Her Harbor Recovery Center's 4,000 square-foot residential recovery house sits on a full acre and features a spacious living area, large backyard and pool, four bedrooms, a group and individual therapy room and more. Photo by Cecilia Lopez

A partnership of local providers is planning a new recovery center in Fresno, helping to fill a deficiency of bed space in women’s health care for the region.

Her Harbor Recovery Center is planning a grand opening of its new residential recovery house in Northwest Fresno, bringing what it calls a first-class inpatient option for Fresno residents and beyond.

Natasha Davis, co-founder and program director at the startup Her Harbor Recovery Center, said the first center will fill a need for gender-specific rehabilitation care.

“Fresno and Clovis alone have about three-quarters of a million people,” Davis said. “There are probably about seven to eight recovery homes to serve those people.”

In comparison, Davis said that Orange County has roughly 3 million people and 3,500 centers to service people.

“That should give you a perspective of where we’re at here in the Central Valley,” Davis said. “We’re not just going to be serving Fresno — we’re looking to serve all of the Central Valley and Central Coast.”

The center, designed to help women struggling with substance use disorders and dual-diagnosis mental health issues, will feature space for six patients, complete with group and one-on-one therapy rooms, full kitchen, spacious yard and pool area and round-the-clock access to on-site health care services.

 

Her Harbor accepts private insurance, but Davis hopes to soon expand into programs for government-operated insurance carriers like Medicare and MediCal.

Davis said the property — a four-bedroom, 4,000 square-foot home — fit the needs of Her Harbor perfectly; Davis said her partner and CEO on the project, Haley Sample, fell in love with the location as soon as she saw it.

“I was dead set on this house,” Sample said. “We looked at several others and I would not budge.”

Sample, said a key selling point of the house was the layout, with each of the four bedrooms attached to a bathroom. It is a peaceful, quiet environment with plenty of shade and privacy.

Two of the bedrooms will serve as doubles, housing two women at a time. Each bedroom is fully furnished and has its separate bathroom complete with granite countertops and spacious floor plans. The home is also a convenient five-minute drive to Her Harbor’s main office on Palm and Sierra avenues, which will house the center’s outpatient services, intensive outpatient and hospitalization services.

Additionally, Sample said the house helps new patients alleviate some of the nervousness that naturally comes; the house’s layout allows new patients to bypass the main living space of the house, avoiding the initial discomfort of unfamiliar eyes in a new environment.

In addition to the residential treatment house, a nearby outpatient and office location will provide assistance to other patients not participating in the residential program. Technology helps expand the traditional coverage areas.

“Since COVID, a lot of things have changed,” Davis said. “You can now use Teledoc or Zoom; we’re hoping to take advantage of that for the women who live outside of Fresno — we will certainly be able to continue their care should they need to return home after their detox residential stay.”

Davis said that Her Harbor will fill a niche that is extremely needed in the Valley and state, emphasizing that while the home at Her Harbor is designed to be a high-end option for residential treatment, they will also help patients by working with local outpatient recovery centers — of which there are several dozen in the area — to find treatment programs for those who do not qualify or are not a fit for Her Harbor.

“I just want to be a beacon of hope,” Davis said.

Founded in 2023, Her Harbor’s team also includes Kaiser Permanente’s Sreekanth Chava, MD, psychiatry, as well as Fresno’s 2017 Mother of the Year award recipient Ronica Reyes as Her Harbor’s clinical director.

“When you have a cohesive unit and everybody is working well together, that’s when you’re going to be successful,” she said. “We’re just putting the best team of people together in order to serve these women and serve the community.”

Eventually, Davis and Sample hope their reach is able to extend to the nonprofit sector, with hopes to open new facilities to continue to serve the Valley and beyond.

“The goal will be, eventually, to open up a 401(c)(3) or a nonprofit for Medicare and MediCal specifically aligned with Her Harbor,” Davis said.

Her Harbor Recovery Center will focus on rehabilitation with a team of therapists specializing in trauma, group therapy sessions, trauma-informed yoga and breathwork and other holistic recovery treatment options.

Additional information about Her Harbor Recovery Center can be found by calling (559) 481-8318 or by visiting herharborrecovery.com. Her Harbor Recovery Center’s main office is located at 6435 N. Palm Ave., Suite 104, in Fresno.