Meet the DAMD Recovery Facilitator Network

When a treatment center or a sober living home books outside group facilitation, it is not really buying a company. It is buying whoever walks through the door on Tuesday afternoon and holds a room of eighteen people for ninety minutes.

That is the whole product. So this issue is about the people.

Below is the DAMD Recovery facilitator network as it stands today, with credentials named exactly as verified and the specialties each one is trained to deliver. Full profiles, portraits, and specialty lists live on our team page.

What we confirm before anyone facilitates

Facilities are not asking us to be inspiring. They are asking whether the person we send is qualified, insured, on time, and clear about where their role stops. So before a facilitator takes a group under our name, we confirm:

Credentials and current status, with the issuing body recorded. If a certification cannot be named and verified, it does not get published.

Scope of practice, in writing. Our facilitators lead groups, psychoeducation, and recovery support. They do not diagnose, treat, or provide psychotherapy, and they escalate to your clinical staff.

Insurance and coverage requirements, confirmed against your facility's vendor requirements before service begins.

Confidentiality and privacy expectations, aligned to your facility's policies.

Reliability — arrival, preparation, documentation, and communication the moment something changes.

Qualifications vary by person, which is why we publish each one individually instead of making a blanket claim about the roster.

The network

Gabriel Chavez — Founder & Chief Executive Officer. Registered Trained Support Staff (RTSS). Gabriel built DAMD out of lived experience and a conviction that group programming in recovery settings could be run better than it usually is. His groups center on life skills, identity, purpose, emotional awareness, and accountability.

Jimmy Aiello — Behavioral Health Group Facilitator. Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor (CADC), with 11 years of continuous recovery. Jimmy runs psychoeducational and process-oriented groups built around self-awareness, personal accountability, coping strategies, and relapse prevention.

Hannah Cook — Group Facilitator. Registered Trained Support Staff (RTSS), with education in Community Psychology. Hannah leads recovery-focused and trauma-informed groups for diverse populations, with a person-centered emphasis on emotional regulation, mindfulness, and practical wellness. Her Reiki and sound-based training can be added where a facility approves it.

What the group library covers

DAMD's group library spans twenty group topics across four categories:

Psychoeducational & Recovery Skills — relapse prevention, recovery education, coping skills, CBT-informed skills education, co-occurring-disorder education.

Life Development, Identity & Purpose — life skills, accountability and goal setting, identity and purpose, communication and relationships, employment and workforce readiness.

Trauma-Informed & Emotional Wellness Education — trauma-informed recovery education, anger and shame education, emotional regulation, family dynamics education, process-oriented discussion.

Experiential & Wellness — yoga and moving meditation, mindfulness and grounding, sound wellness, creative expression and art-based wellness, fitness and movement, each led by an appropriately qualified provider.

Availability depends on the facilitator, your schedule, and your program's approval. We confirm the specific match before anything is booked — we do not promise a topic we cannot staff.

Where we work

DAMD Recovery places facilitators into treatment centers, detox and residential programs, PHP and IOP settings, and sober living homes across Los Angeles, Orange County, and Southern California. We contract with facilities, not with the public.

If you run a program and want to know which facilitators fit your schedule, tell us what you need on our facilities page or call (661) 886-2975. We respond within 24-48 hours.