Drug and Alcohol Rehab in Wellington: the main options, compared

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 Wellington

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 Wellington

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 Wellington

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.

What “inpatient” “dual diagnosis” and other rehab terms mean

A few terms are worth explaining before you choose between them. Inpatient or residential treatment means staying at a rehab centre full-time while you go through a structured treatment plan, away from your usual routine and triggers. Outpatient treatment, by contrast, lets you keep living at home while attending appointments. Dual diagnosis is the term used when someone is dealing with drug or alcohol addiction alongside existing mental health conditions, such as anxiety or depression, and needs a treatment plan that addresses the addiction and mental health together rather than one after the other. Most established inpatient rehab centres blend group therapy, one-to-one sessions and structured approaches such as cognitive behavioural therapy, and some offer art therapy alongside more conventional group sessions, aiming to tailor the treatment plan to the individual rather than run one fixed comprehensive addiction treatment programme for everyone. Substance abuse and drug misuse are often used interchangeably to describe drug or alcohol use that is causing mental and physical harm, whether or not physical dependence has developed. A good rehab clinic will tell you plainly whether a specialised treatment plan or a more standard rehab programme fits your situation, and will explain the underlying causes of addiction it plans to address, not just the symptoms.

Choosing between drug rehab and alcohol rehab services

Rehab in Wellington and rehab facilities in Wellington are, in practice, mostly the free and charitable options above: recognised drug rehab and alcohol rehab services with private beds are rare inside the city itself. Alcohol addiction in Wellington, like drug addiction anywhere, rarely exists in isolation: alcohol and drug addiction is commonly linked to broader mental health disorders, and untreated alcohol and drug misuse can lead to serious health complications over time, from liver disease to worsening mental health issues. Because of that, mental health and addiction services increasingly try to address addiction and mental health together rather than as separate problems, and a good treatment centre will ask about both at assessment. Whether the setting is a drug rehab, an alcohol rehab or a combined drug and alcohol rehab centre, a customised treatment and recovery programme built through a form of talking therapies and structured therapy programmes tends to work better than a single fixed course, because it is tailored to the needs of the person rather than the diagnosis alone. A treatment plan should be tailored to fully address their specific needs, including any physical and psychological dependence that has built up, and the practical detail too, such as a facility’s amenities and location. None of that changes what is free in Wellington today, only what to weigh up if you look further afield.

Private and residential treatment for people in Wellington

We could not verify a private residential rehab clinic based in Wellington city itself. For Wellington residents, residential treatment usually happens one of three ways: by referral through the public service above, through the charitable Salvation Army Bridge programme, which runs residential whare, or privately at a rehab centre elsewhere in New Zealand. The recognised private residential clinics and inpatient rehabs tend to sit in Auckland and Christchurch rather than the capital, and some offer extended rehab programmes beyond the standard 28 days. In practice, choosing a residential programme almost always means travelling, whichever route you take, which is worth knowing when you weigh up treatment further afield.

What it costs, honestly

These are indicative ranges from published directories and providers, dated below, not quotations. Every rehab centre sets its own fees after assessment.

• Public treatment (Te Haika, Community Alcohol and Drug Service): free.
• The Salvation Army Bridge programme: low or no cost, as a charitable service.
• Private residential rehab in New Zealand: commonly around NZ$10,000 to NZ$30,000 for a 28-day stay, with Auckland at the higher end and premium facilities well above that. As one published example, a Christchurch rehab clinic lists around NZ$12,995 for a six-week programme.
• Sierra Recovery, Spain: £9,900 for a 28-day residential programme, private room included; any hospital detox is arranged and billed separately.

Cost ranges checked 25 July 2026 from published provider and directory figures, not endorsements and not quotations. The overall cost of rehab varies with location, length of stay and whether detox is needed, which is why we set out each route separately rather than quote one figure. Some private rehabs accept private insurance, which is worth asking about directly if you are comparing paid options.

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 Wellington 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 rehab centre or treatment programme is right for you

Start with Te Haika or the Alcohol Drug Helpline if you are unsure, if cost is the barrier, or if you want to stay near family and work. The Salvation Army Bridge programme if you want structured residential treatment close to home at little or no cost. Private residential rehab facilities in New Zealand if you need detox and rehab treatment together under one roof and can fund it, bearing in mind most inpatient rehab centres are outside Wellington. Treatment abroad only if a private stay at home is out of reach, distance from your usual surroundings would help, and you can travel and do not need an immediate hospital detox. Use AA or NA alongside whatever you choose for the wider support network that helps long-term recovery.

Whichever route fits, the real rehab work happens in the sessions themselves, and addressing both the addiction and any existing mental health conditions gives the best chance of optimal, long-term addiction recovery. Long-term recovery also depends on commitment to those changes once any formal treatment programme ends. The honest next step is a conversation with someone who will tell you plainly what suits your situation. If you would like to understand how our residential programme works and whether it is right for you, you can read about admissions to Sierra Recovery.