Rising Stars: Meet Joanne Diaz-Koegl

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joanne Diaz-Koegl.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started? 
I am a Licensed Marriage Family Therapist (Lic. # 45854) and received my master’s degree from Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, California. Prior to my master’s degree, I worked for over 18 years as a television producer on numerous TV shows. After experiencing the sudden loss of my young husband in a car accident, I realized my life lacked a deeper meaning and purpose. I decided to return to college and obtained my Master of Arts in Marriage, Family, Therapy in 2005. I also wrote a 291-page thesis titled “The Impact on the Surviving Spouse with Respect to Anticipated Versus Unanticipated Death” a mouthful, lol. My professional training and life experience have shaped the kind of psychotherapist I am. I know firsthand the value that therapy has at different times of my life. I believe that in any stage of our lives there can be amazing change if one wants. I am very passionate in helping my clients thrive and grow from their experience in therapy. I also know how important it is to find the right therapist for yourself, and I welcome any questions you may have for me. 

I have worked with thousands of individuals and couples to create better, more fulfilled, carefree lives. My specialties is working with relationship issues, couples and helping people dealing with all types of loss. 

In Couples work, I guide the couple to develop rapport by providing a safe space to be able to be upfront and direct from the start so that the couple feels understood. I provide lots of insights and skills to help the client think and process. Sometimes, the process is very similar to individual psychotherapy; sometimes, it is more like coaching, and it is educational. The goal is to initially gather each of the individual feelings, thoughts, and conflicts in front of each other to practice active listening and respect while the spouse/partner is speaking. I tailor my therapy by the need of the couple, often focusing on individual childhood trauma that may be triggering your relation. I also believe it’s a huge responsibility as a therapist for me to be familiar and educated on the different cultures we have in California in order to understand their upbringing and ancestry how does it affect their view our life and world. I join the client’s view on not having my biases affect the work. My goal is to offer solace and guidance to help you for the best chance for success. 

We are such a society of attainment, and we are not taught how to talk about loss and grief. Going through a loss of any kind can be detrimental to your physical and emotional well-being if you do not have someone to talk with about and to learn coping skills. Just in the last 4 years, our world collectively experienced the worst losses and grief in over a century with the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people have lost loved ones they were unable to see, say goodbye, or have a proper funeral/memorial service. We were mandated to stay at home and close our businesses, and many experienced huge financial stress. Many people misunderstand grief because it is a topic often avoided and thought it is only about a loss through death. With COVID-19 and the consequences of this pandemic, many are suffering physical and mental stress due to the many losses we are still trying to heal from (death, work changes, closed business, change in connections, fear of going out, safety, etc.). I have a direct understanding and empathy for those who lost loved to Covid. I lost my mother, aunt, and brother in May 2020 to COVID-19. After I worked through my trauma and grief, my experience has helped make me an even more compassionate and experienced therapist. When we lose suddenly, our brain is trying to process loss, and we go through many emotions. If we do not talk about our feelings, they can take control of us. Therapists are finding that the loss and grief that comes with Covid 19 is a unique grief that has uprooted many aspects of day-to-day life, a loss of expectation and anticipatory grief. In therapy, we address the feelings, grief, validate, and learn coping skills to try to find meaning to what we are going through. 

I have built a reputation with my clients as an empathetic yet candid, no-nonsense therapist who believes in using a direct approach, soliciting them to gain awareness of patterns and areas of disconnection. I often use humor when appropriate. I believe you must gain the most from your investment. I often give homework because the work should continue when you are not in session. 

I also combine my years of television experience and psychotherapy by working as a media psychotherapy consultant and After Care Therapist on a variety of Reality/Talk shows. I formally have been the After Care Specialist on “Face the Truth TV”, “T.D. Jakes TV Show”, “The Rickie Lake Show”, and “Dr. Drew’s Life Changers”. I also appear on numerous talk shows as a Relationship/Media Expert addressing current event issues and relationships. I was a Crisis therapist in New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina that caused such devastation to its State and people. I have been one of my most rewarding memories of the resilience of humanity, especially those underserved. 

Because I have a Hybrid office, my clients come from all over California: Los Angeles, Pasadena, South Pasadena, Alhambra, San Marino, Westside, Beverly Hills, Highland Park, Silverlake, Eagle Rock, Glendale, La Canada, La Crescenta, Montrose, Sierra Madre, and many areas in the San Gabriel Valley, Westside, and San Fernando Valley. With Telehealth, I see clients from all over Northern and Southern California. 

I am bilingual in Spanish. 

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It was not a smooth road in that I left a lucrative television producer life to suddenly be working part-time as a preschool assistant teacher while attending school full-time. It was a huge life change not only in being widowed but changing careers. I always knew I had the gift to listen and help others, but it was a gamble to go into debt to start a very different direction in my life, and what if I made a mistake? I actually loved and excelled in graduate school; I had a purpose again because I was so lost being a young widow. In TV I felt I was alone in a world that can be so self-centered and privileged. Being with other students in my grad program that were of all ages, I felt more understood because they were empathic and also in school to help others. Once I began my internship, the work was heart-wrenching at times but so fulfilling. I did have a hard time adjusting to colleagues that were 10, 20+ years younger, straight out of college without the vast work experience I had, but I had to remind myself I was no longer a successful TV producer but equaled with all the interns. It was a bit hard on the ego. In 2008, I passed both my Tests to get my license and immediately opened my private practice. It was the same year we had an economic crisis, but I pursued it by joining professional groups, speaking events, and facilitating a grief group for young widows and widowers for free at several churches. Financially, it was hard, but slowly, I gained clients, and with perseverance, I grew a full practice. It was most exciting when I received a call from an Executioner Producer I had worked with that hired me to work on a new reality show called “Lifechangers” with Dr. Drew Pinsky. I was now working in my two professions and absolutely loving it. We helped so many people change their lives in that one year, but sadly, it was cancelled. It did get me to be known as a TV Therapist Producer and I worked on numerous other shows. It’s been since before the pandemic that I have not worked on a show because so much has changed in the TV reality world. I miss working with a staff and crew of people because working alone is a bit isolating. 

What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The most important lesson for me is that I learned that I was stronger than I ever thought and that I had a natural gift for helping others that is not just learned in school. Through the courageous people that have crossed my path as clients/patients and my own work, I know without a doubt that people can heal, change, find peace, etc., if they really do the hard work. I do believe “the gift is in the wound.” it’s not easy to have obstacles in life and think we can recover, but we do and become a much more grounded, caring, empathic person who embraces life because it is fragile. 

Contact Info:

• Website: joannekoegllmft.com
• Instagram: Jkoegl
• Facebook: Joanne Koegl: Mariage Family Therapist and Joanne Koegl: Psychological Consultant, After Care and Resource Expert
• Linkedin: Joanne Diaz- Koegl
• Yelp: Joanne Koegl, LMFT