“Working with Joy was incredible.  After all these years, Joy is the only person who I have been able to trust totally and completely with client care. She is honest, committed, kind and knowledgeable.  She is assertive, when need be, and gentle when required, knowing exactly how to deal with the most difficult of situations. Over the last 9 years of working with her, she has made my job much easier with her hard work and dedication to our clients.”

-TAMAR G. ARMINAK
ARMINAK LAW, APC

“Joy saved my life. I had been on a self destructive path for a long time and my life seemed hopeless. She was patient, understanding, cool, and fun and showed me a beautiful life that I could not see in my future. Now I have a life worth living.”

-WF, ALEGRIA CLIENT

“When faced with the daunting task of finding help for our loved ones, we often have so many questions and don’t know where to turn or even who to believe, which can be very stressful. But, I’ve worked with Joy during this last year and she and her team go above and beyond in helping clients and their families. She has impeccable integrity and ethics and always goes above and beyond to help their clients get the help they need.”

-WENDY RUDIN, MY NEW BEGINNINGS

“Joy has been such a wonderful gift in my life. Since day one, she has been instrumental in my sobriety and well being. Although it has been many years since she was my companion and coach, her influence and role in my life is still just as prominent. To say she cares about her clients is an understatement and I am lucky to have experienced it first hand. She is instinctually nurturing and thoughtful, always placing others needs above hers. Her guidance, wisdom and care have made a huge impact on my life and I will be forever grateful. On top of that, she has incredible resources and connections both inside and outside of the sober community for anything that doesn’t fall within her scope of work. This has been extremely helpful throughout my journey and she has never led me in the wrong direction. I have nothing but fantastic things to say about her and her capabilities. Joy leads by example, handles all situations with grace and loves unconditionally. She is truly the gift that keeps on giving.”

-LAUREN G, ALEGRIA CLIENT

"I am a therapist specializing in treating trauma and borderline personality disorder and I have had the pleasure of collaborating with Alegria on several cases. I have really enjoyed working with the team at Alegria. They take such great care of their clients and are so attentive to every detail. Working with Alegria helps my clients manage their day to day lives, tackle problems, and achieve their goals. I look forward to continuing to collaborate with Alegria's team in the future and would highly recommend them for any clients in need of case management or coaching services."

-ELLE MICHEL, LMFT

“Simply put, working together with Joy and Dia and their team at Alegria Collaborative to help patients has been among the most rewarding experiences of my career. The outcomes we've had on shared cases often verge on miraculous, even in situations that other teams had considered impossible. These have ranged widely from individuals with extreme cases of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder that are now re-engaged in work, school, and relationships; creative professionals more productive than ever after struggling with depression and artistic blocks; people with severe ADHD now able to organize productively; and chronic addicts finally living sober, fulfilling, even joyful lives.

The skill, experience, creativity, dedication, integrity, and compassion that Alegria brings to their work is unparalleled. They just understand people in a way I've rarely seen, have a vast network of resources and connections, and are able to custom-tailor treatment teams that fit each client's needs perfectly. Their clinical coordination meetings are incredibly thoughtful and thorough, and I often learn new approaches from them. Equally important is the warmth, empathy, enthusiasm, and sparkle that Joy and Dia embody -- they are able to build trust and remarkably strong therapeutic relationships with clients and families.”

- DR. LINCOLN BICKFORD

“Some are sicker than others,” it is said. When Alegria’s team arrived on the scene, it would be fair to say I was sicker than nearly everyone. I was trapped in the vicious cycle of addiction: Stretches of compulsive using with nearly lethal consequences followed by brief periods of sobriety with varying degrees of sincerity. The intermittent heavy drug use only served to exacerbate my pre-existing mental illness, leaving me simultaneously depressed, manic and paranoid. I was angry with myself, the entire world and everyone in it. Factor into to this already volatile equation that I had previously attained nearly 20 years of continuous sobriety. After relapsing in 2015; I spent the better part of a decade being educated and “rehabilitated” at over seven of the country’s top-rated treatment centers. I considered my experience unparalleled and egotistically believed I already knew everything there was to know about recovery…I just could not seem to stay sober, even to save my own life (which seemed less and less worth living.) Any sobriety I could grasp had been short-lived as I repeatedly found myself making self-destructive decisions and sabotaging both my recovery and my happiness. In short, I was a frustrated, rehab-fatigued, jaded client.

Joy and Dia’s team at Alegria were unfazed. They walked me through the turmoil. Rather, they walked with me; I still had to put one foot in front of the other, but I was not alone in the journey.

My first companion helped me get settled in a new living space, repeatedly folding loads of laundry (unprompted) while reminding me to take my morning medicine.

Another companion dropped comprehensive knowledge about addiction and brain chemistry while helping me polish my silver.

A third companion graciously suffered through an “up” mood which featured me belting out show tunes in her car at the top of my lungs, later offering to instruct me in a personalized yoga session. (Hard pass, at the time.)

A fourth played impromptu marriage-counselor with my husband, who had (justifiably) filed for divorce.

Yet another helped me create a multiple-tennis ball game with my rambunctious but dim puppy. (They mostly just bounce off her face.)

Circle back to the first, who found my current house for me and continues to help me organize 4,000 square feet of belongings into a 1,200 square foot home. She has made at least half a dozen trips to the Salvation Army on my behalf.

Alegria’s companions finessed the details so I could focus on the big picture: Maintaining long-term sobriety.

Each member of the team embodies the qualities one seeks in a great sponsor:

Accountability; knowledge; empathy; and endless patience. Almost more importantly, each individual also embodies the qualities one seeks in a great friend: Discretion; honesty, sound judgement and good humor. They reminded me to breathe. They held space for my (often erratic) feelings. They reframed the seemingly insurmountable challenges wrought by my troubled past into practical goals for a brighter future. As they helped me prioritize and realize these goals, they insisted on celebrating each little victory, one day at a time. The message was less “You can do this!” and more “You are doing this!” They led by example. They loved me until I could love myself.

My life is unrecognizable in the best of possible ways: Where there was once chaos and calamity, there is peace and serenity. Where there was unmanageability, there is order. Where there was hopelessness and despair, there is faith and Joy and Dia (and many others.)

Recovery doesn’t happen in a day, but each day counts. Likewise, a single person does not hold the power to heal another—The remedy generally comes from the group and from within (and the Great Beyond.) But when it comes to the countless people it can take help a gravely ill person get well, some are more helpful than others. Allegria Companions are squarely in the former group.”

-NAME WITHHELD