Recovery Island

This is the first private island retreat for addiction and stress – and it’s just 30 minutes from London

Just 44 miles from London is a destination island frequented by millionaires, high flyers and rock stars alike. But although it’s uber luxurious with facilities to match those of any five star hotel, this is no ordinary holiday hotspot. The Causeway Retreat is the world’s first private island retreat offering lifestyle management treatment programs for drug and alcohol addiction, psychological problems, stress and burnout. The retreat is on Osea Island, a private island off the Blackwater Estuary in Essex. Comprised of 350 acres of rugged natural beauty, it’s accessible only by helicopter ride, which takes 30 minutes from central London (the only other route is an ancient causeway road that is uncovered for an hour at low tide). The retreat offers privacy and discretion alongside cosseting surroundings that have fast made it the ‘rehab’ of choice for celebrities and those wealthy enough to afford the £5,000-£10,000 weekly tariff, which includes deluxe accommodation, meals, 24 hour medical care, daily therapy, personal training and activities including cookery, yoga and pottery.

The retreat was set up in 2004 by Nigel Frieda and Brendan Quinn. Frieda is a renowned music producer who worked with the Rolling Stones and Oasis, and Quinn is a qualified psychiatric nurse who also has a degree in drug and alcohol treatment. Frieda bought Osea for £5.4million in 2004.

“We set up the retreat because there was nowhere in the world where people who suffer from addiction and psychological problems could go that’s not an institutionalised clinic” says Quinn.

“Even the Priorty, the place people associate with ‘celeb rehab’ because of press coverage on the number of celebrities that have been there, is a national psychiatric institution. We wanted to set up a place that would remove all the stigma. You come here and you still get all the counselling, medication and psychiatrists but it’s a very uplifting experience.”

Accommodation is set in a charming 16th century village (£5,000 per week for an apartment or £8,000 for a cottage) or in a luxurious New England style manor house (£10,000 per week). There are plasma TVs and antiques, Harrods four poster beds with premium high count bed linen, Mulberry bathrobes and stunning ocean views.

There’s an onsite chef (poached from The Ebury in Pimlico) who whisks up healthy, delicious meals featuring fresh seafood and salad grown in the garden. There are art or pottery lessons and cooking masterclasses. Sport wise, there’s tennis, swimming, fishing, riding, sailing and one-to-one sessions with world class personal trainers; they can even arrange sessions with Linford Christie, one of the Retreat’s fitness advisors. There’s also a state-of-the-art recording studio, which might explain why so many music industry players come here. Amy Winehouse is commonly reported to have visited the Retreat but as the lyrics go ‘they tried to make go to rehab, I said no, no, no’; she checked herself out after just a couple of days. But not all who come here are addicts. Some come for the Retreat’s popular de-stressing program which includes complementary therapies such as yoga, acupuncture and reflexology.

The Retreat accepts a maximum of 16 ‘guests’ (visitors here are known as guests instead of patients) at any one time. Dr Mike McPhillips, a respected member of the Royal College of Physicians and The Royal College of Psychiatrists heads up the medical team. Each guest is attended by a clinical nurse and a personal therapist and has intensive daily one-to-one and group therapy. Guests can stay any length of time from two weeks to two years. To those who balk at the cost, Quinn points out that “You get more one to one therapy for £5,000 a week than you do at psychiatric institutions, which often charge in the region of £5,200 a week plus you get all the other luxury benefits. We also give a year of free aftercare for people in London. Most places charge £500 per week”.

Those who come here, according to Quinn, include “young people with full blown drug habits, stressed out city workers, burntout execs and even BlackBerry widows, the wives of burntout execs who sit at home all day while their husbands are at work.”

James is a 32 year old city lawyer who recently stayed at The Causeway Retreat. “I’d always been career minded and enjoyed my earning power,” he says. “But I found the pressure to make partner of the firm very stressful. A drink after work would calm me down, soften the edges of a hard day. Somehow I slipped into a routine of drinking late into the night. I also drank in the mornings just to pluck up the courage to face work. My wife spotted the signs early but while I promised her I’d stop, I started on gin so she wouldn’t smell it. I only stopped drinking when I discovered cocaine; I realised I could feel great without smelling of booze. Soon I was on four grams a day. Then I started drinking again too. When a colleague found me slumped over my desk unconscious one morning, my wife booked me into The Causeway Retreat. After a week of detox from cocaine and alcohol, I started therapy and found out I’d had long standing depression. After a month of therapy, relaxation and personal training I was discharged and returned to work. I still attend aftercare sessions weekly. I really believe The Causeway Retreat saved my life. And I did eventually make partner after all.”

- Adlib Article, Jan 2009