Marnie C. Ferree is the founder of Bethesda Workshops and has a national reputation as a leader in the field of sexual addiction. Effective January 1, 2024, she has semi-retired and stepped away from the roles of executive and clinical director as Mike Vaughn becomes the new Bethesda Workshops leader. She remains active with ministry in talking with potential participants and referral sources, writing, teaching, and sharing her story with workshop participants.

In 1997, Marnie established a workshop program for female sex addicts that was the first of its kind, and today draws participants from across the United States and Canada. That program expanded in 2001 to include workshops for male sex addicts, partners, and couples, and it was renamed Bethesda Workshops. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist and a certified sex addiction therapist (CSAT).

Marnie’s book about female sexual addiction, No Stones: Women Redeemed from Sexual Addiction, (Intervarsity Press) is the first Christian book on the subject by a woman personally in recovery. No Stones has been widely acclaimed as a pioneering work and is considered the standard in the field. Her second book is L.I.F.E. Guide for Women, a workbook for female sex addicts.

She is also the editor of Making Advances – A Comprehensive Guide for Treating Female Sex and Love Addicts, which is the first book to address this population. Making Advances was written by 10 female leaders in the clinical community, and Marnie shaped the volume, edited the entire project, and contributed to several chapters. In 2018, she co-authored Out of the Doghouse for Christian Men – A Redemptive Guide for Men Caught Cheating.

Marnie C. Ferree is the founder of Bethesda Workshops and has a national reputation as a leader in the field of sexual addiction. Effective January 1, 2024, she has semi-retired and stepped away from the roles of executive and clinical director as Mike Vaughn becomes the new Bethesda Workshops leader. She remains active with ministry in talking with potential participants and referral sources, writing, teaching, and sharing her story with workshop participants.

In 1997, Marnie established a workshop program for female sex addicts that was the first of its kind, and today draws participants from across the United States and Canada. That program expanded in 2001 to include workshops for male sex addicts, partners, and couples, and it was renamed Bethesda Workshops. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist and a certified sex addiction therapist (CSAT).

Marnie’s book about female sexual addiction, No Stones: Women Redeemed from Sexual Addiction, (Intervarsity Press) is the first Christian book on the subject by a woman personally in recovery. No Stones has been widely acclaimed as a pioneering work and is considered the standard in the field. Her second book is L.I.F.E. Guide for Women, a workbook for female sex addicts.

She is also the editor of Making Advances – A Comprehensive Guide for Treating Female Sex and Love Addicts, which is the first book to address this population. Making Advances was written by 10 female leaders in the clinical community, and Marnie shaped the volume, edited the entire project, and contributed to several chapters. In 2018, she co-authored Out of the Doghouse for Christian Men – A Redemptive Guide for Men Caught Cheating.

Marnie has published dozens of articles in a variety of professional journals, magazines and newspapers. Of particular note is a comprehensive series on childhood sexual abuse, which was published in 1993 in The Tennessean. The series was ground-breaking in telling survivors’ first-person stories on the record, including her own, and it generated hundreds of responses.