The small counseling practice in the Dallas area used to hold weekly staff lunches. About 10 therapists worked there, two of them relatives, and the business, D2 Counseling, helped clients navigate relationships and conflict. After October 7 and the war in Gaza, the practice fell apart: firings, lawsuits, resignations and two relatives who became estranged.
As with many workplace disputes, it all blew up over email. “Have you ever hit send on an email and immediately thought, ‘Maybe I should have waited until tomorrow after I calmed down’?” Daniel Gowan, one of the practice’s owners, asked during a guest sermon at a Dallas church. It was only weeks after he and his business partner, Dina Hijazi, were sued by two Jewish employees they had fired.
The war in Gaza has remained an especially sensitive subject in communities and workplaces, dividing even groups that agree on almost everything else. At D2, the dispute crystallized around the question of which political subjects should be off-limits at work. The story is based on hundreds of pages of court filings and testimony, along with hours of video documentation, as part of an investigation published by The Wall Street Journal.
An office that felt like family
Hijazi and Gowan founded the practice in 2018. Most of its work focused on interpersonal relationships. Hijazi had years of experience working with private clients and in schools, while Gowan had ties with local leaders. The practice’s website said it specialized in “conflict management, relationship policy and emotional development within the organization.”
Some of the staff relationships were especially close. Jacqueline Katz, one of the first employees, was married to Gowan’s brother, Sam. The two families lived under one roof at Gowan’s home while Sam was being treated for cancer and for several months after his death in 2018.
Several staff members had something else in common. Katz is Jewish, as is Jackie Junger, who joined the practice a few years later. Gowan later said one reason D2 wanted to hire Younger was that she was Orthodox. “She was going to be a window into an underserved population,” he said. The father of Hijazi’s children is Jewish, while her own father was Palestinian. An attorney for Gowan and Hijazi said they respect employees and clients of every religion and background and that D2 has deep ties with the Jewish community.
Jackie Junger is an Orthodox Jew
(Photo: Screenshot from Jackie Junger's Instagram account)
At the weekly staff meeting after October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists carried out deadly attacks in Israel, emotions were running high. Katz and Junger have relatives in Israel and were distraught, staff members said in testimony. At the same time, Hijazi was worried about two of her children, who were about to fly from Jordan to visit relatives in Tel Aviv.
Hijazi and Gowan opened the meeting with a discussion about marketing, and then someone brought up the Hamas attacks. Junger began describing the killing of Israelis in graphic detail, Hijazi and Gowan alleged. According to the owners, that violated an unwritten rule: Tuesday staff meetings were not the place for material that could destabilize therapists emotionally, because they met clients immediately afterward. Hijazi, shaking, left the room. Gowan followed her.
The next day, Hijazi emailed Junger, who was then in her first full-time counseling job. She offered to meet for coffee or suggested she take time off — anything that might help. “I know you are hurting,” she wrote on Oct. 11, 2023. “Please let me know and I’ll make myself available. My heart goes out to you and your loved ones.”
A few days later, she reminded the entire staff that the weekly meetings were intended for professional matters. On October 16, she wrote that there was also room for personal and emotional subjects, but that staff should come to the meeting “with clarity around what kind of support you are wanting.”
'This was not a debate about Israel and Palestine'
A little more than a year later, in November 2024, as a Tuesday meeting was nearing its end, therapist Kari Knott asked for guidance in working with a Jewish client who was distressed by what she later called things “going on in the world.” The sides disagree over exactly what happened next.
According to several therapists who were in the room, the Jewish staff members suggested podcasts and other materials that could help Nutt better understand the client. The discussion turned into an argument, Hijazi later said. According to Knott, Katz and Junger, Hijazi dismissed the suggestions as one-sided, though Hijazi denied using that phrase. She suggested that Nutt ask the client what he needed and left the room to meet a client.
The next morning, one of the owners emailed the entire staff about the issue. “I have great pain around this as I know some of you do.For me to work and be present with my clients, I have asked that this be kept out of the noon meeting.”
The other firm owner, Daniel Gowan
(Photo: Screenshot from Daniel Gowan's Instagram account)
Junger replied to everyone: “This was not an Israel/Palestine debate, this was ‘Help me understand your trauma.’ I humbly decline your request and actually would love to have a space where everyone is allowed to ask questions pertaining to bettering their understanding of their clients.”
From there, the discussion split into private messages. Hijazi wrote to Gowan, who was on vacation in Canada, and they discussed firing Junger. “She is grandstanding again and making this political and professional and ethical when it's an issue of safety at the workplace,” Hijazi wrote.
Gowan replied: “We do want a safe place to come together. A place to learn and grow and be challenged. If we let her go I’d like us to be clear in our message for other staff to ‘get it’."
Meanwhile, in the group email, Katz also replied to everyone and sided with Junger. “Cultural competency related to our clients’ trauma is a must to be an effective therapist,” she wrote. Addressing Hijazi, she added:
Kari Knott
(Photo: Screenshot from psychologytoday.com)
“I think it was essential for you to be able to manage the inquiry without adopting the victim role.”
