# Benzodiazepine Rehab in Spain | Sierra Recovery, Malaga > Benzodiazepine addiction treatment in Spain at a licensed residential centre. GBP 9,900 for 28 days, with detox completed in a medical setting first. [Home](/) / [Alcohol & drug addiction](/drug-addiction/) / Benzodiazepine addiction Benzodiazepine dependence # Benzodiazepine addiction treatment in Spain A licensed 28-day residential programme in the Málaga countryside, run by an English-speaking team, for people dependent on diazepam, lorazepam, clonazepam, temazepam or Xanax, whether it started with a prescription or not. 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. Benzodiazepine addiction is treated at Sierra Recovery as a 28-day residential programme in the Málaga countryside, published in full at £9,900. Benzodiazepine withdrawal can be dangerous, so it is never done abruptly: a medically supervised taper is arranged and completed in an appropriate medical setting before you arrive, because we are a registered health centre and not a hospital. What follows is three structured group sessions a day, one-to-one therapy and a seventeen-module curriculum aimed squarely at the anxiety, insomnia or trauma the prescription was covering. Below is what that actually involves, who it suits, and when it is time to stop reading and make the call. 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 benzodiazepine dependence actually is Benzodiazepines are prescribed for anxiety, insomnia, muscle spasm and seizures. Diazepam, lorazepam, temazepam, clonazepam and alprazolam, sold as Xanax, are the ones we see most. They work, which is precisely the difficulty. They calm the nervous system quickly and reliably, and for the first weeks they do exactly what the person hoped for. What changes is the brain's own regulation. Benzodiazepines act on the GABA system, the body's brake pedal. Used continuously, the brain reduces its own braking to compensate, so the same dose stops working and the original anxiety returns worse than before. That is tolerance, and most people meet it within weeks rather than months. UK guidance is that these drugs should be prescribed at the lowest effective dose for short periods, usually no more than two to four weeks, for exactly this reason. Which means most benzodiazepine dependence does not start with misuse. It starts with a prescription that was never stopped. That is not a technicality, it changes how the problem is treated and it removes any reason for shame about it. Never stop benzodiazepines abruptlyBenzodiazepine withdrawal is one of the few that can be life threatening. Stopping suddenly, or reducing too fast, can cause seizures, delirium and severe psychiatric symptoms. Any reduction must be a medically supervised taper. Speak to your GP before changing anything. In an emergency call 999 in the UK or 112 anywhere in Europe, or NHS 111 for urgent advice that is not an emergency. ## What long-term use does The costs accumulate quietly, which is why they are so often missed. Memory and concentration blur, and people describe feeling as though they are living behind glass. Coordination and reaction times fall, which raises the risk of falls and of road accidents. Sleep architecture is disrupted even though sleep feels longer. Emotional range narrows, so grief, joy and anxiety all flatten together. Taken with alcohol or opioids, benzodiazepines suppress breathing, and that combination is behind a large share of accidental overdose deaths. Underneath all of it sits the original problem. The anxiety, the insomnia or the trauma that led to the first prescription is still there, untreated, and now it has a second condition on top of it. Treating one without the other does not work. ## The signs people recognise too late What you might notice What it usually means Needing a higher dose for the same calm Tolerance. The brain has reduced its own braking to compensate. Anxiety that is worse between doses than it ever was before treatment Interdose withdrawal. This is the drug creating the symptom it was prescribed for, and it is very commonly mistaken for the illness getting worse. Watching the supply, counting tablets, planning the next prescription The medication has moved from something you take to something the week is organised around. Getting them from more than one source, or online A significant escalation, and street benzodiazepines carry an additional risk because the contents are unknown. Trying to cut down and finding you cannot Dependence. It is a pharmacological fact, not a failure of will. Memory gaps, fogginess, a sense of being flattened Cognitive effects of long-term use. They usually improve after withdrawal, though slowly. Using them alongside alcohol or opioids The most dangerous pattern of all, because all three suppress breathing. If several of those land, our [four-question self-check](/self-assessment/) takes under a minute, stores nothing, and will tell you whether a fuller conversation is worth having. ## 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/). ## The taper comes first, and it happens before you arrive This is the single most important thing on this page. Benzodiazepine withdrawal is not something to be brave about. 