What happens in rehab, day by day?
Residential rehab usually follows one path.
A first conversation, an assessment, detox where it is needed, weeks of structured days spent mostly in therapy, and a plan for going home. What differs between centres is how each step is done: the methods, how the family takes part and what comes after discharge.
What happens when you first contact a rehab?
The first contact is a message or a call, made by the person or by someone close to them. A good first conversation asks what is being used, for how long, what happened during earlier attempts to stop, which medicines are taken and how mental health has been. Nobody needs to tell the whole story at this point; the questions are there to work out how safe it is to wait and what level of care fits.
An assessment by a clinician follows before admission. It is also the moment to ask for the fee in writing, so you know what the stay covers before you commit to a date.
One rule applies while you wait: anyone who drinks every day or takes benzodiazepines, sleeping tablets, mandrax, GHB or opioids daily should not stop suddenly on their own. Write to us before they stop, with what they take and how much. Whether a medical detox is needed is decided by our medical team after the assessment.
What happens on your first day in rehab?
The first day is mostly arriving and being assessed. You settle into your room, often take a drug and alcohol test, and see a doctor, who goes through your medicines and decides with the team whether you need a detox. A therapist then asks about mood, sleep, anxiety, past trauma and what you want from treatment, and the two assessments together become your treatment plan. A good programme does not expect you to open up on day one.
What happens during detox in the first week?
Detox is the time it takes to get through withdrawal safely while alcohol or drugs leave the body. Alcohol withdrawal begins within 6 to 12 hours of the last drink and usually lasts 3 to 7 days1, according to the NHS, which warns that “it can be very dangerous to stop drinking suddenly if you’re dependent on alcohol”. Symptoms run from anxiety, sweating and shaking to, in severe cases, seizures.
Withdrawal from benzodiazepines, mandrax, GHB or opioids needs its own medical plan. What the first days look like depends on what is used; the assessment decides. Rest, fluids, food and sleep come first, and therapy usually starts once the body allows it.
What does a typical day in rehab look like?
A typical day in residential rehab has a fixed routine from morning to bedtime, and most of the working hours go to therapy. How it feels depends on the stage and on the centre. In the detox days it is mostly rest and medical checks; after that the days fill with groups and individual work. Programmes built on the 12 steps add written step work and meetings, therapy-led ones lean on methods such as CBT, DBT or schema therapy, and many combine both.
Most centres keep the same order every weekday, so within a few days you know what comes next without having to ask. For many people the weeks before rehab had little routine left, and a steady day is something to lean on while the harder work happens.
Mornings: an early start
The day begins with breakfast and a group that sets its tone, often followed by a walk or exercise. Getting up at the same time is part of the treatment: an ordinary morning, kept every day, is a habit you will need at home.
The middle of the day: groups and one-to-one work
This is the core of the treatment. Themed groups cover how addiction works, coping with cravings and feelings, and relapse prevention, and one-to-one sessions with your own counsellor go into the reasons behind the drinking or using. Each method has its own job. DBT gives you something to do in the minute a craving or a feeling peaks, and schema therapy goes after patterns learnt long before the first drink or drug. For trauma, NICE recommends EMDR for adults with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Afternoons: body and creative work
After lunch the work often moves from talking to movement, yoga, art therapy or TRE, which reach the same stress through the body rather than through words. In 12-step programmes, the end of the afternoon often goes to written step work.
Evenings: meals, meetings and quiet time
The pace drops after dinner: there is often a meeting, then time to read, write, call home and wind down before bed. Evenings can also be when cravings and homesickness surface, which is why a programme keeps some shape in them rather than leaving them empty.
What is rehab like?
Residential rehab means living at a treatment centre and spending full days with other people in the same position. Talking in a group feels strange at first, and many people arrive afraid of being judged; with groups every weekday it soon becomes familiar, and people often hear their own story in someone else’s words.
“Asking for help is the hardest thing… It takes a community.”
Hard days come too, often when therapy touches something old, and the team expects them. Weekends are usually lighter, with outings and visits.
Can you stay in touch with home during rehab?
Rules on phones and visits differ from centre to centre, and some limit contact with family for the first days. Ask before admission whether you keep your phone, when visits can start and how the family will hear how things are going. Knowing the answers before you arrive saves both the person going in and the people at home from guessing in the first week.
How does the family take part while someone is in rehab?
Family usually takes part through a weekly family group, family therapy sessions and visits. Contact runs through the person’s counsellor, with the person’s agreement, so relatives know who to ask and what they will be told. Relatives also need help of their own: how to stop rescuing without stopping caring, and how trust is rebuilt once the person is home. When the family understands what changed, the home the person returns to is calmer. Relatives can start before admission day, too: learn what withdrawal and the first weeks involve, and agree with each other who will be the main contact for the centre.
How long does rehab last, and what happens at the end?
Residential rehab usually lasts from a few weeks to a few months, according to NIDA. Where a programme runs past the first month, the second month usually goes deeper, into the trauma, relationships and patterns behind the use, while the daily routine is already in place. Before discharge, a good programme turns what you learnt into a written relapse-prevention plan for your own home. Some people go straight home; others take a step down first, such as a stage with more time out of the house, a stay in sober living or a halfway house, or a day programme while they sleep at home. The other kinds of help are set out in types of rehab.
