Personalised Treatment
Our Approach to Addiction Treatment
At Castle Craig, our treatment model is designed to offer comprehensive, evidence-based care for people struggling with addiction and co-occurring mental health conditions. Grounded in compassion, medical excellence, and recovery-focused therapy, our approach is tailored to the unique needs of each patient – supporting long-term healing through structured, person-centred care.
Our experience has shown that abstinence from alcohol and drugs offers the best chance of lasting recovery when combined with the right care, support, and environment. Our approach recognises that addiction impacts every aspect of a person’s life – physical, emotional, psychological, social, and spiritual. That’s why our treatment model is holistic, addressing the whole person rather than just the symptoms.
We see addiction as a treatable medical condition that affects a person’s physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. Our programme addresses all of these areas, helping each person build a more stable and fulfilling life, one step at a time.
Your Journey
Deciding to undergo residential addiction treatment at Castle Craig is the beginning of a life-long journey from admission and detox to relapse prevention and discharge. Our patients leave us in good health and carrying a set of therapeutic skills and tools that can last a lifetime.
Personalised Treatment Plans
At Castle Craig, patients can expect to receive a personalised treatment plan tailored to their individual needs and circumstances. After an initial consultation, a treatment schedule will be developed by a team of medical professionals to provide a balanced and holistic approach to your recovery. Support for any mental health conditions, known as dual diagnosis, will also be considered and provided alongside your treatment.
Before your personalised treatment plan begins, you can access a detox programme (if required), which is aimed at managing withdrawal symptoms. The clinical team will oversee this process, providing round-the-clock care to support your withdrawal as safely and comfortably as possible.
Once detox is complete, patients may engage in a wide range of specialised therapies as part of their personalised treatment plan, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR), and dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), along with other evidence-based approaches. Castle Craig also offers a range of complementary therapies alongside our standard programme of individual and group therapy sessions to provide support for psychological and emotional well-being.
Medically Managed Excellence
Castle Craig operates at the highest level of addiction care – what the American Society of Addiction Medicine calls “Medically Managed Intensive Treatment.” This means we provide the most comprehensive medical oversight available, with:
- Consultant Psychiatrist-led care ensuring the highest clinical standards
- Full-time medical team with doctors present throughout the week and on-call 24/7
- Dedicated detoxification unit with 12 bedrooms and continuous nursing care
- Comprehensive dual diagnosis treatment for addiction alongside mental health conditions
- Medication management with careful assessment of all psychiatric medications
Our medical team includes internationally recognised experts who work full-time or as visiting specialists, ensuring you receive care from leaders in the field of addiction medicine.
A Clear and Supportive Structure
Each patient follows a personalised treatment plan within our structured daily programme with clear, achievable goals. Our approach recognises that different people need different lengths of treatment:
- 4-6 week programmes for those with less complex presentations
- Extended stays for patients with more complex needs or opioid dependence
- Advanced treatment phase available after six weeks for those who would benefit
As treatment progresses, we work closely with patients to prepare for life after residential care through a tailored continuing care plan, ensuring the foundations built during treatment continue to strengthen in the months and years ahead.
A Comprehensive Blend of Therapies
The treatment programme at Castle Craig brings together multiple therapeutic approaches with the aim of treating the whole person, not just the addiction. Through evidence-based therapies, medical expertise, holistic activities, and a supportive therapeutic community, we help patients move beyond addiction and rebuild meaningful, healthy lives.
Core Elements Include:
- Two individual therapy sessions per week – more than many other centres offer
- Group therapy and psycho-educational workshops forming the backbone of our programme
- 12-Step facilitation helping patients connect with mutual aid fellowships
- Specialist therapies including CBT, EMDR, DBT, and trauma therapy
- Family sessions to heal relationships and improve communication
- Complementary therapies from equine-assisted therapy to mindfulness meditation.
