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Behavioural addictions
Behavioural addiction treatment in Spain
A licensed 28-day residential programme in the Málaga countryside, run by an English-speaking team, for gambling, gaming, compulsive sexual behaviour, spending and the other addictions that leave nothing to test for.
A private room as standard, a price published in full, and no referral fees paid to anyone for sending you here.
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.
Behavioural addictions are treated at Sierra Recovery in the same 28-day residential programme as substance addictions, in the Málaga countryside, published in full at £9,900. There is no detox, so the psychological work begins on the first day, and because you cannot abstain from money, the internet or sex the way you can from cocaine, the target is control and function rather than elimination, written into a plan agreed with you. Blocking access, self-exclusion and temporary handover of financial control are treated as part of the clinical work rather than as admin. Cross-addiction is taught directly, because a behaviour taking over from a substance is one of the most common patterns in recovery.
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 a behavioural addiction actually is
A behavioural addiction is compulsive engagement in a behaviour that continues despite mounting harm, with the same features that define substance addiction: tolerance, meaning more is needed for the same effect, withdrawal in the form of irritability and restlessness when it stops, loss of control, and a life progressively rearranged around it.
Two are formally recognised. Gambling disorder sits in DSM-5 alongside the substance use disorders, and gaming disorder was added to ICD-11 in 2019. Others, including compulsive sexual behaviour, compulsive shopping and compulsive internet use, are less settled diagnostically but present clinically in exactly the same way and respond to the same treatment.
The mechanism is the same because the circuitry is the same. A behaviour that reliably produces relief, escape or a surge of reward will be repeated, and repetition with escalating stakes changes what feels normal. There is no substance involved, which changes the treatment plan considerably but does not make the condition milder. It usually makes it harder to detect.
Gambling disorder is associated with a substantially raised risk of suicide, and it peaks around financial crisis and disclosure. In the UK call Samaritans on 116 123, free, any time, or text SHOUT to 85258. The National Gambling Helpline is 0808 8020 133, free and open 24 hours. If you are in immediate danger call 999 or 112.
What we treat under this heading
| Behaviour | What it looks like clinically |
|---|---|
| Gambling | The most established of the behavioural addictions and the one with the highest associated harm. Chasing losses is the defining cognitive feature, and debt then drives further gambling. Online platforms have removed every source of friction. |
| Gaming | Recognised in ICD-11. The clinical threshold is not hours played but loss of control over them, with sleep, education, work and relationships giving way. It very often sits on top of social anxiety or depression rather than beside it. |
| Compulsive sexual behaviour | Compulsive use of pornography or sexual behaviour that continues despite consequences and is used to regulate mood rather than for pleasure. Shame is usually the largest obstacle to disclosure and therefore to treatment. |
| Compulsive shopping and spending | Buying to regulate an internal state, followed by shame and concealment, with the financial consequences then feeding the cycle. |
| Compulsive internet and social media use | Often the vehicle rather than the addiction itself, and often the mechanism by which the others are delivered. Treated as part of the picture rather than as a separate diagnosis. |
| Cross-addiction | Module seventeen of the curriculum covers this directly. Behavioural addictions very commonly appear during recovery from a substance, because the underlying need for regulation has not gone anywhere. |
Dedicated pages: gambling addiction, sex and pornography addiction, gaming addiction and internet and social media addiction.
The signs, whatever the behaviour
| What you might notice | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Needing more, longer, or higher stakes for the same effect | Tolerance. The same mechanism as with a drug, and the earliest reliable marker. |
| Irritable or restless when you cannot do it | Withdrawal. It is well documented in behavioural addiction and it surprises people. |
| Doing it to escape stress, low mood or boredom | The function has shifted from enjoyment to regulation, which is the point at which it becomes an addiction. |
| Lying about how much time or money is involved | Almost universal, and the reason families find out so late. |
| 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. |
| Sleep, work or relationships giving way to it | The cost has become structural rather than occasional. |
| It appearing or intensifying after you stopped drinking or using | Cross-addiction. Extremely common, and it means the underlying regulation problem was never addressed. |
If several of those land, our short self-check takes under a minute and stores nothing.
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.
See the full gallery · how people get here.
What is different about treating a behaviour
Three things, and the programme accounts for all of them.
First, there is no detox. That means the psychological work starts on day one rather than in week two, and nobody spends the first week too unwell to engage. In practice a residential month is unusually productive for behavioural addiction for exactly this reason.
Second, abstinence is often not the goal, and cannot be. You can live without cocaine. You cannot live without money, the internet, or in most cases sex, so the treatment target is control and function rather than elimination. That is harder to define and it is why a written plan, agreed with you, matters more here than anywhere else.
Third, the practical apparatus is part of the clinical work rather than an administrative afterthought: blocking software, self-exclusion, device arrangements, and temporary handover of financial control. Removing access is not treatment, but treatment without it tends to fail.
What we are, and what we are not
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, not a psychiatric hospital. Where alcohol or drugs are also involved and you are physically dependent, a medically supervised withdrawal is completed in an appropriate medical setting before you arrive, billed separately. You can check our registration yourself on the Junta's public register.
Not sure whether residential treatment is proportionate?
The assessment answers that honestly before you commit to anything, and it happens before you travel. A clinician will tell you plainly if something closer to home would serve you better.
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.
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.
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 the behaviour 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 you
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.
