Ours is N.I.C.A. 67331 on the Junta de Andalucía register. - Get the medical picture togetherCurrent medications, any previous withdrawal, and any diagnosed conditions. This is what the pre-travel assessment needs, and it is what decides whether a detox is required first. - Ask what the price actually includesOurs is published: private room, meals, the core therapy programme, and a year of weekly UK aftercare, with medical, psychiatric, laboratory and hospital costs quoted separately. You get an itemised written quotation before admission. - Bring the treatment historyWhich medications, at what doses and for how long, which therapies and for how long, and what actually helped. It stops the first fortnight repeating work that has already been done. - Be honest about alcohol and tabletsNot as a confession. It determines whether a medically supervised taper is needed first, and it very often explains why the anxiety has not responded to treatment so far. ## How Sierra compares with private residential anxiety treatment at home What you get Sierra Recovery Typical private residential clinic 28-day residential programme £9,900, published in full UK £12,000–£40,000 · Australia A$30,000–A$50,000 Is the price on the website Yes, in full Usually "contact us for pricing" Your own private room Included as standard Often an upgrade Referral fees paid to third parties None Common Written itemised quotation before admission Yes Varies Distance from the people and places tied to use Rural Andalucía Usually close to home Medically supervised detox Arranged and quoted separately Quoted separately Comparison figures are the published ranges collected on our [cost calculator](/cost-calculator/): the United Kingdom at roughly £12,000 to £40,000 a month, Australia at roughly A$30,000 to A$50,000, and the United States at roughly $20,000 to $40,000 for a 30-day programme. New Zealand, South African and Canadian ranges are set out on the [country cost guides](/local-treatment-guides/). Indicative, not a quotation. Every clinic sets its own fees. ## When anxiety and substance use sit together They fit together unusually well, which is the problem. Alcohol, benzodiazepines and cannabis all reduce anxiety quickly and reliably in the short term, and all three increase it over months. The rebound anxiety in the hours after drinking, or between benzodiazepine doses, is regularly mistaken for the original disorder worsening, and the response is more of the thing causing it. At Sierra both are treated in the same programme, in the same house, by the same team. See [dual diagnosis](/dual-diagnosis-rehab-spain/). ## When is it time? If your life has been getting smaller, if you need a drink or a tablet to face ordinary things, or if outpatient treatment has not moved it, that is enough. Anxiety is very good at arguing that now is a bad time, that you should wait until things are calmer. That argument is the disorder talking, and things do not get calmer on their own. ### Talk to a clinician today You will speak to our admissions team, all of them clinicians. Confidential, no obligation, and we will tell you honestly whether this programme fits or whether something closer to home would serve you better. [See how admission works](/admissions/) [What £9,900 covers](/pricing/) ## Questions people actually ask Do you treat anxiety on its own, without addiction? We treat anxiety inside a residential addiction and dual diagnosis programme, so it suits people whose anxiety sits alongside alcohol, drug or benzodiazepine use, or who want intensive structured psychological work in a residential setting. If your anxiety is severe and there is no substance use at all, a specialist mental health service may fit you better and we will tell you so at assessment. I take diazepam or Xanax for my anxiety. Can I come? Yes, but the withdrawal has to be handled properly first. Benzodiazepine withdrawal can cause seizures and must never be abrupt, so a medically supervised taper is arranged and completed in an appropriate medical setting before admission, billed separately. Do not reduce on your own before assessment. Tell us the real dose. Do you treat OCD? We work with obsessive compulsive symptoms using exposure and response prevention within the programme, and the residential setting makes resisting compulsions considerably more sustainable than doing it alone. For severe OCD as a primary diagnosis without substance use, a specialist OCD service is likely to be a better fit, and we will say so. Will the treatment make me feel worse before better? Approaching what you have been avoiding is uncomfortable, and that is not a side effect, it is the mechanism. It is done gradually, in planned steps, with support, and it is why this is more effective than an environment that simply removes all sources of stress for four weeks. How long is the programme and what does it cost? It is a 28-day residential programme, published in full at GBP 9,900. That covers a private room, meals, the core therapy programme, and a year of weekly UK aftercare. Psychiatric, medical, laboratory and detox costs are quoted separately. You get an itemised written quotation before admission. Can I keep taking my antidepressants? Yes, and you should not stop them to come here. Medication is reviewed and continued through the appropriate medical route, coordinated with whoever prescribes it, and a written handover to your GP is part of standard aftercare. How do I get help for an anxiety disorder? The first step towards recovery is an assessment, and ours is free and carries no obligation. You can also seek help through your GP, through a free local drug and alcohol treatment service, or through a mutual aid group, and none of those routes costs anything. If you want to talk it through with a clinician, call +44 1202 653136 and you will reach our admissions team. NHS talking therapies take self-referrals in England without going through your GP, and CBT for anxiety is effective and free there. What does an anxiety disorder treatment involve, from start to finish? The course of treatment runs in four stages. An assessment before you travel, which decides whether a medically supervised detox is needed first. Any detox, completed in an appropriate medical setting and billed separately. Then the 28-day residential treatment programme itself: three group therapy sessions a day, individual therapy three times a week and the seventeen-module curriculum. Then aftercare, agreed before you leave and continuing online or in person in London. How much does anxiety rehab cost, and what affects the price? Sierra publishes a single figure: GBP 9,900 for the 28-day residential programme, with a private room included. What changes the total is whether you need a medically supervised detox, which is arranged and billed separately, and any medical, psychiatric or laboratory costs. Private residential rehab elsewhere commonly runs from around GBP 12,000 to GBP 40,000 a month in the United Kingdom and from roughly A$30,000 to A$50,000 in Australia. You get an itemised written quotation before admission, and we neither pay nor accept referral fees. What are the signs and symptoms of an anxiety disorder? The symptoms of anxiety are persistent worry, physical tension, a racing heart, poor sleep and avoidance of the things that trigger it. What distinguishes a generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder or social anxiety from ordinary worry is not the feeling but the cost: a life that has been rearranged around not feeling it. Is lasting recovery from an anxiety disorder actually possible? Yes, and the evidence is better than the public conversation suggests. What predicts long-term recovery is not willpower but what is in place afterwards: continuing therapy, a treated mental health condition, a support network and a relapse plan that was written before it was needed. That is why completing anxiety rehab matters less on its own than what follows it, and why aftercare is planned during the stay, so it is in place before you leave. How can I help someone with an anxiety disorder? Start by getting support for yourself, because living alongside someone with an addiction is its own burden and Adfam and Al-Anon exist for exactly that. Beyond that: raise it when they are not intoxicated, be specific about what you have seen rather than general about what they are, and offer a concrete next step such as an assessment or a call to a free service. Ultimatums delivered in anger rarely work. We speak to families every day and that conversation costs nothing. + ## Talk to a clinician today You will speak to our admissions team, English-speaking clinicians who know the programme and the people in it. Callback within 24 hours. Step 1 of 3 Confidential, and no obligation Registered health centre. Authorised by the Junta de Andalucía, N.I.C.A. 67331. ### Related pages [The Regulation Model](/the-regulation-model/)[Assessment & detox](/medical-assessment-and-detox/)[Our programme](/our-programme-at-sierra-recovery/)[Dual diagnosis](/dual-diagnosis-rehab-spain/)[Pricing](/pricing/)[Admissions](/admissions/) --- Source: https://sierrarecoveryspain.com/anxiety-rehab-spain/ Retrieved: 2026-08-27 Canonical HTML version of this page: https://sierrarecoveryspain.com/anxiety-rehab-spain/