As a counselor, entrepreneur, and keynote speaker, Dr. LaVerne Collins transforms her personal story into a blueprint for women seeking to rise with authenticity, cultural intelligence, and unshakable resilience.
Dr. LaVerne Collins doesn’t just speak about her passion for mental wellness—she embodies it. With authenticity in her words and a message grounded in lived reality, she has emerged as one of today’s most compelling keynote speakers and a pioneering voice in multicultural mental health education.
Her journey—from a steel town outside Pittsburgh to founder and CEO of New Seasons Counseling, Training & Consulting, LLC—demonstrates how resilience and cultural insight can transform personal experience into a universal legacy.
A Childhood That Sparked a Calling
Collins grew up in a small steel mill community just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the 1960s and ’70s. Through elementary school, she was the only Black child on her street. She grew up moving daily between the warmth of culturally-centered church and civic experiences with her family, contrasted with the isolating experience of living in a predominantly White neighborhood.
“Black kids said I acted White; but the White kids didn’t include me, at least not consistently.” Collins says navigating these spaces involved a lot of emotional labor for a child.
A pivotal moment of understanding came when her mother gave her a set of monogrammed towels embroidered with the image of a young White girl. “I asked my mom why the towels had my name with the face of a White child instead of a Black child,” Collins recalls her mother’s answer. “They don’t make things like that for us.”
Sixty years later, she still has a towel from that set—a quiet but powerful reminder of what society overlooked, and of the need to create spaces and systems that affirm Black identity and humanity.
EXPERIENCING THE POWER OF BEING SEEN
At Syracuse University in the late ’70s, Collins found belonging among a vibrant coalition of Black students from across the African diaspora. Together, they created activities to meet their needs: a Black gospel choir, dance troupe, sororities, and fraternities. Though she majored outside of psychology, she gravitated to courses in sociology and psychology, especially those exploring race, faith, and culture.
Years later, she pursued counseling, only to eventually realize that most counseling ideology was not developed with People of Color in mind. “Once again, my mother’s words were ringing true, ‘They don’t make things like that for us’.”
In 2001, a conversation even more pivotal than the lesson of the towel would be engraved within her. It was during her first of many trips to Africa when she met Momma Christiana, a retired schoolteacher in Ghana. Dr. Collins recalls the moment, “She looked at me with conviction and said, ‘We’ve been watching, and we know you built Europe, and we know you built America. And we are SO proud of you’.”
“In that moment, I felt both the piercing weight of history and the healing power of affirmation. Momma Christiana saw what had been stolen by slavery—dignity, visibility, and connection—and then restored a piece of it by acknowledging me as part of a resilient lineage. Her words reframed my identity, anchoring me in the truth that I AM seen, valued, and part of a proud heritage. That encounter continues to shape my calling as a counselor, trainer, and speaker who helps others reclaim their worth and rewrite the narratives that once erased them.”
“I sobbed for hours after that conversation,” Collins recalls. “It felt like my tears were not just mine alone. They were intergenerational, shed for all the millions of ancestors who lived, built, and died invisibly.
Creating New Seasons
With a remarkable understanding of the power of being seen, Dr. Collins launched her private practice, New Seasons Counseling, Training & Consulting, LLC. The launch represented a new season for her, and she hoped it would be a new season for the people she served. So, she started making adaptations in her practice to let People of Color know they are fully seen!
Taking a lesson from her time at Syracuse, she began creating the atmosphere and activities that would meet the needs of People of Color: using West African drums in session, centering sessions around the rap music lyrics written by the client himself, allowing people to bring their pastors to their intake appointment, and providing psychoeducational meetings with a person’s extended “village” so they understand how to support that client. What Dr. Collins didn’t know was that she would launch a new season in counselor continuing education!
From Session-Focused to System Focused
Her solo practice evolved into a three-tier model for her profession. Each tier expands the reach of her commitment to transformative care for People of Color:
- Direct Client Care – Providing culturally centered counseling services that meet individuals and families where they are. This includes therapeutic support, healing spaces, and tools for resilience and renewal.
- Counselor Development – Offering continuing education and workshops to counselors and clinicians. This tier equips providers with the cultural awareness, clinical insight, and ethical grounding needed for effective practice with diverse populations.
- Trainer Empowerment – Preparing advanced professionals through the MultiCultural MasterClass (MC²) train-the-trainer programs. This level expands reach and impact by multiplying culturally competent trainers who can deliver ongoing education within their own networks and communities.
Her education programs help counselors integrate history, race, and culture into the therapeutic process. This three-tier model, she explains, moves multicultural mental health beyond individual counseling sessions and into systemic transformation.
A Keynote Voice with Unmatched Authenticity
As a keynote speaker, Collins doesn’t just present frameworks—she tells stories with raw honesty and transformative power. Audiences resonate because her message is both deeply personal and universally relevant: identity, resilience, and legacy.
What makes her different is the combination of scholarship and authenticity—every keynote rooted in lived experience, research, and faith. Her work challenges counselors to go beyond the surface and delve into the lived realities of People of Color. But it’s not just about theory. Dr. Collins has lived through the pain she addresses. From surviving a life-threatening brain aneurysm to grieving the tragic loss of a son, her personal journey adds a layer of authenticity that makes her voice resonate deeply. It’s a voice of empathy, resilience, and unyielding commitment to change.
As a speaker and trainer, Dr. Collins has shared her wisdom internationally, reaching diverse audiences who are eager to reshape how mental health is practiced and understood. She doesn’t just teach; she ignites a movement to decolonize therapy and center cultural intelligence in every session, every interaction, and every healing journey.
When her adult son died by suicide in 2019, she dug her heels in deeper and began to look for academic studies about overlooked and unseen factors in Black mental health. Her groundbreaking book came from that loss and that learning. Overlooked: Counselor Insights for the Unspoken Issues in Black American Life has become a resource for clinicians and counselor educators nationwide seeking to understand disenfranchised grief, racial trauma, and overlooked cultural strengths.
Dr. Collins’ story is one of resilience, empowerment, and a relentless fight to ensure that no one is overlooked in the pursuit of mental well-being. Her recognitions, such as being named one of the Top 10 Most Influential Leaders in Mental Health, affirm her status as a trailblazer. Her work is a call to action for counselors, communities, and corporations in all sectors to expand their view, to go deeper, and to make room for everyone’s story.
In a world where so many voices remain silenced or marginalized, Dr. Collins’ message is clear: Everyone deserves to be seen. And everyone deserves to heal.
Looking Ahead
For 2026 and beyond, Collins is energized by the opportunity to take her messages into nonclinical spaces where she can empower others to make a difference; encourage multicultural workplace wellness programs, and show organizations and corporations that multicultural intelligence is an asset rather than a liability.
Her legacy, she insists, is not measured by her own achievements but by the multiplied impact of those she mentors: “The counselors I train will carry this work into communities I’ll never touch. That’s legacy. That’s why I do this.”
About Dr. LaVerne Hanes Collins
For those eager to learn more about Dr. Collins and her transformative work, visit New Seasons Counseling, Training & Consulting. Connect with her on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn for updates and insights. And don’t miss her book, “OVERLOOKED: Counselor Insights for the Unspoken Issues in Black American Life,” which offers valuable perspectives on Black American mental health.