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 hospital and it is not a detox unit. Where you are physically dependent, a medically supervised withdrawal is arranged in an appropriate medical setting and completed before admission, billed separately from the programme fee. In practice that usually means a gradual taper, often by switching to a longer-acting benzodiazepine such as diazepam and reducing in stages, rather than a sudden stop. Tapers are measured in weeks and sometimes months, not days, and rushing one is how people get hurt. Qualified nursing is part of the team during your stay. If the assessment says a more intensive medical setting is the safer choice for you, we say so and we do not admit you. You can [check our registration yourself](/regulation-and-licensing/) on the Junta's public register. There is a second, honest point here. Because the taper is slow, the residential programme often sits after or alongside the later stages of a reduction rather than immediately after a rapid detox. That is a scheduling reality we will be straight with you about at assessment rather than after you have booked a flight. ### Not sure how a taper and a programme fit together? The assessment sorts the sequence before you commit to anything, and it happens before you travel. A clinician will tell you honestly if we are the wrong setting for you. [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 Psychoeducation One-to-one Holistic Equine 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. That is roughly fifteen structured group contacts a week, which is the part most people underestimate before they arrive and value most afterwards. Groups are small, in English, and run by the clinical team. Hearing someone else describe your own thinking back to you does something that individual work cannot, and it is the fastest route out of the isolation that benzodiazepine use builds. ### A seventeen-module curriculum, not a rest cure The psychoeducation strand moves through a fixed seventeen-module curriculum written by our clinical director. It is the core of what we call the Regulation Model, which is our adaptation of the PROMIS Clinics methodology to this centre rather than a model of our own invention. It covers skills training, communication styles, boundaries and decision-making, trigger recognition, self-esteem and self-concept, dual diagnosis, self-care and habits, emotions, crisis identification and management, suicide prevention, goals, grief, values, trauma and relapse, perfectionism, loneliness and isolation, and cross-addiction. Every module runs the same structure: check-in, theory, an experiential dynamic, shared reflection, and a commitment carried into the week. The cognitive work uses the ABC model, the same structure that underpins cognitive behavioural approaches: the event, the belief you attach to it, and the consequence that follows. It is taught, practised, applied between sessions and reviewed, rather than talked about once. ### Individual therapy alongside the group programme One-to-one sessions run three times a week and are where the material that will not surface in a group gets worked. For most people that is the thing underneath the use rather than the use itself. You are treated by the same small team throughout, in the same house. Nobody is handed between departments, and there is no rotation of therapists mid-stay. ### Yoga, meditation and body-based work Saturdays turn to holistic and body-based practice: yoga, meditation and mindfulness, breathwork, art, and time outdoors on the land. This is not decoration and it is not a spa timetable. Early recovery is a physiological event as much as a psychological one, and sleep, appetite and the ability to sit still are usually the first things to return. The self-care and habits module runs alongside it, treating rest as a right rather than a reward and food as connection rather than control. ### Equine therapy on working farmland The horses live here, on the forty hectares around the house, and equine work is part of the working week. Horses respond to what you are actually feeling rather than what you say you are feeling, which is why the work reaches people who have learned to talk their way around a therapy session. ### What happens when you go home Aftercare is planned before you leave rather than mentioned on the last day. 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 so nothing has to be explained from scratch. For clients elsewhere in Europe we arrange continuity online and help find local services. Alongside that, mutual-aid groups are free, run everywhere, and are worth using whatever else you choose. ## Who will actually treat your benzodiazepine dependence 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 Withdrawal Managed under medical supervision as a taper before admission, never abruptly. Qualified nursing on site throughout the stay, and prolonged symptoms are expected and planned for. The anxiety underneath This is the centre of the work. The emotions and crisis-management modules, ACT-based distress tolerance and individual therapy three times a week build the regulation the drug was doing for you. Insomnia A fixed sleep and wake time, daily activity outdoors, no daytime napping and the self-care module. Sleep is usually the last thing to come back, and knowing that in advance stops it triggering a relapse. Cognitive fog It improves with time off the drug, and the curriculum is structured, repeated and applied between sessions rather than delivered as a single lecture, which is deliberate. Trauma The trauma and relapse module, run alongside the addiction work rather than after it. See [trauma and addiction](/trauma-and-addiction-rehab-spain/). Alcohol or opioids used alongside Assessed before admission. The combination is the main driver of overdose risk and it changes the detox plan entirely. See [alcohol](/alcohol-addiction/) and [opioids](/heroin-addiction-treatment/). ## Treatment options for benzodiazepine dependence, 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 Medical detox Always required. A gradual medically supervised taper, never an abrupt stop, arranged before admission and billed separately. Residential rehab inpatient treatment Living at the centre for the whole programme. It suits people whose taper has repeatedly failed at home, or where the underlying anxiety needs intensive treatment at the same time. Outpatient treatment day programmes and therapy sessions Attending sessions and going home between them. Often the right route, because benzodiazepine tapers run for weeks or months and can be managed in the community. 