Lakia Downs, MSW, LISW-CP
Lakia is the founder and owner of The Soar Firm, LLC. She was raised in the Upstate area of South Carolina and has over 10 years of experience working with individuals and families in a variety of settings. She has experience in the areas of child welfare, program management and development, leadership training, and coaching.
Lakia earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Lander University and a master’s degree in social work from the University of South Carolina. Lakia is currently licensed as a clinical social worker in the state of South Carolina and North Carolina.
Lakia enjoys using an integrative approach to therapy in which she uses a variety of tools to fit the individual’s needs. She utilizes a strengths-based and liberation-focused approach to healing.
While Lakia works with individuals from many cultural backgrounds, she has a special calling to create safe spaces for Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) who need support navigating intergenerational and racial trauma as well as utilizing resources and practices unique to the cultures of BIPOC individuals as a way to promote healing. She is a member of Shawna Murray-Browne’s Therapy That Liberates Directory —a community designed to dismantle systemic racial oppression and perspectives related to therapy for BIPOC individuals.
Some of the additional healing approaches she utilizes include: Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), Narrative Therapy and Motivational Interviewing (MI). Lakia is passionate and committed to seeing her clients grow and become the best version of themselves.