What is executive rehab, and how does it work in Cape Town?

In short

• Executive rehab is ordinary residential treatment arranged around privacy and a planned absence.At Renewed Life Center in Lakeside, Cape Town, that means individual psychotherapy typically three times a week, group therapy five or more times a week, and days from 06:30 to 22:30.
• South African law treats the stay itself as confidential.The National Health Act of 2003 says that all information about a patient, “including information relating to his or her health status, treatment or stay in a health establishment, is confidential”. Disclosure needs written consent, a court order or a law that requires it, or a serious threat to public health.
• The fee comes by email, after a free first call. Treatment is private pay: no medical scheme and no insurer is billed, a private room can be arranged instead of shared accommodation, and flights are booked separately.

Working out whether this is possible in your diary? Book a free, confidential call with our team in Cape Town. We reply the same day.

This guide is for the partner at a law firm, the surgeon, the founder or the finance director who has put treatment off because of who might find out. The spouse or the chief of staff arranging it will find the same answers here.

Distance is the part a clinic an hour from the office cannot offer. The UK Foreign Office’s guide to rehab in South Africa (2024) lists anonymity among the benefits of treatment abroad, next to “an opportunity to remove oneself from triggers”.

In an emergency, call 112 in South Africa, 999 in the UK or 911 in the US. If someone is thinking about suicide, the SADAG Suicide Crisis Helpline is free on 0800 567 567 in South Africa. In the UK, call NHS 111 and choose the mental health option. In the US, call or text 988.

What does executive rehab mean in practice?

Executive rehab is residential addiction treatment arranged around two practical problems: keeping the treatment private, and planning an absence from a senior role. The clinical work is the same work anyone else in the house does. What changes is the setting, the distance from home and the notice you have to give.

At Renewed Life Center the programme runs in phases of one month. Phase 1 combines medical detox where it is clinically indicated with intensive individual and group therapy. The group programme runs Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 16:00: Schema Therapy, DBT, process groups, psychoeducation, relapse prevention, art therapy and yoga. Evenings bring 12-step meetings and recovery walks. Phase 2 goes deeper, into identity work, an Internal Family Systems group and a recovery community, and two months is our recommended standard.

Depression, anxiety, PTSD, burnout and broken sleep are treated in the same place as the drinking or the drug use, on one plan. Read more about dual diagnosis treatment in Cape Town, or about what happens in rehab, day by day.

What does South African law say about treatment records?

Two South African laws cover treatment records. The National Health Act of 2003 makes all information about a patient confidential, including the fact of a stay, and allows disclosure in three cases only. The Protection of Personal Information Act of 2013 adds a second layer for health data.

Section 14 of the National Health Act covers “information relating to his or her health status, treatment or stay in a health establishment”. Disclosure is allowed if “the user consents to that disclosure in writing”, if “a court order or any law requires that disclosure”, or if non-disclosure “represents a serious threat to public health”.

“The Act covers the fact of the stay as well as the clinical notes.”

The Act covers the fact of the stay as well as the clinical notes, and it reaches any “public or private institution” providing inpatient or rehabilitative care. Section 17 puts the duty on the person in charge, who “must set up control measures to prevent unauthorised access to those records”.

The Protection of Personal Information Act starts from a prohibition: a responsible party may “not process personal information concerning” a person’s “health or sex life”. Section 32 lifts that only for “medical professionals, healthcare institutions or facilities” treating the person, and only for people “subject to an obligation of confidentiality”.

Neither law puts records beyond a court. A court order or a law that requires disclosure is one of the three exceptions in section 14, and treatment at home works the same way. Anyone with live proceedings should take legal advice before booking anything.

How is a stay at our centre kept private?

A stay is kept private by the ordinary arrangements around it. The centre is a gated property in Lakeside with staff on site 24 hours a day. The first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Accommodation can be a room of your own, and the fee is paid privately, so no claim goes to a medical scheme or an insurer.

International clients are a primary focus of our practice, and they come from the UK, the US, Ireland, the Netherlands and the rest of Europe. Our clinical team includes Dr John Wulz, the centre’s GP, whose background is mental health and emergency medicine. Dr Ruby Weber heads psychology and has worked in the addictions field for more than two decades. Where psychiatric medication is needed, a psychiatrist selects it.

What you tell your employer, your board or your colleagues is your own decision. Making it before you fly is easier than making it from a room in Lakeside.

Why do senior professionals choose Cape Town?

Cape Town is far enough from home to keep treatment out of the office gossip, and close enough on the clock to keep family sessions inside working hours. The centre stands in Lakeside, a residential suburb in Cape Town’s Southern Suburbs, on a gated property with the mountain ridge directly behind it.

