Rehab in Spain: your questions, answered plainly

Sierra Recovery is a registered health centre in Málaga province, Spain, and its programme uses the PROMIS Clinics model adapted to Sierra and is clinically backed by PROMIS Clinics, one of the United Kingdom’s longest established private rehabilitation clinics, treating addiction since 1986.

PROMIS is family owned and run, is registered with the Care Quality Commission for its clinics in England, and its Managing Director is Robin Lefever, BSc Psychology, University of Kent. Sierra Recovery Services S.L. is a separate Spanish company operating a single centre, regulated in Spain by the Junta de Andalucía.

Yes. Sierra Recovery Services S.L. 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. The authorisation was granted by the Delegación Territorial de Salud y Consumo (the regional health and consumer affairs authority) in Málaga following an on-site inspection with a positive assessment.

The authorised care unit is atención sanitaria a drogodependientes (healthcare for drug dependency, authorised care unit U.71), in a supervised residential setting. It is not a hospital licence. You can confirm it yourself: search for N.I.C.A. 67331 in the Junta de Andalucía public register of health centres.

We do not publish a success or recovery rate, and we would be cautious of any rehab that does. There is no shared, audited definition of “success” in this field, follow-up periods and measures vary from centre to centre, and a single percentage on a website is almost never one you could define, measure or defend.

What we can show you is verifiable: our licence and registration number, the clinical model we are built on, the credentials of our team, and how the programme works. We would rather earn your trust with facts you can check than a number you cannot.

Three things, and all of them are checkable. It is a licensed centre built on a clinical model adapted from PROMIS Clinics, treating addiction in the UK since 1986. It publishes its price rather than making you ring up and negotiate. And it treats the addiction and the mental health underneath it in the same programme, in English, in a small setting in the Málaga countryside, forty five minutes from the airport.

Most people stay twenty eight days or longer, because that is what the clinical work realistically takes. Length of stay is agreed after a clinical assessment rather than sold as a fixed package, and it can be extended if the clinical picture calls for it.

Yes, and in the same programme. Anxiety, depression, trauma, PTSD and burnout are treated alongside the addiction by the same clinical team, whether they are standalone or co-occurring with substance use. Splitting the two and referring one of them elsewhere is one of the most common reasons treatment fails.

Yes. Problem gambling, gaming, compulsive internet use, and love and relationship addiction are all treated at the centre. Addiction goes further than substances, and the underlying work is often the same.

The clinical programme draws on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), EMDR and somatic experiencing, delivered by a trauma-informed team. Alongside that there is equine-assisted therapy, yoga, mindfulness and art.

A typical week includes group work four times a day and three individual therapy sessions. The horses live on the land, so equine work is part of the ordinary week rather than an outing.

A representative day runs from a morning walk or yoga, breakfast, and a morning group, through individual therapy or a psychiatric review, lunch and rest, then equine therapy or trauma work in the afternoon, an evening group or family call, dinner, and a reflective close. The daily timetable is confirmed by the clinical team on arrival.

Yes. Medically supervised withdrawal is overseen by our doctor, with medical and psychiatric direction. Where clinical risk means withdrawal should happen in a hospital setting, it is managed at our partner hospital instead. We assess which of the two applies to you before you travel, not after you arrive.

If something clinical comes up that needs care outside the centre, for example a hospital admission, that care is arranged with the appropriate provider and billed separately by them. Our own fees do not change once they are agreed in writing. We are a supervised residential centre, not a hospital, and we are clear about that line before you travel.

Usually within days. We assess you clinically by phone or video before you book a flight, and if this setting is not right for you we say so at that point rather than after you have travelled. The centre is forty five minutes from Málaga airport and we arrange the transfer. See how admissions work.

Sometimes, yes. If you are reading this for someone who will not accept help, call us and we can talk you through how to approach it, and where appropriate arrange a professional intervention. It is one of the hardest positions to be in, and you do not have to work it out alone.

No. Every clinician and every group runs in English, and the whole team is English speaking. Most of the people who come to us travel from the United Kingdom and Ireland, though we accept clients from across Europe.

The centre is a rustic restored farmhouse, a cortijo, in Humilladero, Málaga province. It is well inland from the coast, in open countryside surrounded by olive groves and mountains, roughly forty five minutes from Málaga airport. We arrange the transfer and meet you on arrival.

The residential programme is £9,900, in your own private room. A medically supervised detox in hospital, where it is clinically needed, is arranged and billed separately. You receive the full figure in writing after a clinical assessment and before you commit, and our fees do not change once agreed. See the full pricing breakdown.

The difference is the cost of running a clinic in the Málaga countryside rather than in the UK, not a saving on the standard of care. The clinical model is adapted from PROMIS Clinics and clinically backed by them in the United Kingdom, and a comparable private residential stay in the UK typically costs considerably more.

Tell us who your insurer is when you get in touch and we will tell you honestly what is and is not likely to be covered, and we are happy to talk through payment options for your situation.

Your care continues for a full year. Aftercare is one session a week, online wherever you live or in person at the PROMIS clinics in London, which is more than 48 sessions across the twelve months after discharge and is included in the fee rather than sold to you on the way out. Alongside that there is a weekly group with the people you did the programme with, and a written clinical handover to your GP or provider on discharge.

Yes. Family therapy is part of the programme rather than an optional extra, because relapse risk is shaped heavily by what someone returns home to. Family sessions and psychiatric input are scheduled where they are clinically indicated.

Yes. What you tell us, and the fact that you are here at all, is treated in confidence and handled in line with data protection law. We only share clinical information with your consent, for example the written handover to your GP on discharge.

Meals are prepared by our Michelin-trained chef, Harri Archanco, who trained at the Michelin-starred restaurant Galvin at Windows in London. Food is seasonal, uses produce from the Málaga province, and is served as full board with dietary and clinical needs built in. Appetite is one of the first things to return in early recovery, and it matters more than it sounds.