C5 Christian Counseling Center focusing on financial stability and expanding access to affordable mental health services across the Upper Cumberland under new leadership.
C5 Christian Counseling Center Executive Director Carolyn Scott brings 40 years of nonprofit experience to the position, including previous service as executive director of six Christian ministries. Scott said much of her first month has been spent seeking grant funding and strengthening the center’s finances so it can continue serving people regardless of their ability to pay.
“So many of these families are trying to decide do we eat as a family or do we pay for counseling,” Scott said. “And it should never be that way. It should never, ever be something that someone has to ask that question.”
Scott said her move to C5 also represents a return to ministry work after serving as a social services director for a nursing home.
“It’s where I can really give my all to the vocational calling that I feel is upon my life,” Scott said. “I was not ready to leave the work sector entirely, I wanted to do something still as a ministry for my Lord.”
Scott said C5 recently appointed Sonia Murphy Miller as clinical director, separating oversight of counselors and clinical operations from the executive director’s organizational responsibilities.
“It’s very important for every Christian counseling center who has licensed counselors to have a clinical counseling person that they report to,” Scott said. “And then that way the executive director can work more about the organizational stability, the legal parameters and also the funding.”
Scott said reaching people who cannot easily travel to the Crossville facility is another part of the center’s mission. C5 offers telehealth and sends counselors to locations including nursing homes, assisted living facilities and schools.
“We even go to some schools where they don’t have guidance counselors available to meet with the children, and with parental consent we can go to the schools and provide this very good counseling for these students who would otherwise never be able to receive that help,” Scott said.
Scott said Cumberland County has 32 mental health providers per 1,000 people and approximately 12 percent of adults under age 65 are uninsured. She said C5 wants financial barriers and the stigma surrounding mental health care to keep fewer people from seeking help.
“I had a brother who ended his life through suicide and I can tell you this is a very traumatic event, and I do not wish that on any family to have to ever go through that because it is so awful to have to live through someone’s suicide,” Scott said. “And so we want to try to provide help and not only help but we want to give them the coping skills, we want to give them hope, we want them to know that they are not walking this trauma alone.”
Scott said C5 also works with other nonprofit organizations on a “sweat equity” option that allows clients to provide an hour of volunteer service in exchange for an hour of counseling.
Appointments at C5’s Crossville facility can be scheduled by calling 931-707-8200.