South African Standard Time “is defined as UTC + 2 hours”, according to the National Metrology Institute of South Africa, the country’s official timekeeper. The country keeps that time all year, so Cape Town runs one hour ahead of London in the British summer and two hours ahead in winter. A 16:00 session here starts at 10:00 in New York in the northern summer and at 09:00 in the northern winter. Amsterdam and Dublin sit inside the same window.

The seasons run opposite to Europe’s and North America’s, which matters when you are planning around a quiet quarter.

December to February20 to 26

June to August12 to 17

Relatives usually ask about crime first. Our guide to rehab in South Africa and safety goes through what the UK and US governments say.

How long do you have to be away from work?

Phase 1, one month of residential treatment, is the shortest stay at our centre, and two months is the recommended standard. The notice period is shorter than most people expect. Admission can be immediate, and typically happens within three days of first contact.

Days at the centre run from 06:30 to 22:30 and hold three to five clinical sessions. Anything that has to keep running at work is worth raising on the first call, before dates are set. For the trip from the UK step by step, read private rehab abroad from the UK.

What does executive rehab in Cape Town cost?

Treatment runs in phases of one month, with two months the recommended standard, and a private room can be arranged instead of shared accommodation. We send the fee, and the list of what it covers, after a first conversation: 20 to 40 minutes by WhatsApp, video or phone, free and with no obligation, answered the same day. Flights and visa costs sit outside the fee.

The fee covers a shared room, all meals from our head chef, and individual and group therapy. The same fee covers the medical assessment by our resident GP and medical detox with 24-hour nursing where it is clinically indicated. EMDR, equine therapy, family sessions, discharge planning and the airport transfer are in there too. The Foreign Office guide names “lower cost compared to the UK” among the reasons people look abroad.

Treatment is private pay. We do not bill through South African medical schemes or international insurance, which keeps a claim out of the picture but also means the money comes from you. The market comparisons live in two other articles: rehab costs in the UK against South Africa and what rehab costs US families.

What happens when treatment ends?

Every discharge from Renewed Life Center includes a written relapse-prevention plan built for your home environment, and our staff coordinate the aftercare that follows. Going back to a senior role is part of the plan, not the thing that happens after it, which is one reason the second month exists.

Phase 3, the Recovery Integration Programme, is built for that stretch. The therapeutic programme carries on, clients can leave the centre during the day and come back in the evening, and therapeutic staff are on site around the clock. It is quoted separately, and the Sober Living Programme after it adds work or study by day, regular testing and a weekly session with an assigned counsellor.

Craig Duke, our addiction counsellor and recovery coach, has more than two decades of personal recovery and has run treatment centres in the UK and Switzerland.

“Going back to a senior role is part of the plan, not the thing that happens after it.”

Family sessions run through the residential months and are included in the fee, and a family support meeting runs every Wednesday at 18:00 on Zoom. The people who will be in the room in January are part of the work in October. More on family therapy in Cape Town, and on how to talk to a loved one about rehab if nobody has raised it yet.

What if the problem is burnout rather than addiction?

Burnout and addiction are different problems that need different programmes. The World Health Organization classifies burn-out in ICD-11 as “an occupational phenomenon” that “is not classified as a medical condition”, and defines it as a syndrome “resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”. Our executive burnout and wellness programme in Cape Town is built for burnout, and where drinking or drug use has grown up alongside it, both belong on one plan.

Telling them apart takes a clinical assessment rather than a checklist online. Alcohol turns up in both stories often enough to ask about directly. If the answer is yes, read alcohol addiction treatment and medical detox, and our article on dual diagnosis.

Book a free, confidential call: 20 to 40 minutes by WhatsApp, video or phone, with no obligation. We reply the same day.

Questions people ask

This article is general information, not medical advice.

Sources

1. UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: South Africa, rehabilitation, recovery and residential treatment (published 1 August 2024)
2. NHS: alcohol-use disorder (reviewed 24 April 2026)
3. City of Cape Town: emergency contact numbers
4. South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG): 24-hour toll-free helplines
5. NHS: where to get urgent help for mental health
6. South African Government: National Health Act 61 of 2003, sections 14 and 17
7. South African Government: Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013, sections 26 and 32
8. National Metrology Institute of South Africa (NMISA): South African Standard Time
9. Cape Town Tourism: weather in Cape Town
10. World Health Organization: burn-out an occupational phenomenon, International Classification of Diseases (28 May 2019)