What is treated, and what that looks like day to day
| What you arrive with | How it is worked |
|---|---|
| Urges | The trigger-recognition module maps your own cues: the time of day, the app, the payday, the argument, the empty evening, and builds a personal safety plan practised in group. |
| Shame | The self-esteem, perfectionism and loneliness modules. With sexual and financial behaviours shame is usually the largest single obstacle, and it does not survive being ordinary in a room. |
| Financial harm | Treated as clinical rather than administrative. Blocking, self-exclusion, temporary handover of control and free independent debt advice from Citizens Advice or StepChange. |
| Devices and access | Arrangements agreed with you at admission rather than imposed, because a phone is unrestricted access to every platform in the world. |
| What it regulates | The centre of the work. Depression, anxiety, loneliness or trauma underneath, worked in the same programme. See dual diagnosis. |
| Cross-addiction | Module seventeen, taught directly, because a behaviour taking over from a substance is one of the most common patterns in recovery and it is far easier to plan for than to discover. |
| Relationships | Family work where it is wanted, including rebuilding trust broken by concealment rather than by the behaviour itself. |
Treatment options for behavioural addictions, 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 | Not needed for the behaviour itself. Required where alcohol or drugs are used alongside and there is physical dependence. |
| Residential rehab inpatient treatment | Living at the centre for the whole programme. It suits behaviour that has continued despite blocking access, or where depression, anxiety or trauma sits underneath it. |
| Outpatient treatment day programmes and therapy sessions | Attending sessions and going home between them. Often effective, particularly with specialist services for gambling and compulsive behaviour. |
| 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. |
| EMDR | A structured trauma therapy, used where trauma is driving the use and always after stabilisation rather than before it. See EMDR. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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 and all our 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 |
|---|---|
| GamCare and the National Gambling Helpline | Free treatment, advice and support for gambling harm, with a helpline on 0808 8020 133, open 24 hours. |
| GAMSTOP | Free self-exclusion from every online gambling operator licensed in Great Britain. It takes minutes to set up. |
| Gamblers Anonymous | Free peer support groups for anyone with a gambling problem, meeting in person and online across the UK. |
| StepChange and Citizens Advice | Free, independent debt advice. Never pay for debt help when these exist. |
| Samaritans | Free and confidential, 24 hours a day on 116 123, for anyone struggling to cope or having thoughts of suicide. |
| Adfam | Support and information for families and friends affected by someone else’s drug, alcohol or gambling use. |
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
- Remove access today, before anything elseFor gambling, register with GAMSTOP and turn on your bank's gambling block. For other behaviours, blocking software and handing device control to someone you trust. None of it costs anything and none of it requires a treatment date.
- Get free independent debt advice if money is involvedFrom Citizens Advice or StepChange. Do it before treatment rather than after, because the debt is a driver rather than only a consequence.
- 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.
- Be honest about alcohol and drugs as wellBehavioural and substance addictions travel together, and it determines whether a medically supervised withdrawal is needed 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 and laboratory costs quoted separately. You get an itemised written quotation before admission.
How Sierra compares with private treatment 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: 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. Indicative, not a quotation. Every clinic sets its own fees.
When is it time?
Behavioural addictions are the ones people talk themselves out of getting help for, because there is no substance to point at and the harm is easy to reframe as bad luck or a bad month. If the behaviour has taken over the shape of your week, if you have lied about it, or if you have tried to stop and could not, that is enough. It does not have to have cost you 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.
Questions people actually ask
Are behavioural addictions real addictions?
Gambling disorder is classified in DSM-5 alongside the substance use disorders, and gaming disorder was added to ICD-11 in 2019. Others, including compulsive sexual behaviour and compulsive shopping, are less settled diagnostically but present with the same features: tolerance, withdrawal, loss of control and continuation despite harm. They act on the same reward circuitry as drugs.
Do I need a detox?
Not for the behaviour itself, because there is no substance to withdraw from. The psychological withdrawal is real, with irritability, restlessness and strong urges, but it does not require medical management. Where alcohol or drugs are also involved and you are physically dependent, a medically supervised withdrawal is arranged in an appropriate medical setting before admission and billed separately.
Is the goal to stop completely?
It depends on the behaviour. With gambling, abstinence is usually the target because controlled gambling is unreliable for someone with the disorder. With money, the internet or sex, elimination is neither possible nor desirable, so the target is control and function. Either way the plan is written explicitly with you rather than assumed.
Why did this start after I stopped drinking?
That is cross-addiction, and it is one of the most common patterns in recovery. Stopping a substance removes the means of regulating an internal state without removing the need to regulate it, so the need finds another route. Module seventeen of the curriculum covers this directly, and planning for it is far easier than discovering it a year later.
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. Psychiatric, medical, laboratory and detox costs are quoted separately. You get an itemised written quotation before admission.
Can I use my phone during treatment?
Phone use is structured rather than banned outright, and for behavioural addictions the arrangement is agreed with you at admission rather than imposed. This is discussed openly, because unrestricted device access is unrestricted access to the behaviour, and it is one of the practical reasons a residential setting works here.
How do I get help for a behavioural 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.
What does a behavioural 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 behavioural addiction treatment 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 a behavioural addiction?
The signs are needing more, longer or higher stakes for the same effect, irritability and restlessness when you cannot do it, doing it to escape stress or low mood, lying about the time or money involved, and repeated failed attempts to stop.
Is lasting recovery from a behavioural 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 behavioural addiction treatment 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.
How can I help someone with a behavioural 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.
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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.
Registered health centre. Authorised by the Junta de Andalucía, N.I.C.A. 67331.
