Patrice Butts keeps a photo of her mother and sister on her desk at Safe Haven, where she works as a case manager for victims of domestic violence.
Both women were killed in 2016 in an act of domestic violence. Now, their photo serves as a reminder of what Butts endured and as her motivation when it comes to counseling victims.
“I feel like people want to be heard, and oftentimes, we don’t hear them,” Butts told The Dispatch. “Everyone has a story, and when you realize that, it changes (your perspective). I always tell people, ‘We’re all dirt.’ If we put it in that perspective, we would quit having these judgemental thoughts about each other.”
Raised in Kilmichael, Butts graduated from Montgomery County High School in 1991. The same year, she married her high school sweetheart Dwayne, who would soon join the military.
After raising three daughters and spending about 25 years away from Mississippi, Patrice said she and Dwayne started to feel the pull to return to their roots.
“After being away for so long, we just knew it was time to come home,” she said.
The family moved to Columbus in 2018, and Patrice started working part-time as a referral clerk at Columbus Air Force Base, where she also volunteered in the counseling department.
“One of the active duty officers says, ‘Hey Patrice, you’re wasting your life. Why aren’t you a counselor?’” Patrice said. “I had counseled in hospitals and nursing homes and women’s and men’s shelters (and) rehabs. I had been doing this a long time, and I thought, ‘Let me go get some education to go with this.”
So in her 30s, Patrice earned a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees to become a mental health therapist – always remembering the words of a friend who once told her, “You could be 40 with a degree or 40 without a degree.”
Bringing it back home
After a stint working for Community Counseling in Columbus, Patrice started working in July 2024 as a case manager for Safe Haven, a Columbus-based nonprofit that provides emergency shelter and crisis intervention services to domestic abuse victims and their children.
In her role, Patrice uses her own life experiences – especially the losses of her mother, sister and daughter, who died after an accidental fall in 2020 – to connect with her clients and guide them through healing.
“I share all these experiences as a counselor and (with) people that God allows me to minister to because I want them to know that life wasn’t that (great),” she said. “I went through things, but I try to offer hope. I try to offer help. I try to offer growth. You can learn from these things.”
Her day-to-day is “a rollercoaster,” often helping clients get back on their feet, whether that means helping them to get a driver’s license or teaching a class on financial stability. While she loves the work, it can be difficult.
“It’s hard when they go back because sometimes you realize the abuse may end up worse than what it was because you left,” she said. “I always tell them, ‘If you have to come back, please come back.’ If you come back 20 times, maybe that 20th time you’ll say, ‘Enough is enough.’”
To keep herself grounded, Patrice, an ordained minister, relies both on her faith and on counseling.
“I start my day with prayer, and I end my day with prayer,” she said. “I do all I can here, but I can’t take it home. One of the counselors taught me, you have an imaginary garbage can at your door. Take it all off (and put it in there). … You can’t (carry it) because that burnout will happen.”
Getting ready to celebrate her 53rd birthday next week, Patrice is once again feeling called to go home, but this time to Kilmichael, where she and Dwayne started a nonprofit called Touched By Mercy and Living On Grace Ministries in January 2024.
“God has blessed us more than we have ever, ever, ever imagined in our lives – to do things, to see things, to allow our children to go and see and do some amazing things,” she said. “And (now) we’re just at the point we just want to give back.”
With a focus on women, children and the elderly, the nonprofit works to provide activities and opportunities to improve the lives of those in need.
Patrice hopes to continue building on the work they’ve already started in Kilmichael, and hopefully, add a food pantry to the nonprofit’s efforts.
“God has blessed us so much to do so many great and wonderful things that we’re just trying to bring it back home,” Patrice said.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