Expert Care for Mental Health
For many people, addiction is closely tied to emotional pain. Past trauma, anxiety, depression, and other mental health struggles often play a role in how addiction takes hold and why it can be so hard to overcome. Around half of our residents at any time have a dual diagnosis.
At Castle Craig, we recognise how closely connected mental health and addiction can be. Our clinical team includes consultant psychiatrists and therapists with extensive experience in treating both conditions together. We take time to understand each person’s background and work with them to explore the emotional difficulties that may be making recovery harder.
Our approach ensures that both addiction and mental health conditions are treated simultaneously, creating a stable foundation for lasting recovery.
A Therapeutic Community Setting
Recovery is challenging to achieve alone. Castle Craig is a residential programme where people live, learn, and recover together in a shared environment. Our therapeutic community offers both structure and support – two elements often missing during active addiction.
Our Multidisciplinary Team Approach:
- Therapists, doctors, nurses, and recovery advocates working together
- Daily team meetings ensuring continuity of care
- Weekly formal reviews for comprehensive treatment planning
- Whole-team familiarity with each patient’s progress
Our historic castle setting on 50 acres of private woodland provides a comfortable, inspiring environment where people feel safe, respected, and supported in their recovery. The natural beauty and privacy of our location helps patients disconnect from external pressures while focusing on their healing.
Innovative and Evidence-Based Care
Castle Craig has always been at the forefront of addiction treatment innovation. We brought residential 12-step facilitation to Scotland for the first time in 1988, recognising early on the power of peer support and mutual aid in recovery. In 1999, we became the first treatment centre to require accreditation for all therapists, setting a standard that many others have since followed.
Our commitment to advancing the field continues today through ongoing research. Independent outcome studies consistently show that 73% of our patients achieve long-term abstinence – results that place us among the most effective treatment centres globally. We maintain continuous quality improvement processes, earning ISO 9001 certification and “Outstanding” ratings from regulatory inspectors.
What sets us apart is our willingness to integrate new evidence-based treatments while maintaining the proven foundations that have helped thousands of people over more than three decades. We follow emerging research carefully, adopting new approaches when evidence supports their effectiveness while never abandoning the core principles that have stood the test of time.
Involving the Family
Addiction affects everyone who loves someone struggling with substances. Family members often spend years worrying, trying to help, or developing coping strategies that may not support long-term recovery.
Our approach recognises that healing needs to happen on multiple levels. We help families understand addiction as a medical condition rather than a moral failing, and facilitate honest communication that may be the first constructive conversations in years.
We also help families prepare for the challenges of early recovery and recognise their own need for healing. The family environment you return to can either support your recovery or undermine it, which is why we invest in family education during treatment.
Read more about our Family Programme.
Planning for Life After Treatment
Recovery is a lifelong journey, and planning for life after residential treatment is essential to our approach. We help each person think ahead, strengthen coping strategies, and identify the support they’ll need to stay on track.
Whether through continuing therapy, local support groups, or our own aftercare services, the goal is to leave treatment with a solid foundation for lasting change.
Read more about our Continuing Care Programme.
Proven Results You Can Trust
No treatment centre operates successfully for 37 years unless it can deliver results that work. Our most recent research out of 158 survey respondents showed that:
- 73% of patients achieve long-term abstinence
- 92% show overall improvements in quality of life
- 98% patient satisfaction rate across all aspects of care
- Over 10,000 patients treated since 1988
These outcomes are supported by independent research and place Castle Craig among the most effective addiction treatment centres in the world.
Your Journey Starts Here
Castle Craig offers a place to recover with dignity and the highest level of professional support. Our model combines clinical excellence, practical tools, and a strong sense of community. We aim to give each person a solid foundation so they can leave treatment feeling more grounded, more hopeful, and better equipped for the journey ahead.
Our approach is compassionate, clinically rigorous, and based on decades of experience supporting people through recovery. With the right combination of medical care, therapy, structure, and community support, we believe every person has the potential to achieve lasting recovery and build a fulfilling life in sobriety.
