Drug and Alcohol Rehab in East London: the honest guide

Clinically reviewed byNerea Encinas SánchezDirector 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.

Speak to a clinician about treatment from East London

Confidential, no obligation, and no referral fee is paid to anyone for sending you here.

Speak to a clinician+44 1202 653136

Free drug and alcohol services in East London

Start here, before you consider paying for anything. These services are free, they are local, and for a great many people they are enough on their own. We publish them because a centre that only tells you about its own programme is not giving you the full picture.

Checked 28 July 2026. Commissioned services are retendered periodically, so confirm the current provider with the authority before you travel to an appointment.

AA and NA meetings in East London

Mutual aid meetings are free, they run most days, and there is no waiting list, no referral and no assessment. You can walk into one this week. They work alongside whatever else you choose rather than instead of it, and plenty of people use them and nothing else.

What actually happens at a first meeting

You do not have to speak, and you do not have to give your surname. Most meetings open with a reading, someone shares for a while, and others speak if they want to. It lasts about an hour, and it is free, though a basket goes round for the room hire. Nobody takes a register and nobody will ask you to commit to anything.

An open meeting can be attended by anyone, including family. A closed meeting is for people who think they may have a problem themselves. If the first group does not suit you, the next one along will feel different, because each has its own character. The usual advice is to try three before deciding it is not for you.

We link the official finders rather than print a timetable, because meeting times and venues change and a stale listing sends someone to a locked door. Checked 28 July 2026.

Private residential rehab for people in East London

There are no private residential rehab centres based in East London itself. Residential detox and rehab for East London residents happen either by referral through the free NHS service above, or privately at a rehab clinic or treatment centre elsewhere, typically in outer London, the wider Home Counties, or further afield, including services in London that sit just outside the East London boroughs. So when people search for rehab centres in London, or alcohol rehab centres in London, what they generally find are private facilities near East London rather than inside it, plus a smaller number of specialist inpatient rehab centres further out. In practice a residential stay at any inpatient rehab facility almost always means travelling, whichever route you choose, which is worth knowing when you weigh up treatment abroad against private residential treatment nearer home. Before you commit to any private centre or residential treatment option, check its current rating and registered location on the Care Quality Commission register.

What residential treatment typically involves

Whichever drug and alcohol rehab services you use, a residential or community treatment programme usually combines several elements, though exactly what is offered varies by provider, so always confirm with the service directly. A typical treatment plan starts with an assessment, followed where clinically appropriate by a supervised medical detox to manage withdrawal symptoms safely, and then a structured programme of therapy: one-to-one counselling, group therapy, and often family therapy sessions to involve people close to you. Many programmes also draw on cognitive behavioural therapy and other therapeutic approaches, alongside holistic therapies such as mindfulness, exercise or creative work, and relapse prevention planning to support long-term recovery once the programme ends. Aftercare, whether through the same service or through free peer support such as AA or NA, is normally part of a sound addiction recovery plan rather than an optional extra. If you have co-occurring mental health issues alongside drug or alcohol use, sometimes called dual diagnosis, mention this at assessment, since it shapes which treatment option and which service is the right fit; alcohol misuse and other alcohol use issues are often assessed and treated in the same pathway as drug dependency.

What treatment costs

As an indication only, published UK directories list private residential rehab from around £12,000 to £40,000 a month, with almost nothing credible under £10,000 a month. The free NHS route costs you nothing. These are indicative ranges drawn from published directory and provider figures, not quotes, covering both drug rehab and alcohol rehab centres alike, and reflecting what London drug and alcohol rehab treatment centres and alcohol rehab treatment centres elsewhere in the UK typically publish; every rehab facility sets its own fees, so confirm directly with the rehab centre or treatment centre before you decide.

Cost ranges checked 25 July 2026. Typical published UK ranges, not quotations.

Considering residential treatment abroad?

Sierra Recovery, Málaga, Spain

Most people who look abroad are not chasing sunshine. They are trying to get far enough away from the people, the places and the routine that keep the drinking or the using going, because they have already discovered that stopping while all of that is still fifteen minutes away does not hold. That distance is the whole point, and it is the one thing a clinic near East London cannot give you.

Sierra Recovery is a working farmhouse on forty hectares of olive groves in the Málaga countryside, about forty five minutes from the airport and roughly three hours from most UK airports. It is small, the team is English-speaking, and the same clinicians treat you from the first day to the last. What follows is what that actually buys, stated plainly enough that you can compare it with anything else you are considering.

What matters when comparing	Sierra Recovery
Is it actually licensed	A registered health centre 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. You can look it up yourself on the public register.
What it costs, in full	£9,900 for the 28-day residential programme, published on the site up front. All rooms are individual. You get an itemised written quotation before admission.
Who pays whom	No referral fees are paid or accepted, in either direction. Nobody earns a commission for sending you here, which is worth checking about any centre you are comparing.
What the clinical work is	Three group sessions a day five days a week, individual therapy three times a week, and a seventeen-module psychoeducation curriculum. The approach adapts the method of PROMIS Clinics, treating addiction in the United Kingdom since 1986.
Where the limits are	It is not a hospital and not a detox unit. Where a medically supervised detox is clinically needed it is completed in an appropriate medical setting before admission and billed separately. Qualified nurses are part of the team throughout the stay.
Who you speak to first	Our admissions team, all of them clinicians, working to the standards set by our clinical director. The assessment is free, and if a service closer to home suits you better, we will say so.
What happens afterwards	Aftercare is agreed before you leave: a session every week for a full year, online or in person at the PROMIS clinics in London, which is more than 48 sessions in the twelve months after discharge. A written handover goes to your GP so nothing has to be explained from scratch.

Every figure above is published elsewhere on this site and can be checked. See pricing, regulation and licensing and the programme.

Which option is right for you

Weighing up rehab options for drug addiction, alcohol addiction, or both together comes down to four honest questions: cost, urgency, how close to home you need to stay, and whether you need medical detox first. Start with your free borough NHS service if you are unsure, if cost is the barrier, or if you want to stay near family and work in East London. Use AA or NA alongside whatever you choose, including their free group sessions. Private residential in the UK if you need detox and rehab together under one roof, are not fit to fly, or need to stay close to home. Treatment abroad only if a private UK stay is out of reach, distance from your usual triggers would help, and you can travel and do not need an immediate hospital detox. If your situation is urgent or medically complex, including where mental health issues sit alongside drug or alcohol use, the local NHS route is almost always the faster and safer first call, since it can coordinate both a detox referral and mental health support in one place.

If you would like to talk through whether treatment abroad fits your circumstances, our team will tell you honestly either way, including whether our residential addiction treatment programme is the right fit, whether a residential rehab treatment centre in the UK suits you better, or whether a local drug and alcohol rehab service is the right call. Not every drug rehab treatment or alcohol rehab treatment centre offers the same rehab treatment approach, so what a rehab offers matters as much as where it is. Read how admission to Sierra works.