# Our Clinical Team | Sierra Recovery Spain > The people who care for you at Sierra Recovery: our director and General Health Psychologist, the nursing team, and the PROMIS Clinics model adapted to Sierra. [Home](/) / [About](/regulation-and-licensing/) / Clinical team The people behind the care # The clinical team at Sierra Recovery The people who assess you, sit with you and run the daily programme. We name the people we can name with their consent, and we are clear about what our team is and is not. Sierra Recovery's clinical work is led by Nerea Encinas Sánchez, a General Health Psychologist and the centre's director, and is built on a clinical model adapted from the PROMIS methodology developed in the United Kingdom by its founder, Robin Lefever, who has worked in addiction treatment since 1986. Around them, qualified nurses and experienced therapists deliver the programme day to day. We publish the names of the people we can name honestly, and we are open about the limits of what our licence covers. ## Who leads the clinical work Sierra's director is Nerea Encinas Sánchez, a General Health Psychologist. That is Spain's regulated title for a general health psychologist, held under the Junta de Andalucía and requiring a recognised university qualification and registration to practise. She is registered with the Colegio Oficial de Psicología de Andalucía Oriental (COPAO) under number AO13857. She oversees the therapeutic side of the programme: how you are assessed before you travel, how the group and individual work is run, and how the emotional and trauma work fits alongside the addiction curriculum. Every enquiry is assessed against the standards she sets, and she signs off the pre-travel assessment herself. If a more intensive medical or psychiatric setting would be safer, you will be told plainly, before you book anything. The way she works with the group is grounded in [the Regulation Model](/the-regulation-model/) and delivered through the specific [therapies](/therapies/) that make up the week. ## The model the team works to Our clinical approach adapts the model of PROMIS, a UK clinic that has treated addiction since 1986, through its founder Robin Lefever. We use their model adapted to Sierra, and we are clinically backed by PROMIS, whose therapeutic model has been in continuous use for more than 40 years. It rests on a simple, non-shaming idea: addiction is a learned way of regulating an unbearable internal state, not a moral failure or a lack of willpower. The team is trained to work with that idea rather than against the person in front of them. In practice this means the skills-based, psychoeducational curriculum you see in [our programme](/our-programme-at-sierra-recovery/): sessions on emotional regulation, communication styles, boundaries and decision-making, trauma and attachment. Where an addiction sits on top of depression, anxiety or trauma, the team treats both together rather than sending the mental health side elsewhere, which is the core of our [dual diagnosis](/dual-diagnosis-rehab-spain/) work. ## Nurses, therapists and the wider team Qualified nurses are part of the team throughout your stay. They are not there to run a hospital ward, because Sierra is not one. Where a medically supervised detox is needed, it is completed in an appropriate medical setting before the residential programme begins, so that by the time you arrive the acute medical stage is behind you. You can read exactly how that works, and how we assess for it, on our [assessment and detox](/medical-assessment-and-detox/) page. The daily group and psychoeducation sessions are run by experienced therapists and facilitators working to the same model. We keep numbers small and the setting rural and calm on purpose. We only publish an individual clinician's name and credentials with their written consent, and the people below have given theirs; anyone who has not is described by role rather than named, because we would rather be accurate than impressive. ## Governance, and what we will not claim - What we are: a registered health centre under the Junta de Andalucía, NICA 67331. - What we are not: a hospital, and not a detox unit. We do not describe ourselves as either, and we do not use "luxury" to sell the setting. - What we will not do: publish a success rate we cannot stand behind, invent qualifications, or pay referral fees for your enquiry. You can verify our registration and read how our regulator works on the [regulation and licensing](/regulation-and-licensing/) page, and see the honest position we take on measurement under [outcomes and quality](/outcomes-and-quality/). If any part of the team's role changes, this page changes with it. If you would like to speak to the person who will actually assess you, our [admissions](/admissions/) route puts you in touch with the clinicians who carry out the pre-travel assessment, and the full cost of the 28-day programme is published, with nothing hidden, on our [pricing](/pricing/) page. ## The people we can name Our on-site clinical and support team in Andalucía, and the PROMIS clinicians whose model shapes the programme. Everyone below is named with their consent. ### Nerea Encinas Sánchez Director · General Health Psychologist MSc General Health Psychology. Leads clinical standards, assessment and admissions, and coordinates with the linked treatment centre. ### Berenice Paramés Jones General Health Psychologist Degree in Psychology and a Master’s in Clinical and Counselling Psychology, Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa; qualification as a General Health Psychologist recognised in Spain. ### María del Pilar Puente Martínez Psychologist Degree in Psychology from the National Distance Education University (UNED), with specialisms in health psychology and work and organisational psychology. ### Marta Leal Social worker Social history, family mediation, links to external services and preparation for independent living after discharge. ### Estefanía Ros Bautista Social integration Higher Technician in Social Integration, IES Ben Gabirol, Málaga. Daily routines, social-skills work and the day-to-day life of the house. ### The PROMIS model we adapt ### Robin Lefever Founder of Sierra · MD, PROMIS BSc in Psychology, University of Kent. Founder of Sierra Recovery and Managing Director of PROMIS Clinics, in addiction treatment for around 35 years. ### Chester Page Clinical & Compliance, PROMIS Registered Manager at PROMIS, trained to master’s level in psychology and therapeutic interventions. At PROMIS since 2016. ### Lucy Britton Admissions, PROMIS General Manager for admissions at PROMIS, managing the first point of clinical contact. ### Clayton Grant Clinical Lead & Senior Therapist, PROMIS Senior therapist and clinical lead at PROMIS, in the field since 2013. ## Questions people actually ask Who will I actually speak to when I enquire? You speak to our admissions team, all of them clinicians. The pre-travel assessment is signed off by our director, Nerea Encinas Sánchez, General Health Psychologist. Is there a nurse or doctor on site? Qualified nurses are part of the team throughout your stay. Sierra is a registered health centre, not a hospital, so where a medically supervised detox is needed it is completed in an appropriate medical setting before your programme begins. If you are dependent on alcohol or benzodiazepines, do not stop suddenly on your own. In a life-threatening emergency call 999 or 112, and NHS 111 for urgent advice in the UK. Who is Robin Lefever? Robin Lefever is the founder of Sierra Recovery and Managing Director of PROMIS, a UK clinic treating addiction since the mid-1980s. Sierra's clinical approach adapts the PROMIS model and its non-shaming view of addiction as a learned way of regulating an unbearable internal state. Why don't you list every clinician's name and qualifications? We only publish an individual's name and credentials with their written consent, so we describe much of the team by role, nurses and therapists, rather than naming everyone. We would rather be accurate than pad the page, and we never invent qualifications. Is Sierra a psychiatric hospital or a detox clinic? No. Sierra is a registered health centre under the Junta de Andalucía, NICA 67331. It is not a hospital and not a detox unit, and we will tell you honestly before admission if a more intensive setting is safer for you. + ## 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/)[Our programme](/our-programme-at-sierra-recovery/)[Our therapies](/therapies/)[Assessment & detox](/medical-assessment-and-detox/)[Regulation & licensing](/regulation-and-licensing/)[Admissions](/admissions/) --- Source: https://sierrarecoveryspain.com/clinical-team/ Retrieved: 2026-08-27 Canonical HTML version of this page: https://sierrarecoveryspain.com/clinical-team/