Sanctuary Addiction and Alcohol Services is an effective, abstinence based, holistic programme designed to enable individuals to address their substance misuse and to make positive and lasting changes in their lives.

Clients coming into treatment at Sanctuary often have complex needs and issues apart from their substance misuse. Sanctuary is committed to helping individuals to look at all areas of their lives and treatment plans will be developed for each client, taking into account individual differences, preferences and needs.

Addressing the problem of substance misuse is often only scratching the surface in terms of helping a client to make real progress in their lives. Underlying issues and traumas may be masked by misusing substances and/or anti-social and offending behaviour, which are sometimes used as a form of distraction and avoidance. These behaviour patterns in themselves can become an addictive cycle.

The most valuable form of intervention at this stage will be the professional help and support to identify and resolve all the issues connected to the clients’ addiction that Sanctuary can provide.

The programme at Sanctuary is an eclectic one, drawing on therapeutic interventions with proven effectiveness to enable clients to address their problems within a supportive and caring environment.

All staff work from a Pro-social modelling standpoint, utilising strategies designed to develop the therapeutic alliance whilst ensuring that positive behaviour changes are reinforced and negative behaviours consistently challenged.

Counsellors use a range of interventions such as Motivational Interviewing, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, incorporating Relapse Prevention work and node-link mapping, to enable clients to gain a clearer understanding of the non-productive thinking and behaviour patterns that have impacted on their lives.

We encourage all our service users to engage with self help groups such as Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous and there is a requirement that they attend meetings whilst engaged with this service.