# Heroin Rehab in Spain | Sierra Recovery, Malaga > Residential heroin and opioid addiction treatment in Malaga: 28 days at a published GBP 9,900, medical detox arranged first. [Home](/) / [Alcohol & drug addiction](/drug-addiction/) / Heroin addiction Heroin and opioid addiction # Heroin addiction treatment in Spain A licensed 28-day residential programme in the Málaga countryside, run by an English-speaking team, for people who are dependent on heroin or another opioid and cannot get free of it alone. 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. Heroin addiction is treated at Sierra Recovery as a 28-day residential programme in the Málaga countryside, published in full at £9,900. Because opioid dependence is physical, a medically supervised withdrawal is completed in an appropriate medical setting before you arrive, arranged as part of your assessment and billed separately, because we are a registered health centre and not a hospital. What follows is three structured group sessions a day, one-to-one therapy, a seventeen-module curriculum and an aftercare plan agreed before you leave, including the overdose risk that follows any drop in tolerance. 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 heroin addiction actually is Heroin is an opioid made from morphine, which comes from the opium poppy. It is a class A drug in the United Kingdom, and it works by binding to opioid receptors in the brain and spinal cord, the same receptors the body uses to manage pain and reward. That is why it removes physical pain and emotional pain at the same time, and it is why so many people describe the first use not as a high but as a relief. Dependence follows quickly, and it has two parts that are easy to confuse. Physical dependence means the body has adapted and will react badly when the drug stops. Addiction means the using has taken over the decisions: you keep going despite what it is costing, and stopping is no longer something you can simply decide to do. Someone can be physically dependent on a prescribed opioid without being addicted, and someone can be addicted long before withdrawal gets severe. Treatment has to address both. Tolerance is what makes heroin so dangerous. The dose that produced the effect last month does not produce it this month, so the amount climbs while the dose that would stop your breathing does not climb nearly as fast. That gap is where most overdoses happen, and it is why the highest risk period of all is the days after a break in use, when tolerance has fallen and the old dose is no longer survivable. Overdose risk is highest after any break in usingTolerance falls fast during a few days without heroin, in custody, in hospital or after a detox, and returning to your previous dose is how most overdoses happen. Signs of an opioid overdose are very slow or stopped breathing, blue lips, pinpoint pupils and unresponsiveness. Naloxone reverses it and is available free from UK drug services. 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 heroin does, in the short term and the long term In the short term it produces a rush, then several hours of drowsiness, warmth and detachment, with slowed breathing, constricted pupils, nausea and itching. Over time the picture changes. Constipation becomes chronic and can be severe. Sleep, appetite and immune function deteriorate. Where heroin is injected there is damage to veins, and a risk of abscesses, blood-borne viruses and, in the worst cases, infection of the heart valves. The psychological cost is usually the one that brings people in. The drug flattens everything, including the reasons you started, and the day narrows until it is organised entirely around avoiding withdrawal rather than around getting high. Most people we assess are not chasing a feeling any more. They are managing an absence. ## The signs people recognise too late Most people knew something was wrong long before they acted. These are the patterns that appear first. What you might notice What it usually means Needing to use to feel normal rather than to feel good The switch from reward to maintenance. Clinically this is the clearest single marker of dependence. Waking with aches, sweating, a running nose or cramps Early withdrawal. The body has adapted, and stopping without support is going to be hard rather than impossible. The dose climbing month by month Tolerance. It also means the margin between your dose and an overdose is narrowing. Days organised entirely around getting hold of it The using has become the structure of the day rather than an event in it. Repeatedly deciding to stop and not managing it The gap between intention and behaviour is the definition of the disorder, not a failure of character. Using alone The single biggest risk factor for a fatal overdose, because nobody is there to call an ambulance. Money, work or relationships that no longer add up The point at which most people first tell someone, and usually years after help would have been easier. 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/). ## Heroin detox comes first, and it happens before you arrive This is the part of the page that matters most, and it is where we are deliberately blunt. 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. Anyone physically dependent on heroin or any other opioid needs a medically supervised withdrawal, and at Sierra that is completed in an appropriate medical setting before admission, arranged as part of your assessment and billed separately from the programme fee. 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. What a medical detox involves is managed withdrawal rather than endurance. Symptoms are treated, opioid substitution or a tapering regime may be used, and observation continues through the peak. Trying to do it alone is not usually fatal in the way alcohol withdrawal can be, but it fails, and each failed attempt lowers tolerance while leaving the addiction untouched, which is the combination that kills people. ### The withdrawal timeline, roughly When What tends to happen 6 to 12 hours Restlessness, watering eyes and nose, yawning, sweating, aching muscles and rising anxiety. 1 to 3 days The peak. Cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, goose flesh, no sleep, and cravings at their most intense. 