For too long, mental health care has operated under a “one-size-fits-all” model, often neglecting the crucial role of culture. This has led to misdiagnosis, ineffective treatment, and a profound lack of access for many communities.
But what if mental health care truly reflected the diverse tapestry of human experience? What if cultural understanding was not an afterthought, but the very foundation of healing?
LaVerne Collins, founder of New Seasons Counseling, Training, and Consulting, is answering these questions. As a leading voice in multicultural mental health, Dr. Collins is dismantling culturally insensitive approaches to therapy, paving the way for a more equitable and inclusive system of care.
Driven by a deep commitment to human well-being, LaVerne began her career in mass communication before discovering her true passion: bridging the cultural divide in mental health. Her personal experiences and professional insights inspired her to develop innovative programs that prioritize cultural humility over cultural competence and place racial identity at the heart of the therapeutic process.
Through New Seasons, LaVerne provides direct counseling services and empowers other practitioners with the skills and knowledge to deliver culturally responsive care. Her impactful initiatives, including the MultiCultural MasterClass (MC2) and her thought-provoking podcast, “The MultiCultural MindSet,” are igniting a vital conversation about the future of mental health.
In this cover story, we explore how LaVerne’s work is transforming mental health narratives, empowering practitioners, and challenging deeply rooted biases. Her approach not only changes counseling sessions but also redefines the systems that support them.
The USA Leaders: You are a national resource person for multicultural mental health. Could you briefly share your career journey and background? What inspired you to pursue this path?
LaVerne: Human behavior has always fascinated me. Even as a child, I was curious about why people do the things they do. This deep interest in human thoughts and emotions, though, didn’t initially lead me to counsel. My first career was in mass communications, and I still use much of that knowledge today.
Eventually, my fascination with human behavior drew me back to academia. I earned my M.S.Ed. in community counseling and later a doctorate in Christian counseling. After working in the counseling field for some time, I noticed a significant issue: many counselors struggled with cross-cultural interactions and often defaulted to a “race-neutral” approach. It became clear that monocultural White ideologies prevalent in counseling and mental health weren’t effectively serving Black Americans.
So, I began incorporating practices that were more suitable and relational within Black cultures rather than adhering strictly to White cultural norms in counseling. The results were remarkable. Client retention rates and word-of-mouth referrals increased dramatically.
This success led me to develop continuing education courses for counselors on these culturally relevant concepts, which went beyond their academic training. I was essentially integrating aspects from Black sociological studies, and I was surprised by the high demand for this kind of content.
This success as a trainer led me to create and implement the MultiCultural MasterClass (MC2), a 12-month coaching and mentorship program. MC2 trains experienced counselors to become approved continuing education trainers and consultants in the mental health field, creating a pipeline of trainers invested in culturally responsive counseling.
The USA Leaders: How would you describe the current state of ‘Multicultural Counseling’ in the USA? What are the biggest challenges and opportunities you see?
LaVerne: One of the biggest hurdles to effective multicultural counseling is the challenge of disrupting the dominant monocultural beliefs about what constitutes “normal” and “healthy.”
Historically, entire cultures have been excluded, denigrated, and even criminalized, with messages suggesting their traditions, practices, and even physical features are inferior to those of the dominant group.
When race-based and intergenerational trauma histories are not considered in counseling, and when people are blamed for the pain of their lived realities within unwelcoming systems, we have a serious problem.
As Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. so powerfully stated, racism is like “having your legs cut off, and then being condemned for being a cripple” or “seeing your mother and father spiritually murdered by the slings and arrows of daily exploitation and then being hated for being an orphan.” Many treatment models in the mental health system inadvertently focus on blaming and “fixing” the oppressed.
Until our systems shift their focus to integrative healing and systemic reform, we risk perpetuating this superiority/inferiority paradigm. Programs like MC2 offer a crucial opportunity to bring about healing by training counselors to be more culturally responsive and address the specific needs of diverse populations.
The USA Leaders: Could you please elaborate on your core services and values? How do these values inform your approach to counseling and training, particularly regarding historical and cultural factors?
LaVerne: New Seasons offers three tiers of service: counseling for adults, continuing education (CE) training for licensed counselors, and a twelve-month training program for experienced counselors who want to become approved CE trainers or consultants in multicultural sensitivity. All three tiers share several core values.
First, we emphasize context. We begin by acknowledging that the United States was built on stolen land using stolen labor. This historical reality has had intergenerational and often traumatic effects on Indigenous, Black, and Hispanic Americans. Neglecting this context when discussing the mental health of historically oppressed people contributes to a denial of the roots of racialized life in the U.S. By ignoring the past and portraying colonialism as heroic, we overlook the ongoing adverse impact on those who were exploited. Therefore, my trainings begin with a land and labor acknowledgment to recognize the initial and continuing damage of systemic exploitation.
