Our Treatment Programme
Recovery does not follow one route, and our programmes are not written in advance. What follows is the framework — the clinical components every client draws on. How they are weighted, and in what order, is decided with you after assessment.
Our residential programme runs for a minimum of 30 days, with 8–12 weeks recommended for the best long-term outcomes.
Residential Treatment
The core of what we do. You live at the house with round-the-clock clinical support, away from the triggers, obligations and routines that sustain addiction at home. That distance is not an escape from your life, it is the space required to examine it.
Residential clients receive individual therapy three times per week, structured group work, medical oversight, holistic therapies, and a family programme. Our staff-to-client ratio means attention is genuinely available when you need it, not rationed.
Medical Detoxification
Where withdrawal needs to be medically managed, this takes place first, in a partner facility under continuous clinical supervision.
You are assessed thoroughly on admission and monitored around the clock. Medication-assisted treatment is used where clinically indicated to ease symptoms and reduce cravings. Alongside the medical care you’ll have support for the emotional difficulty of withdrawal, which is often the part people are least prepared for. When you are physically stable, you move into the residential programme without a break in care.
Individual Therapy
Three one-to-one sessions each week, with the same dedicated therapist throughout your stay. That continuity matters: it takes time to build the trust that difficult work depends on, and you should not have to start again with someone new.
Your therapist works with you to understand what sits underneath the addiction, to build coping strategies that hold under pressure, and to develop resilience for life after treatment. The approaches we draw on include:
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) — reshaping the thought and behaviour patterns that drive addictive cycles
- Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) — emotional regulation and distress tolerance
- Schema Therapy — identifying and changing long-established patterns
- Motivational Interviewing — strengthening your own commitment to change
- Trauma-focused therapy — EMI, EMDR and trauma-specific work where underlying trauma is present
- 12-Step integration — incorporated where it suits you, never imposed
Group Therapy
Addiction isolates people, and isolation is difficult to treat alone. Group sessions, facilitated by qualified therapists, put you among people who recognise your experience without needing it explained.
Sessions are structured around relapse prevention, emotional regulation, communication and boundaries, practical life skills, mindfulness and stress management, and setting recovery goals. Groups are where new skills get practised and tested, with immediate, honest feedback. Everything said in them is confidential.
Holistic Therapies
Clinical work addresses the mind; sustained recovery also asks something of the body. These complementary therapies are included in your programme at no additional cost, and you choose which to take up:
- Individual counselling
- Mindfulness
- EMDR
- Physiotherapy
- Craniosacral therapy
- Acudetox
- Reflexology
- Physical health and well-being groups
- Creative therapy
- Yoga therapy
- Recreational outings
Recreational outings make use of where we are. Table Mountain, the coastline, and the cultural life of Cape Town as part of rebuilding a life that has room for enjoyment in it.
Family Involvement
Addiction is rarely contained to one person, and recovery is more durable when the people around you understand what is happening and what will help.
Depending on your treatment plan, we offer family therapy and consultations to rebuild trust and establish a shared footing for the return home.
Aftercare
Every Villa Consano graduate receives 12 months of complimentary aftercare. Leaving the house is a milestone, not a finish line, and the first year home is where recovery is genuinely tested.
Aftercare includes:
- Weekly group check-ins, in person or online, with fellow graduates and clinical staff
- Relapse prevention — a personal plan, early warning signs identified, and crisis protocols where appropriate
- Family education — continued guidance for the people supporting you
- Professional referrals to therapists and support groups near you
- Crisis support — access to our clinical team when you need direction
- Continued connection to the Villa Consano community
If you’re ready to take a first step, or simply want to understand your options, our team is available now.