![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2171.jpg\")
(Photo courtesy of Coach Dee)<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tOverview:<\/p>\n
Coach Dee, a mental health and social services professional, used her experiences to create a movement in Detox Life Coaching, focusing on mental health, spiritual care, and unapologetic truth. She realized that she needed to heal herself before helping others and stepped away from a secure government job to start her own business. She now coaches and mentors people to come home to themselves and build a legacy of liberation for their children.<\/p>\n
For years, Coach Dee was the one behind the curtain\u2014handling crises, guiding people through chaos, helping them breathe again. With over 15 years in mental health and social services, she carved out a path in government agencies, nonprofits, and transitional care centers. She was the first call when life broke down. The fixer. The calm in the storm. Especially for those who looked like her\u2014Black, queer, and chronically underserved by the very systems meant to support them.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s what most people didn\u2019t see: the healer needed healing, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was good at helping people,\u201d she says. \u201cBut there was so much of me I hadn\u2019t accepted yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Coach Dee grew up wrapped in scripture and expectations. A preacher\u2019s kid in a lineage of ministers, she was raised to serve, to shine, and to suppress anything that didn\u2019t fit the church\u2019s mold. And as a queer, masculine-of-center Black woman, she learned early on how to perform light while hiding the shadows.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was out, in a relationship, living life\u2014but I was still hiding so much of me,\u201d she admits. \u201cEven with all the work I was doing for others, I hadn\u2019t really accepted myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually, that duality cracked. You can only carry everyone else\u2019s truth for so long before your own starts demanding air.<\/p>\n
Her revolution didn\u2019t come with explosions. It came with a pen.<\/p>\n
Journaling had always been a refuge\u2014her childhood lifeline when voices got loud and feelings went unspoken. But as an adult, those pages started turning into something else. Raw. Brave. Necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWriting gave me the space to express what I couldn\u2019t always say out loud,\u201d she says. \u201cGrowing up, if I said how I felt, it turned into yelling or tension. But when I wrote it down, it landed differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
That release turned into her first book. A gut-punch of a manuscript. True. Vulnerable. And terrifying.<\/p>\n
(Photo courtesy of Coach Dee)<\/p>\n
\u201cI was scared as hell,\u201d Dee confesses. \u201cNot just about what people would think. I was worried about what my family would say. But I had to tell my story\u2014not to blame anyone, but to finally heal.\u201d<\/p>\n
When she released it, the fear gave way to freedom.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like a weight was lifted,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd people got it. They saw themselves in it. And that\u2019s when I knew\u2014this is bigger than me.\u201d<\/p>\n
That one book became three. A fourth is on the way. And somewhere along the line, she realized she wasn\u2019t just telling her story\u2014she was helping others tell theirs, too. Her clients started writing. Publishing. Speaking. Detox Life Coaching was born.<\/p>\n
She stepped away from the security of systems and created her own lane. Not just a coaching business\u2014a healing movement. Detox Life Coaching is where mental health, spiritual care, and unapologetic truth collide.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems like everything I\u2019ve done has been rooted in mental health\u2014my own, first and foremost,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what led me to help others.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the real shift? It came when she made a private promise to her inner child.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told her I\u2019d be the parent she never had. That I\u2019d protect her. Make her feel safe. And I\u2019ve never let that promise go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The journey wasn\u2019t pretty. Especially coming from a faith background that taught her queerness was something to hide or heal. But Coach Dee carved her own theology\u2014one rooted in grace, not shame.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to stop giving a fuck about what other people thought,\u201d she says bluntly. \u201cI had to choose me. And when I did, I started attracting people who were ready to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, her impact ripples. From queer youth in South Dallas to mothers breaking cycles of trauma, Dee\u2019s not just coaching\u2014she\u2019s teaching people how to come home to themselves.<\/p>\n
She remembers one client in particular. A queer mom who brought her daughter to a Dallas Wings game and later tagged Coach Dee in a post that stopped her cold.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said, \u2018Coach told me\u2014once you heal you, you\u2019ll heal your daughter.\u2019 And now, her daughter is blooming. That\u2019s legacy to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the work. Not perfection. Not performance. But liberation\u2014for the next generation and the ones after that.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything\u2019s not going to be perfect,\u201d Dee says. \u201cBut if we do our healing now, our kids don\u2019t have to suffer the way we did. They get a different kind of chance. That\u2019s the legacy I want to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Dee was recently honored for her work in the community at the Resource Center\u2019s annual fundraiser. Even before she stepped up to accept her recognition, her presence said it all. She didn\u2019t just walk in the room\u2014she shifted it. That night, she wasn\u2019t just being celebrated. She was embodying the very thing so many people in the room were looking for: proof that freedom is possible.<\/p>\n
Coach Dee never set out to be a symbol. But symbols are born when someone lives loud in a world that tells them to stay quiet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know it was going to come to this level,\u201d she says. \u201cBut now that we\u2019re here? I\u2019m ready. Let\u2019s get it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s not just coaching. She\u2019s re-parenting her younger self, telling the truth others are scared to say, and building a future where visibility, healing, and power are non-negotiable.<\/p>\n
Coach Dee isn\u2019t asking for permission anymore. She\u2019s leading\u2014unapologetically.<\/p>\n
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