How the days run at Renewed Life Center
At Renewed Life Center in Lakeside, Cape Town, the days follow the same order, with some pieces of our own: TRE with a trained practitioner, an outing every Saturday, and meals cooked by a chef who is also a peer recovery specialist. The centre is a house close to Muizenberg beach, with the mountain ridge behind it. Rooms are shared by two people at most, men and women sleep separately, and private rooms are available. Your phone and laptop stay with you, and if you fly in, we meet you at the airport.
On the first day you take a drug and alcohol test, as every new client does so the house stays safe for everyone. In your first days you also have a medical check with Dr John Wulz, our GP, whose background is in mental health and emergency medicine. When a medical detox is needed, our medical team runs it, for three days to two weeks, and a therapist’s assessment completes your plan. The first three days are there to settle into the routine.
An ordinary weekday
Every weekday is a full therapeutic day, and your own counsellor works with you one-to-one every week, 45 minutes at a time. Our day keeps the same four parts, with details of our own.
Morning: the Just for Today group and a walk
The whole house starts the day in this group, and the walk gets everyone outside before the therapy groups begin. One-to-one sessions with your counsellor are held in the morning, too.
Middle of the day: themed groups
Addiction theory, schema therapy, DBT, relapse prevention, a process group, psychoeducation and Family Sculpture rotate through the week, so each week covers how addiction works in general and the patterns behind your own drinking or using. Family Sculpture looks at the roles people take in a family.
Afternoon: body, creative work and step work
The afternoon brings meditation, TRE with Kerry Dominie-Williams, movement, art therapy and yoga, with padel on Fridays, and ends with written work on the 12 steps. Meditation is taught here as a skill for the moments when emotions run high.
Evening: dinner and 12-step meetings
Evening 12-step meetings are part of the week, and how often they run changes as you move through the programme. They are also the part of the routine you can keep at home, because 12-step meetings run outside rehab too.
Trauma work uses EMDR. Anxiety or depression is treated alongside the addiction, through our dual diagnosis treatment. More on the body-based work in holistic therapies.
Those days are run by Nikki Edwards, Programme Director and Clinical Manager, and John Roberts, Senior Recovery Specialist and Operations Manager, who both also know recovery from their own lives, 11 and 39 years of it. Alongside them work Ruby Weber, the psychologist who heads psychology at the centre and leads the psychological side of our dual diagnosis work, with more than 20 years in the addictions field, and Leila Bolland, social worker and therapist, in practice since 2015. The clinical team discusses each client’s progress together.
Weekends and family
On Saturdays the group goes out together, for a hike, a pottery workshop or a meal in town. Visits are possible from the first week, children included. Sunday evening ends with a speaker meeting, where someone in recovery tells their own story.
Every week families join a support group by video, wherever they live. Relatives can also have sessions of their own, and with the client’s agreement the counsellor is the family’s contact. A relative can talk to us even before the person has agreed to come; more in family therapy and support.
The second month and going home
Most clients stay into a second month, which adds an Internal Family Systems group to the deeper work. Before you leave, the relapse-prevention and recovery-planning work becomes a written plan for your own home. If you want more time before going home, a further stage can be planned with your counsellor: afternoons out on your own, evenings back at the house. After that, sober living on our property or our day programme, while you sleep at home, can come next. Everyday skills, such as keeping a routine, meals, money and work, are practised here first and then in sober living. After you go home, we stay in contact to ask how life is going, and a former client can always come back to us.
Wondering how your own weeks would be planned? Ask us on WhatsApp.Wondering how your own weeks would be planned? Call +27 79 880 0045, free and confidential.
From first message to admission
You get a reply the same day and a free, confidential first conversation of 20 to 40 minutes by WhatsApp, video or phone, in which you tell us what is going on and can ask how your own first week would run. A clinical assessment of 45 to 90 minutes follows before admission, and the fee comes in writing on the day of the call; our guide to rehab costs in Cape Town explains how prices work. If you decide to come, admission can be immediate, and it typically takes no more than three days from the first contact.
Questions people ask
You can message us directly, for yourself or for someone close to you. The first call is free, and a clinical assessment follows before admission. Bring your medicines and any medical letters you have.
Cover for addiction treatment in South Africa depends on your scheme and plan, so ask your scheme what it pays. With us, you pay the centre directly, and the fee comes in writing on the day of the free first call.
At Renewed Life Center, yes: your phone and laptop stay with you during the stay.
Not from us. The first call is confidential, and what you tell work is your decision. You can keep working remotely during treatment; you agree with your counsellor how much work fits around the programme. South African law on time off is set out in will I lose my job if I go to rehab.
Wondering what your first week in Cape Town would look like? Ask us.
Tell us what you use and how you are doing. The first call is free and confidential, we reply the same day, and admission can be immediate and typically happens within three days of first contact.
Writing for someone else? You do not need their permission to message us.
or call +27 79 880 0045
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Sources
- NHS: alcohol-use disorder (reviewed 24 April 2026)
- NIDA: Treatment (research topics, checked 21 September 2026)
- NICE guideline NG116: post-traumatic stress disorder (2018)
This article is general information, not medical advice.