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 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.
When I sat in my car after my first counseling appointment in 1991, crying too hard to drive, God told me that I would tell the story – a story of trauma, abuse, and addiction that I had lived for thirty-five years but which was only the journey’s beginning at that point. I had no idea how far and long that journey would be; I just knew that I was starting.
After three decades of trying to live out Henri Nouwen’s concept of “wounded healer,’’ I officially stepped away from the leadership and daily responsibilities of Bethesda Workshops the end of 2023, which was a major step into retirement. I continued to write a monthly “Message from Marnie,” to share my story with workshop participants, and to serve on the board of directors. This fall I again felt God’s prompting to make a change, this time to step away from all official roles. As I told executive director Mike Vaughn and the board of directors, it’s just time. I’ll always support Bethesda, and there is no “reason” I’m leaving other than to listen to the prompts from within, and, I believe, from MamaGod, that my sojourn with the ministry is finished in any formal capacity. “What a long, strange trip it’s been” (nods to musical group Grateful Dead) – and what a wonderful one, as well.
Bethesda’s leadership and board are fully supportive of my decision, as I knew they would be. Totally unexpected, though, was what came next: a surprising call from Mike about a plan to name the garden at Bethesda Workshops in my honor! He explained, “We can tell participants to go into Marnie’s Garden for a fresh-air break, and your presence and legacy will continue to be felt here always.” Nothing could possibly delight me more than this gesture! A small celebration was held recently to unveil a plaque in the garden and to share memories, the perfect ending to a career for which I’m so grateful.
Bethesda Workshops gave me the opportunity to be part of the healing journey of over 7,000 people, and, by extension, also part of the ripple effect of healing in their families and beyond. All this unfolded only because compassionate people, angels really, poured into me, and God showed that the best response was to pay it forward. At the same time, parts of my professional path (seasons, even) have been incredibly hard, taxing beyond what I felt I could endure. During those times, God and the angels were most tangible. For all of us, healing and redemption ultimately occurs because of a loving God who will not let us go, who is forever faithful in love. I hope you’ll listen to my life’s anthem of gratitude: the song “He’s Been Faithful,” a glorious exclamation that has captured my heart for decades.
As I say an official goodbye, please know that I am unspeakably honored to have had a connection with you dear ones. I am maintaining my Bethesda Workshops email, and I would love to hear from you. The most meaningful way you can share in this celebration – the gesture I would appreciate most – is to support Bethesda Workshops with your resources and your prayers. My deepest professional desire is for this ministry to thrive for decades to come.
I hope you’ll enjoy the following career synopsis that staff and friends have helped compile. Perhaps you can find yourself somewhere in the timeline – and perhaps see a way to contribute to someone else’s healing, which is God’s call to all of us.
May the Lord richly bless, keep, and give you peace, beloveds.
Founder, Bethesda Workshops
A History in Words and Pictures
The late Dr. Mark Laaser mirrored in the Christian community what Dr. Patrick Carnes did in the secular: his was the first voice to introduce the problem of sexual addiction and to champion recovery and treatment. Marnie first heard Mark speak in 1992 and soon interviewed him for The Tennessean newspaper, where she was a journalist. When she started graduate school for a counseling degree a couple of years later, he became a colleague, then a mentor and trusted friend. Mark opened important doors professionally in both the Christian and clinical arenas, and they collaborated to create the first Healing for Women workshop in 1997. This picture is from the early 2000s at one of the first intensives sponsored by the newly named Bethesda Workshops.
In 1993 Mark introduced Marnie to Dr. Patrick Carnes, the "grandfather" of the field of sexual addiction, who promptly asked her to share with his large audience about women’s experience with this issue. Pat also became Marnie’s mentor and friend, and he often told her that she was the ground-breaking counterpart to himself and Mark Laaser: She told both the Christian and clinical worlds the story of female's struggle with sexual addiction. Marnie and Pat collaborated on multiple projects, including the first known symposium about sexual addiction, hosted by Vanderbilt University, where Marnie was invited to present about female sex addicts. She loved teasing Pat and Mark that they wrote great books, but the pronouns were wrong.
Bethesda Workshops was birthed in June 1997 in the form of the inaugural Healing for Women workshop, the first gender-specific, dedicated treatment for female sex addicts in the world. Marnie handled all the administrative functions largely by herself in the early days of the Healing for Women program, as well as leading the intensives themselves. In 2001 the ministry added workshops for male addicts, partners of addicts, and couples affected by sexual addiction, and the program was renamed Bethesda Workshops to reflect this expansion. Eventually, it grew to include intensives for trauma survivors, weekends for teens and their parents, and training workshops for clinicians and clergy.