Second, we foreground race, culture, and ethnicity in the counseling conversation, rather than relegate these identities to the background. Members of racial minorities do not have the privilege of setting aside their racial identity. It’s relevant to every aspect of their lives. Therefore, their counseling work must be understood through the lens of their racial narrative.
Finally, we prioritize cultural humility over cultural competence. Instead of striving for mastery or competence, counselors must acknowledge their own biases and insensitivities and commit to lifelong learning and acceptance of other cultural identities, as well as their own.
Most of my clients are Black American women struggling with anxiety or depression related to stress. Often, their work with me marks the first time they’ve been encouraged to explore the connection between their stress and their historical racial narrative. This exploration is often a revelatory experience for them.
The USA Leaders: You’ve co-founded Equity Training Partners. Can you tell us about the partnership and how your combined expertise addresses issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion?
LaVerne: At Equity Training Partners, I’m fortunate to partner with one of my closest friends, Hope Whylie Cheeks. We combine my expertise in mental health counseling with her knowledge of human capital development. This blend allows us to offer a unique and highly effective combination of organizational and behavioral health insights.
By addressing both institutional and interpersonal perspectives on diversity, equity, and inclusion, we meet a critical need. This approach sets us apart as providers of customized learning solutions that promote a sustainable, anti-discrimination culture within organizations and broader societal structures.
The USA Leaders: You’ve experienced a profound personal loss. How has this experience shaped your perspective on mental health, particularly within the Black community?
LaVerne: I am a mother, a minister, and a mental health professional. I always believed that with this combination, I could offer people hope. However, I lost my 32-year-old son to suicide in 2019. This devastating loss left me feeling like I had failed in all my roles—as a mother, in mental health, and in ministry.
Despite my training, my experience, and my love, I realized I had overlooked or minimized what was most important for my son. In hindsight, it became clear he had undiagnosed problems and unmet needs. Entire systems of care had failed him. It’s often said that Black individuals underutilize therapy, but we criticize them for not using a system that often doesn’t work for them. It’s time to stop placing the burden on the Black community to adapt and instead provide culturally responsive services that are both beneficial and judgment-free.
After my son’s death, I didn’t want to continue counseling, training, ministering, or consulting. However, hearing stories from people he had helped made me realize I hadn’t failed. I had raised an incredible human being who died from a complex mix of co-occurring conditions and overlooked needs.
Nearly three years later, Rowman & Littlefield asked me to write a book. The result is “Overlooked: Counselor Insights for the Unspoken Issues in Black American Life.” It’s the culmination of countless hours of reading and researching the overlooked identity issues, historical factors, clinical biases, losses, and strengths that affect Black American life.
The USA Leaders: Could you elaborate on your books? What insights can readers gain from them?
LaVerne: My 2001 book, “The Fruit of Your Pain,” which is now out of print, addressed readers who embraced religious faith but struggled with anger towards God after tragedy or misfortune. The book encouraged a reframing of their expectations.
My new book, “Overlooked,” serves two audiences. I speak directly to mental health professionals about the unspoken issues faced by ethnically minoritized people. However, the book also allows the general public to “listen in” on this conversation. This allows community members to find language that illuminates their own experiences and learn what to expect from a culturally empathetic practitioner.
The USA Leaders: Are there any upcoming projects or initiatives you are particularly excited about?
LaVerne: MC2 is a project I’m incredibly passionate about. It’s creating a movement of diversity-informed counselors who are making a real difference Like me, these counselors want everyone to receive culturally sensitive, clinically sound care from prepared clinicians. They’re actively training others to bridge that gap.
I’m also excited about my new podcast, “The MultiCultural Mindset,” on my YouTube channel, @lavernecollins. Each episode helps mental health professionals shift away from mindsets that don’t serve racially diverse communities effectively.
We’ve all been unconsciously exposed to messages that blame historically marginalized communities for problems actually caused by systemic racism. We’ve often adopted approaches that focus on “fixing” people instead of addressing the flawed ideologies we were taught. We’ve also been influenced by biases that expect to find mental health deficits within Black people, Black life, and Black culture.
“The MultiCultural MindSet” podcast helps counselors develop new, more appropriate responses in these and other areas. The ultimate goal is to enhance counselor awareness and promote systemic changes in the mental health system, ensuring that counseling becomes a safe, just, and non-judgmental experience for members of racially minoritized communities.
Quotes
“Counselors must be able to look at a client and see. Listen to a client and hear. Sit with today’s client and feel the intergenerational emotional and physical pain of yesterday’s ancestors.”
“Connect with a client and comprehend the visible and invisible trauma. Then celebrate intergenerational survival: down through the years and still through the tears.”
Also Read: The 10 Most Influential Healthcare Leaders in the USA to Watch in 2025