4 to 7 days The physical symptoms settle. Sleep and appetite start to return, unevenly. Weeks to months Post-acute symptoms: low mood, poor sleep, irritability and waves of craving. This is the window the residential month is built for. Timings vary with the dose, how long you have used, whether other drugs are involved and your general health. Methadone withdrawal in particular runs a longer course. Your assessment sets the actual plan. ### Not sure how the detox gets arranged? The assessment answers that 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 heroin 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 heroin addiction 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 Completed under medical supervision before admission. Qualified nursing on site throughout the stay, and post-acute symptoms are expected and planned for rather than treated as setbacks. Cravings The trigger-recognition module maps your own cues and builds a personal safety plan, practised in group rather than described in theory. Pain Where opioid use began with genuine physical pain, that has to be addressed rather than ignored. Pain management is arranged through the appropriate medical route and coordinated with your treatment. Trauma The trauma and relapse module addresses how unprocessed trauma drives use, run alongside the addiction work rather than after it. See [trauma and addiction](/trauma-and-addiction-rehab-spain/). Low mood and anxiety The emotions, self-esteem and crisis-management modules, plus individual therapy three times a week. Where a mental health condition sits underneath, see [dual diagnosis](/dual-diagnosis-rehab-spain/). Overdose risk Named directly in the relapse plan. Reduced tolerance after a period of abstinence is the single most dangerous fact about opioid recovery, and everyone leaves knowing it. Isolation Small groups in one house, the loneliness and isolation module, and a weekly aftercare group that continues after discharge. ## Treatment options for heroin and opioid addiction, 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 Required wherever there is physical dependence. Completed in an appropriate medical setting before admission and billed separately. Residential rehab inpatient treatment Living at the centre for the whole programme. It suits people who have detoxed before and returned to using, because detox removes the drug and leaves the reasons intact. Outpatient treatment day programmes and therapy sessions Attending sessions and going home between them. Works alongside opioid substitution treatment where someone is stable, housed and supported. 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 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. [Talk to FRANK](https://www.talktofrank.com/) Confidential drugs information and advice, 24 hours a day, on 0300 123 6600. No judgement and no cost. [Narcotics Anonymous](https://ukna.org/) Free mutual aid meetings for anyone with a drug problem, in person and online, with no cost and no waiting list. [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. [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. 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. - Be complete about what you are takingHeroin, prescribed opioids, methadone or buprenorphine, benzodiazepines, alcohol, everything. The detox plan depends entirely on this, and an incomplete picture is genuinely dangerous. - Decide what you want to be differentNot "stop using", which is the outcome, but what you want back. People who arrive with that answer do measurably better in the groups. ## How Sierra compares with private heroin 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 heroin sits on top of something else Opioid use very often sits on top of chronic pain, trauma, depression or anxiety, and treating the using while sending the rest elsewhere rarely holds. At Sierra the emotional and trauma work runs alongside the addiction curriculum rather than after it. Our [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, and we will be honest with you before admission if a more intensive setting is the safer choice. ## When is it time? With opioids the honest answer is sooner than with almost anything else, because the risk is not gradual. Every failed attempt to stop lowers tolerance without removing the addiction, and that is the combination that ends lives. If the using has stopped being a choice, that is enough. You do not have to have lost everything first. ### 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 Do I have to detox before I come? Yes, where you are physically dependent, and almost everyone using heroin regularly is. Sierra is a registered health centre, not a hospital or a detox unit, so a medically supervised withdrawal is completed in an appropriate medical setting before your residential stay begins, and billed separately. We arrange it as part of your assessment. Qualified nurses are part of the team during your stay. How long does heroin withdrawal last? Symptoms usually begin six to twelve hours after the last dose, peak between day one and day three, and settle physically within about a week. Low mood, poor sleep, irritability and waves of craving can continue for weeks or months afterwards. Methadone withdrawal runs a longer course. Your assessment sets the actual plan. Can I come if I am on methadone or buprenorphine? Tell us at assessment and we will be straight with you about what is possible. Substitution treatment changes the detox plan and the timing significantly, and it is decided by the medical team managing your withdrawal rather than by us. What we will not do is admit you on a plan that is not clinically safe. 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. Hospital detox is arranged and billed separately, as are medical, psychiatric and laboratory costs. You get an itemised written quotation before admission. I have detoxed before and always gone back. Will this be different? Detox on its own has a poor record, and that is not a personal failing, it is what detox is. It removes the drug and leaves the reasons intact. The residential month exists to work on what the opioid was doing for you and to build something else in its place, which is why the programme comes after the detox rather than instead of it. What about the risk of overdose after treatment? It is the single most important thing to understand. Tolerance drops during any period without opioids, so a dose that was routine before treatment can be fatal after it. Everyone leaves with that stated plainly, with a relapse plan that names it, and with the recommendation to have naloxone available. Naloxone is free from UK drug services. How do I get help for heroin addiction? 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. Narcotics Anonymous runs free meetings everywhere with no waiting list, and naloxone is free from UK drug services. What does heroin addiction 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. How much does heroin 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 heroin addiction? Heroin withdrawal symptoms begin six to twelve hours after the last dose: watering eyes and nose, yawning, sweating, aching muscles, then cramps, nausea, diarrhoea and no sleep at the peak. The signs of dependence are using to feel normal rather than to feel good, a dose that keeps climbing, and days organised entirely around obtaining it. Is lasting recovery from heroin addiction 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 heroin 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. For opioids specifically, the relapse plan must name the fall in tolerance after any break in use, because that is what turns a relapse into an overdose. How can I help someone with heroin addiction? 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/heroin-addiction-treatment/ Retrieved: 2026-08-27 Canonical HTML version of this page: https://sierrarecoveryspain.com/heroin-addiction-treatment/