Marnie knew from the beginning of her healing journey in 1991 that she was called to write. She self-published No Stones – Women Redeemedfrom Sexual Shame in 2002, the first book about female sexual addiction written by a woman in recovery. It was republished by InterVarsity Press in 2010 with the subtitle Women Redeemed from Sexual Addiction, which was a huge step forward in normalizing women’s experience. Marnie was also the editor of a seminal – and still the only – textbook about treating female sex addicts: Making Advances, co-written by ten female colleagues and published in 2012. Marnie also wrote dozens of articles in peer-reviewed clinical journals and Christian publications, along with two other books.
Her first major publication, though, was in 1993: a five-part series in The Tennessean about childhood sexual abuse called “Spoken Secrets.” The ground-breaking articles included on-the-record stories of survivors, including Marnie’s – a first for the media and cause for enormous buzz in the newspaper industry about sharing victims’ identities, even though they had given full permission. More importantly, hundreds of grateful survivors responded with heartfelt letters and calls.
For decades, Marnie spoke, taught, and led conferences across the country on topics related to sexual abuse, sexual addiction, and clergy sexual misconduct. She also shared her personal story of abuse and addiction with every Bethesda workshop – several hundred times throughout the years. (In fact, she missed only one workshop in twenty-six years when illness kept her away.) From huge platforms like an appearance on NBC’s “Dateline” in 2005, to anonymous recovery meetings, to church gatherings, to podcasts, Marnie estimates that she’s told her story over a thousand times, either in person or in print.
Marnie was on the counseling staff of the Woodmont Hills Church in Nashville when she started the Healing for Women program, and the church’s leadership provided support and a free space for the ministry’s office. After years of using various sites for the intensives, in 2008 Bethesda began conducting workshops in donated space in the church building. In 2011, the ministry left the umbrella of the Woodmont Hills Church to become an independent non-profit organization, and Bethesda Workshops received its 501(c)3 designation in 2012. The church continued to provide donated space, which was an enormous benefit.
Bethesda’s board of directors and some invited guests held a visioning retreat in early 2015, and the group quickly confirmed that dedicated space was the ministry’s highest priority. Although the attendees assembled a detailed list of needs and wants for Bethesda’s own home, the goal seemed financially unachievable. Then, near the end of that retreat, an alumni couple pledged a $250,000 challenge gift toward Bethesda Workshop’s own space! The ministry had never done any significant fund-raising and engaged a consultant to help maximize the gift.
Bethesda began a search for independent space sooner than expected in early 2016, after a painful breach with the church that had supported the ministry from the beginning. Before too long, an industrial broker identified a property that was perfect for Bethesda’s needs and offered to donate his commission on the sale. But when the ministry couldn’t qualify for bank financing, it seemed that the dream would be lost. Then, the broker stepped up as an angel financier to buy the building personally and provided a lease-purchase option to Bethesda Workshops. With the help of the alumni couple and the broker/financier, Marnie's dream about Bethesda's own home was finally coming true! The only negative about the property was its lack of attractive outdoor space, but from the beginning Marnie had a vision for how to create one.
After six months of extensive renovation, Bethesda Workshops moved into its own home during the Christmas season of 2016. The space was perfectly designed for the workshops’ needs: separate entries for workshop participants and staff, a huge meeting room with audio-visual technology, small group rooms, a lovely eating and gathering space, a big open area for experiential activities, and administrative offices and storage spaces.
Staff cut the ribbon on Bethesda’s new home and held the first workshop in January 2017, a Healing for Men intensive. The ministry thrived with the luxury of space that facilitated convenience and provided everything needed for its dedicated purpose. What a gift to have complete control over the program's schedule and to provide total privacy and security for workshop participants! The physical setting led to increased opportunities to host trainings and groups, which allowed Bethesda Workshops to expand its reach.
The staff room provides a dedicated space for the clinical leaders to gather, plan, and share meals during workshops. Marnie commissioned a wall slick with the text from her personal mission verse: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4. What a meaningful reminder of the mission of Bethesda Workshops.