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 prescribing history, not just the current doseWhat you were prescribed, when, by whom, at what doses, and every attempt to reduce. A taper is designed from that history, and guesswork makes it unsafe. - Do not start reducing on your own to look better at assessmentIt is a common instinct and it is the one thing that can genuinely harm you. Tell us the real dose. Nobody here is judging a prescription. ## How Sierra compares with private benzodiazepine rehab 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 benzodiazepines sit on top of something else Almost always, they do. The prescription came from somewhere, and for most people that somewhere is anxiety, panic, insomnia or trauma. Treating the dependence while sending the anxiety elsewhere is why so many tapers fail. At Sierra the emotional and trauma work runs alongside the addiction curriculum rather than after it. Our [anxiety](/anxiety-rehab-spain/), [dual diagnosis](/dual-diagnosis-rehab-spain/) and [trauma and addiction](/trauma-and-addiction-rehab-spain/) pages explain how the two are worked with together. Where psychiatric care or medication is part of your treatment, it is arranged through the appropriate medical route. ## When is it time? If the dose has climbed, if the anxiety between doses is worse than the anxiety you started with, or if you have tried to stop and could not, that is enough. You do not need to have run out of prescriptions or bought anything online. And you are not obliged to keep taking a medication for years because a two-week prescription was never reviewed. ### 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 Can I just stop taking benzodiazepines before I come? No, and this is the one part of this page we would ask you not to skip. Stopping benzodiazepines suddenly can cause seizures, delirium and severe psychiatric symptoms, and it can be fatal. Any reduction must be a medically supervised taper. Speak to your GP first, and let us arrange the withdrawal as part of your assessment. Do you carry out the detox at Sierra? No. Sierra is a registered health centre, not a hospital or a detox unit. Where a medically supervised withdrawal is needed it is completed in an appropriate medical setting before your residential stay begins, and billed separately. Qualified nurses are part of the team during your stay. How long does a benzodiazepine taper take? Longer than people expect. Tapers are usually measured in weeks and can run to months, depending on the drug, the dose and how long you have been taking it. Short-acting benzodiazepines such as alprazolam are often switched to a longer-acting one like diazepam first. The medical team managing your withdrawal sets the schedule, and we plan the residential stay around it rather than the other way round. I was prescribed these by my doctor. Is that still addiction? Most of the people we see were. Physical dependence on a prescribed benzodiazepine is a predictable pharmacological outcome of taking it for longer than a few weeks, and it says nothing about your character. What matters clinically is whether the drug is now driving decisions and whether stopping is something you can still choose to do. 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. Medical withdrawal is arranged and billed separately, as are psychiatric and laboratory costs. You get an itemised written quotation before admission. What if my anxiety comes back worse once I stop? It very often does at first, and that is expected rather than a sign the medication was necessary. Rebound anxiety is part of withdrawal. The programme is built to give you a different way of managing the state the drug was managing, which is why the emotional regulation work runs from the first week rather than being added at the end. How do I get help for benzodiazepine dependence? 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. What does benzodiazepine dependence 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. With benzodiazepines the taper is the long part, measured in weeks or months, so the residential stay is scheduled around it rather than the other way round. How much does benzodiazepine 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 benzodiazepine dependence? The signs are a dose that has climbed, anxiety that is worse between doses than before you started, memory that has become foggy, and being unable to cut down despite trying. Benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms include severe anxiety, insomnia, tremor, sweating and, if stopped abruptly, seizures. Is lasting recovery from benzodiazepine dependence 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 benzodiazepine 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 benzodiazepine dependence? 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/benzodiazepine-addiction-treatment/ Retrieved: 2026-08-27 Canonical HTML version of this page: https://sierrarecoveryspain.com/benzodiazepine-addiction-treatment/