Katz also wrote that “Denial of the reality of any members of the team is not appropriate and, in this case, furthers the marginalization that many Jews have felt the entirety of their lives.” She said she would not want to keep attending meetings if she were required to censor herself.
Hijazi wrote to Gowan: “I’m ready to fight or run. The distortion is incredible.” Gowan replied that the subject was the place “where the zealots come out,” and that it was “their lifelong passion and defensiveness and part of the victim story and they get to feel self-righteous about it.” He added: “We move forward, state our principles for the business meeting, and move on."
The next morning, Hijazi sent a message to the staff: “The noon Team meeting is not a forum to present political or religious opinions. If these principals don’t line up with your values, please set a time to meet with us.” She added that the discussion was being removed from the staff email.
Katz replied to everyone: “Your failure to see that this was not a political conversation is a huge blind spot.”
Katz said she replied to everyone in part because D2 had no human resources department to which she could complain. The owners argued that her message violated Hijazi’s request.
'Calm me down, she really crossed the line'
In court filings, Gowan and Hijazi argued that other sensitive issues, such as gun control, had also been steered away from staff meetings. Not everyone agreed. In a message to Katz, Junger recalled that the staff had once devoted an entire meeting to President Trump and the 2024 election. “Spare me the ‘we don’t talk about politics,’” she wrote.
Meanwhile, Gowan sent messages to Hijazi. “Calm me down, Dina.” She replied: “She’s so over the line taking my inventory."
Gowan emailed Katz and Junger: “We closed this topic on the TEAM email. Back up and find some containment - you are way over the line."
Hijazi went from employee to employee in the office and found an unsettled staff. According to her notes, some said the internal conflict was unnecessary. At the same time, she and Gowan consulted an attorney. He asked whether the rules governing discussion topics had been written down. They weren't, according to Hijazi.
They wanted to know how to protect themselves from a possible lawsuit and discrimination claims if they fired the therapists. The attorney responded: “As long as you are not directing the message at a specific person based on their protected class, a private employer can limit speech in the workplace.”
Gowan wrote to Hijazi: “Ask him what the hell a protected class is.” She replied: “It means it is very, very hard to fire a minority.”
According to Junger’s testimony, she wrote to Katz that she wanted to leave D2. Katz advised her to leave, but to get fired so she would “not have to pay out.” The therapists at D2 were bound by noncompete agreements requiring them to return part of their earnings if they worked at a competing practice within two years of leaving.
The tension spilled over. Knott, whose question had sparked the confrontation, wrote to Junger, referring to the practice owners: “I am extremely curious how she handles the stuff in Therapy. Perhaps she does not take any Jewish clients?” Younger replied: “I wonder that as well.”
Shortly afterward, Junger sent another email to everyone: “The contradictory and inconsistent messaging leaves me feeling quite confused. Would wanting more clarity on a Black client experiencing racism violate that policy as well? How about talking about a client who is part of the LGBTQ community?" She also wrote that she would no longer refer Jewish clients to D2.
Katz replied to everyone in support of Junger. That night, the two exchanged messages. “You are a warrior,” Katz wrote. “It's crazy what we're contending with. As if we're being petulant children,” Junger replied.
The following afternoon, Gowan left Junger a voicemail: “Jackie, this is Daniel. We’ve come to the realization that this is not a good fit for you to continue working here at D2 and we’re going to part ways.” Katz was also fired.
Gowan later said the reason was that they had continued sending emails despite being asked not to.
Junger turned to a local Jewish Facebook group looking for a lawyer, “one who can fight wrongful termination due to antisemitism.” One of Hijazi’s clients, Goldie Schuster, saw the post.
Schuster, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, had worked with Hijazi to process trauma. She said the two had gone together to see “Schindler’s List” and to visit the Dallas Holocaust museum. “It was divine providence that she was brought into my life,” Schuster said in an interview. To this day, she still supports the practice owners.
Katz andJunger sued Hijazi and Gowan, alleging discrimination and retaliation, and even held a news conference. Afterward, one-star reviews appeared on D2’s Google page, including one that read: “Run. Don’t walk away from this group.”
Junger began working remotely for a practice outside Texas. D2 accused her of violating her noncompete agreement and said she owed the company about $14,000 from her earnings. The claim against Katz was larger — about $31,000.
Later, another Jewish therapist at the practice resigned. So did Knott, who was pained by the conflict. “This transition will give me space to put this behind me and not be reminded of it every day,” she wrote to Hijazi and Gowan about a year ago.
Last fall, Hijazi went to the emergency room with heart problems that she attributed to everything that had happened, according to a message she sent Knott. Gowan and Hijazi filed a countersuit, alleging that Katz and Junger had defamed them by claiming D2 did not allow employees to seek support regarding Jewish clients.
Ultimately, the sides reached a settlement, whose terms are confidential, and the case was closed last July. D2 lost clients and now has fewer therapists. The relationship between Katz and Gowan, who were once family, was destroyed.