Hidden Gems: Meet Patrece Lucas of Indigo Transitions, PLLC & Coffee with a Counselor

Today we’d like to introduce you to Patrece Lucas

Hi Patrece, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I am a licensed Mental Health Counselor and serves as a community counselor in Detroit, Michigan and the surrounding areas. I have an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and was a programmer analyst at BCBSM before getting my Masters Degree in Counseling and opening my private practice. I am a counselor, wellness partner, facilitator, speaker, mediator, and all things wellness at my own practice called indigo transitions, PLLC. I also have a social advocacy program called Coffee With a Counselor which provides workshops, lectures, facilitation, brief counseling, and coffee/cocoa healing circles anywhere groups gather and also provides mental health awareness, education, intervention and preventions support for community and corporate organizations.

I have specialized in grief for the duration of my career and recently became certified in Death & Grief Studies. I am the resident and founding counselor of Where Do Black Women Go to Grieve (WDBWGTG) with founder and co-facilitator, Espy Thomas. At WDBWGTG where we center the needs of Black Women. We have been facilitating our bi-weekly grief support group and an online group for over 8 years with physical meetings happening at Espy’s family bakery Sweet Potato Sensations in the Brightmoor Community (Lasher & 6Mile). Starting this year we also offer culturally specific healing modalities to our members such as grief yoga, sound therapy, chakra and sensual movement and Afro-Cuban dance and other somatic therapies.

As part of my grief work I am also a grief doula providing support during terminal illness, for caregivers, during hospice care, providing death and loss education, supportive families with burial and memorial planning, providing family and community aftercare, and supporting families and communities throughout their grief journey.

I specialize in providing culturally specific counseling and creating safe healing spaces for people of color. I have committed my life’s work to advocating for communities of color, especially my own African/Black community, to not only survive but to dismantle broken systems and create new ones that are intent on supporting and uplifting the communities capacity to thrive.

I became a counselor because of my own family’s history with mental illness and addiction. My mother had agoraphobic panic disorder and my father was a Vietnam Veteran who suffered from severe PTSD, symptoms of agent orange exposure, and was a heroin addict. I fell in LOVe with the power of “group therapy” or community care when I shared about my mother’s mental illness and my father’s addiction with a group of girlfriends and felt immense relief from shame just by sharing in a safe supportive space with others having a similar experience. I wanted others to experience this kind of care and facilitate more intentional healing for my community. I became a community counselor because I saw the need for it in my own family and community and wanted to end the stigma of mental illness in the black community and normalize conversations about mental health and having a counselor/therapist. My greatest compliment as a counselor came from my mom after supporting a client at the laundry mat as part of our social anxiety work and she said, “I wish I had a therapist like you when I needed help”.

In my private practice, indigo transitions, PLLC I help client prepare for, manifest, and live their best lives and with Coffee with a Counselor I make talking about mental health and therapy as common as buying a cup of coffee.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Hell No.

The biggest obstacle has been having a mentally and physically ill mother and mentally ill and addict father. I grew up in abject poverty and have far exceeded what I “should” or “could” have been statistically. On my mother’s side of the family I am first generation college educated. Neither one my parents went beyond a high school education and both were just above functionally illiterate, they can read but spelling and writing is/was a challenge for them.

Growing up in generational poverty creates inherent barriers to success. As a black single mother and solo entrepreneur, small business owner, living, LOVing, and working in Detroit, MI there are barriers, obstacles, and set backs. There was no startup resources for my business and much of my work and how I built my business was through free and pro bono counseling sessions and speaking engagements. My business is entirely word of mouth and through referrals. I often say, “My children and I eat because of referrals”.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about indigo transitions, PLLC & Coffee with a Counselor ?
I shared much of this as part of my story. I wrote my story from the lens of my work.

How do you think about happiness?
Wellness makes me happy. I am most happy when I am healthy and my LOVed ones are healthy. When I see community members exhibiting joy I usually say, they look healthy.

I am personally most happy relaxing, reading a book, being silly and spending time with my baby adult children (they will be 19 (son) and 21 (daughter) this year), my mom when we can just be present in each others company which is hard in this season of being her caregiver, and with my partner. I am most happy when I am laughing or making others laugh even audiences or clients. My motto is to Laugh with me is to LOVe me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @indigo_transitions and @CoffeeWithACounselor
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/patrecemlucascounselor/