LaVerne Hanes Collins is a National Certified Counselor who holds professional counselor licenses in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
Collins is highly respected as a keynote speaker, workshop presenter, clinical supervisor, professional coach, trainer, motivator, and minister. Her special interests include multicultural competencies, minority treatment needs and disparities, organizational dynamics, and faith-based competencies in mental health. Throughout her career, she has established herself as a sought-after diversity trainer and consultant in behavioral health, medicine, education, and business.
Collins is the owner of a private practice and counselor training company: New Seasons Counseling, Training and Consulting, LLC, and she is the owner of Collins Christian Life Coaching, LLC. She is also co-owner of Equity Training Partners, LLC which provides customized diversity, equity, and inclusion training and coaching for businesses. Working as a counselor, writer, coach, mentor, trainer, and serial entrepreneur for over 25 years, she has vast experience in helping people manage life's unexpected crises, grief and loss issues, relationship issues, and mental health.
In addition to various clinical roles, LaVerne served as the Program Director and Interim Vice President for the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) Foundation and Professional Services Division. As time allows, she serves as an adjunct professor/lecturer in Counselor Education and Development at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro (UNCG). Currently, she also serves on the Industry Advisory Council for the Counseling, Psychology, and Human Services Department at the University of Phoenix.
Collins has a dual bachelor's degree from Syracuse University and an M.S. Ed in Community Counseling from Duquesne (pronounced: Doo-Cane) University in Pittsburgh. She holds a Ph.D. in Christian Counseling from South Florida Bible College and Theological Seminary. She is certified in coaching, clinical supervision, grief, trauma, integrative nutrition coaching, mental telehealth counseling, and addiction counseling.
She is the author of two books, "OVERLOOKED: Counselor Insights for the Unspoken Issues in Black American Life," (Rowman and Littlefield Publishing, 2023) and "The Fruit of Your Pain: Experiencing Spiritual Renewal Through Seasons of Struggle" (Renewal Publications, 2001).
She has published several works in professional textbooks and trade publications, including a two-year "Honoring Diversity" series focused on cultural sensitivity in clinical work for the American Counseling Association's magazine, "Counseling Today."
Collins is a contributing author in Springer Publishing's 2022 textbook, "Multicultural Counseling: Responding with Cultural Humility, Empathy, and Advocacy," ( Summers and Nelson, eds.), and she is also a contributing author in the "Sage Encyclopedia of Multicultural Counseling, Social Justice, and Advocacy" (Dermer and Abdullah, eds).
With a strong counselor identity and a commitment to training and developing more multicultural trainers in the counseling profession, Dr. Collins now trains and mentors other counselors who want to increase their impact (and income) as approved diversity mental health trainers and consultants through her popular 12-month MultiCultural MasterClass (MC2) curriculum.