Background
David Niknafs is the founder of RECO Health and the chief executive who turned a single intensive outpatient practice into an integrated, multi-center network. He started in 2013 to fix problems he had encountered firsthand as a person seeking help: care that didn't connect from one phase to the next, clinical decisions made without the patient in the room, and a recovery field that underestimated how much community matters.
Under his leadership, RECO has grown into a connected continuum spanning addiction recovery, residential mental health, medical detox, and integrated psychiatry. Throughout that growth, David has stayed close to the work — prioritizing the relationships between staff, clients, and alumni that he believes are the actual mechanism of recovery.
Approach to Care
David's leadership reflects his own recovery experience. That perspective shapes a clinical philosophy that resists shortcuts: treatment plans built for the person rather than the diagnosis, care teams who actually communicate with each other, and a long alumni community that doesn't end the day someone discharges.
He is deliberate about culture. RECO hires for empathy first and credentials second, because David believes the relationship between a client and their care team does more therapeutic work than any single modality. Staff turnover at RECO Health is unusually low for the field — a direct outcome of how he runs the organization.
Education & Credentials
David holds the CNDAI (Certified National Drug & Alcohol Interventionist) and NCIP (Nationally Certified Intervention Professional) credentials — formal qualifications in the intervention field that complement his lived recovery experience and operational track record. His path into behavioral health came through his own recovery and the lessons of building a program from one office into a multi-state continuum of care.
What to Expect
Most clients won't meet David in a clinical setting — but they'll experience the consequences of his decisions every day. The fact that the RECO Health network runs with a coordinated team, that admissions calls are returned the same day, that alumni still have a door to walk back through years after they discharge — those are operational standards he's set.
If you cross paths with him at an alumni event or community gathering, you'll find someone who introduces himself with his first name, asks how you're doing, and remembers the answer. That's the standard he's set for the rest of the network.
