The Sierra programme: a structured, licensed path, not a rest cure

How the programme is built

Our starting point is simple and it runs through everything we do: addiction is not a moral failure or a lack of willpower, it is a learned way of regulating an unbearable internal state. We call the way we teach this the Regulation Model. The programme is designed to interrupt that loop at the points where it can actually be changed, and to give you skills you can still use on a hard Tuesday night six months from now.

The clinical content is skills-based psychoeducation: structured group sessions that combine clear teaching with experiential practice. Each session follows the same rhythm, a check-in, a short piece of theory, an experiential exercise, a shared reflection, and a personal commitment for the week. The methods are established ones, cognitive restructuring from Ellis and REBT, acceptance and commitment work, emotion-regulation and distress-tolerance skills, attachment and trauma-informed practice. The programme is trauma-informed and non-shaming throughout: no confrontation, no "clean and dirty", no relapse treated as moral failure.

A real weekly structure

Monday to Friday are built around structured therapeutic group blocks that move through the curriculum below. Saturdays turn to holistic and body-based work, and Sundays include a supervised excursion, because reconnecting with the world beyond a clinic is part of the treatment, not a break from it. You have your own private room, full board with food from local produce, and qualified nursing as part of the team throughout your stay.

The 17-module curriculum

The programme moves through three strands. Nobody arrives needing all of it in the same measure, so the work is paced to where you actually are.

Understanding yourself

• Self-esteem and self-knowledge. Who I am beneath the roles and the mask, using tools like the Johari window and an honest map of achievements.
• Communication styles. Verbal and non-verbal communication, the family nucleus, and conflict management.
• Boundaries and decision-making. Knowing your limits, your strengths, and how to say no.
• Emotions. Identifying and regulating emotions in the body as well as the mind, with acceptance and self-compassion for mistakes.

The mechanism of addiction

• Trigger recognition. Mapping your own cues and building a personal safety plan.
• Dual diagnosis. The mental health condition underneath the addiction, masking, and how maladaptive behaviour forms. Read more.
• Trauma and relapse. How unprocessed trauma drives use, and how to hold the two apart. Read more.
• Crisis management and cross-addiction. Recognising the early signals of a crisis, and the trap of swapping one dependency for another.

Rebuilding a life worth staying sober for

• Self-care and habits. Sleep, food, and the body as a place of dignity, not a task.
• Values and goals. Small, achievable steps toward a life that reflects what you actually value.
• Grief, perfectionism and loneliness. The losses addiction leaves, the inner critic, and reconnecting with other people.

For a plainer overview of what a residential stay involves, and how it differs from outpatient care, see residential treatment.

What the programme is, and is not

It is a licensed residential treatment programme in a registered health centre with qualified nurses on the team. 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 your residential programme begins, and we assess that with you before you travel. The clinical model behind the programme is adapted from that of PROMIS Clinics, one of the United Kingdom’s longest established private rehabs, treating addiction since 1986.

The programme does not end at the airport. Aftercare is one session a week for a full year after you leave, online wherever you live or in person at the PROMIS clinics in London, which is more than 48 sessions across the twelve months and is part of the programme rather than an add-on. It is agreed before you go, with a written handover to your GP.

The whole residential programme is £9,900, published in full. See exactly what is included, or how admission works.