Chicago woman who was sex-trafficked, faced domestic violence opening SW Side wellness center

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A Chicago woman who was sex-trafficked and faced domestic violence has become a licensed therapist. She's trying to turn a traumatic past into a way to help others.

This weekend, Pamela Nicole Dukes is opening a wellness center at 81st Street and Western Avenue.

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It's called Awakening Aspiration Counseling and Wellness Center, and the name could mean so much to the people it will serve.

Putting together a set of lockers, Dukes is gearing up for the grand opening of her dream come true: a wellness center on the Southwest Side.

"It's important to know what your worth is, and it's difficult to know what that is if you've never, kind of had a light shined on it, or people have not been in a position to tell you what it means to care about yourself, what self-worth is," Dukes said.

Through counseling, salt therapy, massages, sauna, fitness and other holistic wellness services, Dukes is hoping to teach people, especially Black and brown women, about their own self-worth.

"So, I felt like I owed it to my generation, or to, you know, those that were coming after me, my children, other people's children, to get healed," Dukes said.

Through her own traumatic lived experience, Duke's goal is to end cycles of generational trauma.

Most of her childhood was spent in Englewood.

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She says life was good until her older brother was shot, and her mother became an alcoholic.

"My mom would work all day, all night. When she wasn't at work, she was drinking. And I ended up being kind of raised by the streets. So, I was the hood's daughter," Dukes said.

Dukes says she was molested by a relative at 10 years old. At 12, she was human-trafficked by people in the neighborhood. She also survived years of domestic violence.

"I was beat beyond my own mother's recognition. And this went on for a long time," Dukes said.

At just 13 years old, Dukes was pregnant. But, she says, becoming a parent of a daughter at 14 saved her life.

"I wanted to live for her, but I still didn't know how, and so it was my goal for her not to become what I was," Dukes said.

Dukes says she healed through education. As an adult, she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees. She has made a career as a licensed therapist.

"I just don't want to be in a position where I waste all that pain. What's the point of going through it all if you are not in a position to help someone else? And I think that that's truly my calling," Dukes said.

The Awakening Aspiration Counseling and Wellness Center opens at 1 p.m. Saturday at 8056 S. Western Ave. in an old doctor's office.

The Wellness Center opens on Duke's 46th birthday. If successful, she hopes to expand and offer services not offered in many communities of color, like nutrition, health, financial literacy and cooking classes.