Published June 24th, 2026

Shalom Five Smooth Stones Family Health and Wellness, LLC is a faith-informed, family-centered health and wellness practice based in Dunwoody, GA, serving families and individuals throughout Southwest Georgia. Our focus is on supporting African American families as they move from crisis and survival toward stability, recovery, and flourishing. We understand that behavioral health outcomes improve when care honors the whole person-mind, body, and spirit-within the context of family and faith.

Founded and led by Remell Clanton, a behavioral health professional with over 31 years of experience spanning corrections, family social services, community mental health, substance use treatment, and faith-based initiatives, our practice is grounded in deep expertise and lived understanding. This breadth of experience informs our compassionate approach, which integrates clinical knowledge with spiritual sensitivity and cultural humility. We recognize the unique challenges African American families face, including historical mistrust and systemic barriers, and we walk alongside families to create respectful, empowering partnerships that promote lasting wellness.

By weaving together behavioral health and faith-informed care, Shalom Five Smooth Stones Family Health and Wellness strives to create spaces where families feel seen, heard, and valued. This foundation sets the stage for the culturally humble practices and services that follow, designed to meet each family's distinct needs and honor their strengths and heritage. 

Understanding Cultural Humility and Its Distinct Role in Behavioral Health

Cultural humility is a way of practicing behavioral health that starts with our own self-examination. Instead of assuming we "know" a culture because we studied it, we pause, reflect, and ask where our blind spots and biases sit. We treat each family as the expert in their own history, beliefs, and daily realities.

Cultural competence often focuses on acquiring information about groups-traditions, phrases, or customs. Cultural humility goes further. It accepts that no training makes us fully competent in another person's lived experience. We stay in a posture of curiosity, invite feedback, and adjust our approach based on what families tell us matters to them.

In behavioral health care, cultural humility shapes every layer of the relationship. We pay attention to power imbalances between professionals and families, name them openly, and work to share decision-making. We make room for spiritual beliefs, community ties, and historical context in mental health, rather than treating them as side notes. This stance builds space for trust, which is often the gateway to improved behavioral health outcomes.

For African American families, this approach carries particular weight. The history of racism, medical mistreatment, and unequal access to care has left deep and understandable mistrust. When we practice cultural humility, we do not ask families to "set that aside." Instead, we acknowledge it, respect it, and let it inform the pace and focus of care.

Culturally sensitive counseling with African Americans means listening for how faith, family roles, and community experiences shape the story of distress and recovery. It means honoring prayer, scripture, and church life as possible sources of strength, not obstacles to evidence-informed care. As we do this work with humility, families are more likely to stay engaged, share openly, and partner with us in shaping plans that fit their real lives. 

Culturally Responsive Care That Honors Spiritual Beliefs and Lived Experience

Culturally responsive care asks us to move from polite acknowledgment to active partnership with African American families in their own healing work. We do not simply "allow" spiritual beliefs, family history, or community experience into the room; we build the plan of care around them.

In practice, this means we treat faith practices, such as prayer, worship, or fasting, as concrete parts of a wellness plan rather than private side activities. When a parent shares that they seek guidance from Scripture before making decisions, we slow down and ask which passages steady them. When a grandparent describes the role of the church mother or deacon, we explore whether that person should be part of the support network. Culturally sensitive counseling with African Americans respects that spiritual language often carries the story of pain and hope at the same time.

We also attend to the body's memory of racism and trauma. Families carry stories of segregation, biased discipline in schools, unequal treatment in hospitals, and losses to violence or incarceration. Those experiences shape how safe it feels to tell the truth in a behavioral health setting. Rather than treating mistrust as "resistance," we name the historical context, validate caution, and adjust our pace. This reduces pressure, eases fear of judgment, and opens space for more honest conversation.

When faith and cultural understanding are woven into care, stigma around mental health begins to loosen. A parent who once believed that depression signaled weak faith may feel freer to speak when we describe counseling as one of the many tools God uses to bring restoration. A teenager may share more openly when we connect emotional distress with chronic exposure to racism, not just personal failure. Language shifts from blame to shared problem-solving, which strengthens trust and improves engagement.

Shalom Five Smooth Stones Family Health and Wellness, LLC lives out this approach through family advocacy and attention to the full context of a family's life. We listen for how spiritual convictions guide daily choices, how trauma has touched the family line, and how current systems-schools, courts, workplaces, and churches-affect stress or stability. By bringing these threads into one conversation, we support African American families as they move from crisis toward steadier ground in mind, body, relationships, and spirit. 

