Daniel Kiser

Melissa Haas

Melissa Haas serves as the spouse-supporting therapist at HopeQuest. Melissa has a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy and is a licensed professional counselor.  Passionate about spiritual community, healthy marriages, and intimacy with God, Melissa regularly facilitates small groups and teaches and speaks on these topics in order to help the Body of Christ grow relationally with God and each other.  

Melissa and her husband Troy have been married for thirty-four years and have three adult children and one grand-daughter. They have devoted their lives to helping others find hope and freedom from addiction, giving back the comfort they have received on their own journeys of healing.  

Daniel Kiser

Daniel Kiser

Daniel is a Licensed Marital and Family Therapist in the state of Tennessee. He has earned master degrees in Marital and Family Therapy and Biblical Studies from Lee University. Throughout his clinical experience, he has demonstrated clinical effectiveness working with adolescents and families through utilization of evidenced based approaches in his roles as a counselor, clinical supervisor, and behavioral health manager. He has worked with adolescents with severe suicidal behaviors, anxiety, depression, aggression, and high-risk behaviors in residential treatment. Addressed the relational distress within the parent-child relationship created by their child’s disruptive behavioral responses, helping parents through their despair, resentment, and disillusionment. He is invested in the integration of theology and psychology, believing that activation of human longings, desires, and vitality for life is based upon both disciplines. Aside from professional development, he also has experienced the profound impact of a transformative therapeutic relationship that provides accountability, exploration of underlying wounds and thoughts, and compassionate care. Counseling is oriented towards reclaiming, rediscovering, and restoring vital aspects of human development and he is eager to help others in their process as well. 

Grief Observed Brings Life

Recently, I have been prompted to contemplate grief. I think it is my stage of life, as I have less time to reclaim things lost than in my youth.

Recently, I have been prompted to contemplate grief. I think it is my stage of life, as I have less time to reclaim things lost than in my youth. I have said many times that I have been fortunate to not have experienced what I consider significant loss in my life. Because of that, I think I have missed the daily losses that dot my inner landscape. From small expectations unrealized to the letting go of coping mechanisms, when I pause I am aware that there is grief built into so much of what we experience. There has to be. We were created for a world different from this and every gap between this world and that produces loss. Grief observed though, brings life. Suffering is the path to connection with others and God. It is through loss that God brought about a way for us to live eternally. I agree with John O’Donohue when he writes that we “weep our way to our true self.” I pray for you and me that we allow the grief that is inevitable to produce a richness of soul that is incomparable.

Questions to Consider

What is a loss (big or small) I need to pay more attention to?
What is an area that is difficult for me to face "as it is"?
What is one positive thing that has come from a loss in my life?

Related Posts