When promises to cut down keep giving way to another drink, treatment needs to address both the drinking and what keeps it going. Renewed Life Center offers residential alcohol rehab in Lakeside, Cape Town, with medical detox when needed, your own counsellor and therapy every weekday.
You can ask about treatment for yourself or someone you love. The first conversation is free and confidential; a relative can contact us before the person has agreed to come.
Talk to us about alcohol treatment
When is it time for alcohol rehab?
You do not have to call yourself an alcoholic to need help. These are signs worth taking seriously, in yourself or in someone close to you:
If some of these fit, it is worth talking to people who treat alcohol addiction every day. If you are reading this about a partner or a parent, the same applies: you can contact us first.
Would staying here help?
Residential treatment gives you time away from the routines around drinking, with therapy and support throughout the week. It is worth discussing when attempts to stop have not held, home keeps pulling you back into drinking, or you need help with anxiety, depression or trauma as well.
The assessment looks at your drinking, health, past withdrawal and circumstances at home. It helps the team decide what level of care you need. Our outpatient programme is another route for people who can live at home while attending treatment. You do not have to choose between them before speaking to us.
Is it safe to stop drinking on your own?
Not always. After a long spell of heavy drinking, stopping suddenly can be dangerous. It can bring on alcohol withdrawal, NICE guidance notes, and the MSD Manual describes seizures and delirium tremens that can follow within days.
If you drink every day, drink in the morning, shake when you try to stop, or take sleeping tablets or benzodiazepines as well, do not stop suddenly on your own: tell us how much you drink and what else you take, and we will talk the next steps through with you. Our medical team decides after the assessment whether you need a medical detox.
If someone has a seizure, becomes confused or cannot be woken, call local emergency services immediately. Do not wait for a WhatsApp reply.
Here, our GP, Dr John Wulz, whose background is in mental health and emergency medicine, examines you after you arrive. When a medical detox is needed, our medical team runs it, from three days to two weeks depending on how your body copes. Detox manages withdrawal. The therapy that follows works on the habits, feelings and situations that keep bringing you back to alcohol.
Alcohol addiction treatment: what the drinking is covering
For many people, alcohol is how they switch off anxiety, symptoms of depression, old trauma or the pressure of work. If only the drinking stops, those reasons are still waiting when the evenings get hard. Our team treats the drinking and what sits under it in one plan, through dual diagnosis treatment, which covers anxiety and depression as well.
Your own counsellor works with you one-to-one every week and gets to know your story, including what the drinking has been doing for you. In groups every weekday you learn practical ways through hard evenings and stressful days without a drink. They draw on cognitive behavioural therapy, one of the talking therapies NICE recommends in alcohol treatment. If old trauma keeps the drinking going, EMDR works on it directly; NICE recommends it for adults with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Nikki Edwards runs the programme as Programme Director and Clinical Manager. Ruby Weber, the psychologist who heads psychology at the centre, has more than 20 years in the addictions field and leads the psychological side of treatment. The clinical team discusses each client’s progress together, so your counsellor is not planning your treatment alone.
Several of the people running the programme also know this road from the inside: Nikki is 11 years into her own recovery, and John Roberts, our Senior Recovery Specialist, has 39 years in recovery.
How long is alcohol rehab, and what comes after?
You plan the length with your counsellor. Most clients stay into a second month, and what follows depends on what you need before going home.
Before you go home, the relapse-prevention work becomes a written plan built for your own home. The aim is to make ordinary evenings possible without alcohol and help the family begin rebuilding trust through what happens at home. After you leave we stay in touch, and former clients can always come back to us.
Help for the family
Relatives can talk to our team before the person has agreed to come. Once someone is here, their counsellor keeps the family informed, with the client’s agreement. Families can join a support group by video every week. The counsellor plans family sessions when they will help, which can also run by video. Visiting can start in the first week, and relatives can book sessions for themselves. After years of drinking, trust comes back slowly, and the people at home need support of their own.
Life in the house
The house is in Lakeside, with the mountain ridge right behind it and the beach a short drive away. Each room sleeps two at most, with men and women in separate rooms, and you can ask for a room to yourself. Away from the usual bar, the usual company and the pressure of home, you have room to work on what you will need when you go back: weekdays are for therapy, and on Saturdays the group goes out together. There are 12-step fellowship meetings in the evenings during the week, so the hours that are often hardest without a drink are not spent alone. Testing for alcohol and drugs helps keep the house free of them. Your phone and laptop stay with you, and any remote work is agreed with your counsellor.
How to start
Tell us who needs help, how much and how often they drink, and anything else they take. We reply the same day. Talk to us by WhatsApp, video or phone. The first conversation takes 20 to 40 minutes and is free and confidential; on it we give you the fee for the programme and room that would suit, and we send it in writing the same day.
If you decide to come, an assessment of 45 to 90 minutes with our team follows, and our medical team then decides whether you need a detox. Admission can be immediate and typically happens within three days of your first message. If you are still drinking, discuss your condition and travel plans with the team before setting off. For clients flying in, we can arrange collection at Cape Town airport.
Start with a free conversation
Questions people ask about alcohol rehab in Cape Town
How long does alcohol rehab take?
Most clients stay into a second month: the first month to get steady, the second for the deeper work. You and your counsellor plan the length together, and a step towards home or sober living can follow.
Does everyone need a detox?
No. It depends on how much and for how long you have been drinking, any past withdrawal and what else you take; the doctor and our medical team make that call once you have been assessed. If you drink every day or in the morning, or shake when you stop, do not stop suddenly on your own: tell us first.
How much does alcohol rehab cost?
The fee depends on the programme and how long you stay. It covers your room and all meals, which our head chef prepares, along with individual and group therapy, EMDR, family therapy and, for international clients, airport transfers. We give the fee on a free first call and send it in writing the same day; ask on that call what your quote includes for any medical care, such as a detox.
What if the person does not want to go?
You can still talk to us, and we will go through what a first step could look like. Nobody has to arrive certain.
Can I keep working during treatment?
Your phone and laptop stay with you, and how much work fits around the programme is agreed with your counsellor.