Download Our Brochure
Abstinence is Essential for Rehabilitation
Our approach to addiction treatment at Castle Craig is abstinence-based. Also known as ‘sobriety’ this means completely giving up alcohol and chemical substances. We know that abstinence is the only way a person can truly get their life back. In effect, abstinence sets you free.
When you are addicted to alcohol or drugs, you live in a culture of addiction, living dangerously and surrounded by negative influences. You are likely to be isolated, without connection to loved ones (whether that is physically or emotionally), and often you will be drinking to forget your responsibilities and worries and to suppress negative emotions.
Whether it is alcohol or drugs, addiction is a disease and the addicted person is unable to control their level of consumption, no matter how much they believe they might be able to. The only real way you can control your consumption is to quit altogether, address the addiction through therapy, and find a new way of living in recovery. Castle Craig can provide you with what you need to make this happen.
The Benefits of Castle Craig’s Addiction Treatment Programme Include:
- Lasting recovery – Our clinically proven, personalised treatment can produce results that last.
- Targeted care – Therapies that target the specific causes of the addiction can help prevent relapse in the future.
- Life skills – Patients learn to cope more effectively and positively with difficult situations in the real world.
- Quality care – Our Consultant Psychiatrists, doctors and nurses who provide round-the-clock care, make thorough clinical examinations and assessments to ensure clinical care is focused and efficient and appropriate diagnoses are made.
- A chance for trust to build and form a healthy, open relationship between the patient and therapist.
Get Help For Addiction
The 12 Steps
The Castle Craig rehab programme incorporates 12 Step recovery principles first pioneered by the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). The goal is to achieve a positive, fulfilled abstinence from alcohol and drugs, by taking responsibility for change and spiritual growth. The 12 Steps provides a framework of guidance and action to achieve this goal.
We introduce patients to the 12 Steps from the beginning of treatment through educational lectures, group therapy & reading materials. They also attend Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous meetings in nearby towns.
Patients progress through the steps at a comfortable pace, allowing for real change to take place; it might take six weeks to complete the first few steps of treatment, but each person is different.
The 12 Steps have also proven to be a highly effective basis for the treatment of behavioural addictions which includes gambling addiction, sex addiction, porn addiction, gaming addiction, phone addiction and more.
Families and Loved Ones
Family members of patients at Castle Craig are invited to attend a therapy session and our online family recovery workshop. We hold Al-Anon and Families Anonymous self-help meetings on Sundays at Castle Craig. We also offer the chance to book online therapy sessions for family members in need of counselling themselves.
Who Do We Treat?
People arrive at our doors from every walk of life, each carrying their own unique story of struggle and resilience. At Castle Craig, we recognise the vast spectrum of challenges that lead people to seek help, understanding that addiction and mental health disorders do not discriminate by age, profession, or background. Here, we are committed to providing a supportive and healing environment, where every story is heard and every person is given the tools and support needed to embark on a journey towards recovery.
Compassion & Respect
Aftercare
Time spent at a rehab centre, focussing on therapy and recovery is invaluable, intense, and rewarding, yet it is finite. Recovery, on the other hand, is a lifelong journey. Once you are back home, it’s crucial to sustain the positive practices developed during rehab. Castle Craig’s programme offers a 24 week Continuing Care Programme to patients so that they can build upon the strong foundations they have gained while in rehab.
Get Help for Alcohol or Drug Addiction Now
If you or a loved one struggles with alcohol or drug addiction, getting help as soon as possible is critical. Trying to detox from drugs or alcohol on your own is dangerous doesn’t address other mental health issues that contribute to your addiction, and doesn’t show you a new way to live your life, making relapse extremely likely. Instead, a structured rehab programme that includes detox, consultant psychiatrist-led medical treatment, psychotherapy and holistic therapies provides the best programme for lasting recovery.
Experts You Can Trust
With a wealth of knowledge and services to help you regain control of your life, request a call-back from one of our professionals today. The choice you make today could change your life forever.