Service Overview: Supporting African American Families With Compassion and Respect

We design our behavioral health supports to honor spiritual life, lived experience, and the realities African American families face in Southwest Georgia. Each service grows from cultural humility and faith-informed care, so families are never asked to check their identity or history at the door.

Family wellness and prevention focuses on strengthening relationships before they reach a breaking point. We meet with caregivers, children, and elders together or in smaller groups to address stress, communication, and boundary setting. Prayer, scripture, and church traditions are welcomed into these conversations, alongside concrete tools for managing conflict, improving mood, and protecting time for rest. Families gain shared language for emotions and a plan to guard their peace.

Crisis intervention centers on stabilizing the moment while preserving dignity. When a family faces acute grief, a behavioral health emergency, or sudden system involvement, we slow the pace, listen for what feels unsafe, and co-create a next step that respects spiritual beliefs and cultural norms. We name options clearly, reduce shame, and keep elders, faith supports, and trusted voices involved whenever appropriate.

Recovery advocacy addresses the barriers that often derail healing. For families managing substance use, chronic stress, or behavioral health conditions, we help navigate appointments, service systems, and community resources. We pay attention to how racism, poverty, and prior mistreatment affect access and trust. The goal is sustained recovery, not short bursts of crisis care, so families experience steadier behavioral health outcomes over time.

Life skills coaching focuses on daily practices that build stability: budgeting, time management, parenting routines, and coping strategies grounded in both faith and evidence-informed practice. We respect the wisdom already present in the home and add skills that reduce chaos and increase confidence.

Community workshops bring these same values into churches, schools, and neighborhood spaces. We address topics such as stress, grief, and stigma in plain language, invite questions, and connect emotional health with spiritual resilience. As understanding grows at the community level, families find more support, less judgment, and a stronger foundation for long-term wholeness. 

Founder Experience and Leadership in Cultural Humility and Faith-Informed Care

For more than 31 years, founder Remell Clanton has stood at the crossroads of behavioral health, family life, and Christian faith. Her work has carried her through corrections, family social services, community mental health, and substance use treatment, as well as local and international ministry. That range matters because it keeps our practice grounded in the daily realities African American families face across systems, not just in the counseling room.

Years in corrections exposed her to the impact of incarceration on parents, children, and grandparents. Service in community mental health and substance use programs deepened her understanding of trauma, relapse, and the grind of navigating agencies that often feel confusing or unsafe. Faith-based ministry added another layer: how prayer, Scripture, and church community sustain families under chronic stress while sometimes also carrying stigma about mental health.

This blended background shapes how we practice cultural humility in Southwest Georgia. We listen closely for lived experience in African American communities, including memories of bias in courts, schools, health care, and social services. Rather than treating these experiences as side notes, we treat them as core data for planning care and reducing racial disparities in behavioral health. Remell's leadership keeps us attentive to power, language, and history in every interaction.

Her approach to faith-informed care is invitational, not coercive. We honor Christian values when families name them, and we integrate prayer or Scripture only with consent. Clinical knowledge guides our understanding of symptoms and safety; lived experience and spiritual wisdom guide the pace and tone of support. This balance allows families to engage without feeling pressured to believe a certain way, while still experiencing care that respects their deepest convictions and protects their dignity. 

Service Areas: Reaching Families Across Southwest Georgia

Our work is rooted in the communities of Thomas, Grady, Decatur, Colquitt, and Mitchell Counties and extends across the broader Southwest Georgia region. We chose this focus because African American families here often face long drives, limited providers, and past experiences that make traditional offices feel unsafe or distant.

To reduce those barriers, we offer flexible ways to meet. Appointments occur by phone, through virtual visits, or in person when travel within the service area is appropriate. This allows caregivers, elders, and youth to engage from home, church offices, or other trusted spaces without added strain on transportation or work schedules.

By staying present in the same counties where families live, worship, and send their children to school, we keep care grounded in local realities. This community integration supports cultural humility in practice and makes behavioral health support more reachable for families navigating racism, poverty, and other social determinants of health.

Recognizing and embracing cultural humility transforms behavioral health care into a genuinely supportive experience for African American families. By honoring spiritual beliefs, lived experiences, and the realities shaped by history and community, we foster trust and create plans that resonate deeply. Shalom Five Smooth Stones Family Health and Wellness integrates clinical expertise with faith-informed values to walk alongside families as they journey from crisis toward lasting stability and wholeness. This approach not only addresses immediate challenges but also builds resilience and hope for the future. We encourage families seeking compassionate, culturally responsive care to get in touch and begin a path toward healing and flourishing with a partner who understands and respects their unique story and faith. Together, we can nurture stronger families and healthier communities through care that truly listens and responds.