The first day Marnie saw the property, she told the industrial broker that the broken pavement outside the rusty rolling door to the warehouse loading dock could be transformed into a nurturing garden. In 2019 another alumni couple provided a large unexpected donation, and Marnie immediately knew that this gift was God’s provision for funding the garden. A local landscaper created the simple but lovely space -- complete with a "pool" of Bethesda -- exactly as she had envisioned. (She really hopes you'll read the full story of the dream of having the garden, its coming to fruition, and its symbolism, which is told in a blogpublished in April, 2019.) Participants and staff enjoy having a safe outdoor oasis to breathe during the hard work of an intensive. Staff quickly learned that if Marnie was missing, they should look for her in the garden, where she loved to work, reflect, and reset.
In 2022 Bethesda Workshops hosted an elegant celebration of twenty-five years of ministry. Close to one hundred people, including staff, board members, former participants, and supporters, enjoyed a seated dinner and program. The highlight was the open mic time, during which dozens of people shared what Bethesda Workshops meant to them. Marnie recalls that evening as the most meaningful professional experience of her life.
The Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals (IITAP), which is the leading training and certifying organization in the field, surprised Marnie with its Lifetime Achievement Award at its clinical symposium in the spring of 2023. She was completely taken off guard, extremely honored, and humbled by the recognition, which she treasures as the most significant tribute in her career. She was also given a similar award in 2021 by the American Association of Christian Counselors, with which Bethesda Workshops has been actively engaged since the 1990s.
Marnie’s daughter, E.A. (Elizabeth Anne) Cox, surprised her by flying to Phoenix for the IITAP award ceremony and walking down the aisle as the audience cheered. E.A. (right) worked for several years as Bethesda’s workshop coordinator, and she was instrumental in supporting the ministry and Marnie, especially with moving into the building and pivoting to online workshops necessitated by the pandemic. Also pictured (left) is Amanda Leyer, a good friend and the orchestrator of the IITAP surprise. When Pat Carnes stepped forward to congratulate Marnie, the audience rose again and cheered for several minutes while the pair could only cling to each other in tears, speechless.
After nearly twenty-seven years of leading Bethesda, Marnie realized her need and desire to turn over her “baby” to a new executive director. As she discussed that development with her trusted circle and the board of directors, workshop staff member Mike Vaughn quickly emerged as God’s appointed leader. Marnie and Mike spent all of 2023 working together and planning the huge transition away from the founding leader. To everyone’s surprise, including Marnie’s, she found it easy to let go of the day-to-day responsibilities and to trust Mike to lead Bethesda Workshops into the future. She stepped away from leadership in January 2024, and Bethesda continues to thrive with Mike at the helm.
It takes a dedicated team to build and sustain something like Bethesda Workshops; no leader can be successful alone. Teresa Corley, the ministry’s accountant, corporate secretary, and all-around right-hand woman, has been a rock for Marnie and for Bethesda for two decades. With grace, knowledge, and dedication, Teresa has seen Bethesda through its most significant and challenging times. She’s pictured here going through financials with Mike during his shadowing year, along with Marnie and therapy dog Kevin.
Bethesda Workshops has incorporated experiential activities since its beginning. One of the most meaningful is a ceremony of surrender, gratitude, and vision that is part of every individual workshop. This worshipful time uses bricks to symbolize the stones that the children of Israel carried across the Jordan River when they finally entered the Promised Land. At Mike’s first workshop as executive director in January 2024, Marnie initiated a quiet, personal ceremony where she “passed the brick,” which she and Mike later recreated for a photo.
After retiring from leadership the beginning of 2024, Marnie continued to connect occasionally with potential participants or referents, to publish her monthly “Messages from Marnie,” to share her story at every workshop, and to serve as chair of the board of directors. This fall she again listened to her heart and decided it was time to step away fully from all roles with Bethesda Workshops. After hearing her intention, Mike and the board surprised Marnie by deciding to name in her honor the gardenshe loves so much. A small ceremony and celebration were held Dec. 11, 2025, to officially name "Marnie's Garden," unveil a plaque, and to share memories.
The plaque that identifies Marnie’s Garden now rests under her beloved oak tree in the center of the garden. She envisioned the “book” design and crafted the text, and she says that no honor could have pleased her more. The plaque reads, “Named in honor of Marnie Ferree, founder of Bethesda Workshops in 1997 and director until 2024. After years of struggle and hoping for Bethesda’s own home, that door unexpectedly opened. Marnie pictured this garden from the first day she saw the property, and her ‘MamaGod’ provided. To Marnie, it represents rebirth and redemption, and she believes that is possible for you, too.”
