The courtyard outside The Cabin, Australia’s self-proclaimed “leading outpatient addiction treatment centre”, is a mixture of pale brick and concrete. Beige bleeds into grey and then into cream. There’s a smattering of meticulously sculpted plants and well-groomed senior citizens in the vicinity – unremarkable given the Edgecliff location, in the marrow of Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

The white walls in the waiting room display photos from a resort-like rehabilitation centre in Chiang Mai, Thailand – one of The Cabin’s numerous locations in Asia and Australia. One woman is being stretched by another, perhaps mid massage or yoga, while a bunch of (presumably staged) normcore-clad patients look immersed in their group therapy session.

“It’s not sterile like a regular rehab clinic,” says Josh Rosenthal, The Cabin Australia’s clinical manager. He has been working in...