Vessel Christian Counseling
Walking beside you towards God's best for your life!
Megan Guillen-Diaz, M.S., LAMFT
Owner & Founder
The beginning​
I hail from the beautiful mountains of McCall, Idaho.
I had a desire to connect with and get to know others from a tiny age. This love of connecting and relationships led me to getting my undergraduate degree in Interpersonal Communication from Boise State University in 2007. I had such a passion for it that I ended up being a teaching assistant for Dr. Heidi Reeder for both Interpersonal and Advanced Interpersonal communication classes.
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I have always loved to travel, and in total I worked in the travel industry for close to 10 years as a travel agent. After college I got the ‘itch’ to spread my wings and experience the world, so I sold everything I had and moved to Sevilla, Spain in 2008. That was amazing, but short lived. I returned to Idaho for a couple of years, and the ‘itch’ returned.
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I moved to San Diego, California in 2010 (even though I had never even been there)! I was able to find a job within my same travel agency and I found myself working in the middle of Marine Corps bootcamp at MCRD doing graduation travel for new Marines and their families through Sato travel. It was as fun and crazy as you may imagine! Shortly after moving to San Diego, I met my husband. I was teaching Latin dance at my local church and he was attending the class (even though he was an expert dancer and didn’t need lessons!). As they say, ‘the rest was history!’ We married in 2011, a short year after we met!
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The start of my therapist journey
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I had been working in property management leasing luxury apartments off and on, but I knew that this, nor travel, was my true ‘career.’ I reflected on what brought me the most excitement and passion that I could make into a career, and it was an easy decision to land on counseling. Specifically, Marriage and Family Therapy. From as long as I can remember, I poured myself into self-help books (mainly Christian faith-based). I couldn’t get enough! I specifically had a passion for relationships: what made them work, and fail? I knew I wanted to mainly do marriage counseling. So in 2012, I enrolled in a Master’s program in Marriage and Family Therapy with Capella University.
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My husband is in the Air Force, so in 2014, the military moved us abroad to Incirlik Air Base in Adana, Turkey. While in Turkey, I was finishing up my Master’s program. I found myself twiddling my thumbs a lot as this was the first time since the age of 14 that I hadn’t worked! So, while also doing school, I
took my passion for cooking and starting my own catering company, Meals by Meg. It was a true highlight of my life! Our base was actually a Turkish Nato base, so I provided meals for military members from truly ALL over the world! It was a dream.
While in Turkey, I became pregnant with my first child. In 2016, we got surprise orders to Ellsworth AFB in Rapid City, South Dakota. I had my daughter in May 2016, just over a month after we arrived (it was really fun moving across the world at 8 months pregnant!). It was there that I did my internship at Behavior Management Systems to finish up my degree. I had a wonderful experience! I worked with children, families, couples, and individuals. I also ended up doing a ton of group work for women who were in-patient at our facility. I led groups on co-dependency, and co-led several other groups. I also created, implemented and ran groups for children suffering from anxiety. I graduated with my degree in December 2017.
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In 2017, I got the shocking news that I was again pregnant….with TWINS! My twins were born in December 2017 (yes, I worked allll the way up until the end of my twin pregnancy, whew!), just 1.5 short years after my daughter, so I found myself with 3 kids under age 2! Because of this, I decided to take some time off to care for my kids while they were young. In September 2019, my husband and I got orders back to San Diego, where our story began! I started working again as a counselor in August 2021.
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I get it
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Personally, I have struggled with debilitating anxiety. I know what it feels like to feel hopeless and helpless. Having someone to process through those things with is truly priceless, and such an important part of the journey to healing. I have been to counseling many times, and I found it so helpful! It’s a great treasure to have an objective person to process life with.
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In my time off
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In San Diego, we’ve loved going to the beach (especially Coronado), weekly trips to the world famous San Diego zoo, going to as many restaurants as humanly possible, and diving head-first into all SD has to offer! I love to dance (latin!), attend and act in live theater, travel, do any and everything in the arts, go to farmer’s markets, hike, camp, cook, find the latest restaurants, read for hours in coffee shops, do ‘kid stuff’ with my kiddos, peruse vintage markets and thrift stores, decorate my home, revive vintage furniture, and mostly, spend cherished time with my family!
Vessel Christian Counseling
Walking beside you towards God’s best for your life!
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