Daniel Kiser

Erica Vaughn

As Bethesda Workshops’ Marketing Director, Erica helps share the hope and healing available at Bethesda. Her work includes creating our messages shared through email, social media, and on our website.

She brings experience in marketing several small businesses and non-profit organizations in the Southeast. Erica earned her BS in Business Administration in Marketing from Appalachian State University and completed a certificate program in Digital Marketing with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

She and her husband have three kids. She enjoys traveling with her family to the Carolina beaches and mountains.

Daniel Kiser

Shelly Gibbs

Shelly Gibbs is a nonprofit consultant and business coach who partners with organizations and individuals navigating their next season of growth. Her work centers on three pillars: strategy, systems, and staff — the building blocks of sustainable, thriving organizations.

Before launching her practice, Shelly served as Executive Director of NorthState Care Clinic and Director of Moral Revolution, two nonprofits dedicated to equipping and empowering people to live as their best, truest selves.

Shelly brings a whole-person perspective to her work, grounded in the belief that we are tri-polar beings — body, soul, and spirit — and that lasting transformation requires all three. She partners with people in their pursuit of freedom, peace, and abundance, holding firmly to this: we are better together.

She holds a BA in Liberal Studies and a Multi-Subject Teaching Credential from Simpson University. A Northern California native, she's now rooted in the Pacific Northwest.  

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. 

The Power Of Spiritual Renewal For Recovery

There is a retreat space in the country an hour from where I live that has “Quiet Friday’s”.

There is a retreat space in the country an hour from where I live that has “Quiet Friday’s”. You can go and spend time in the beautiful space in silence. There is a house, walking trails, a labyrinth and many trees for shade. There are usually others there but everyone is quiet. I have been there numerous times and I am always struck by a few things. The first is that stillness is a necessity not a luxury. Somehow I forget this lesson over and over and over again. The second is that it is nourishing to my soul, but also my body to be silent and reflective, even for an hour. The renewal and creativity that I gain on those Fridays powers me for days.

This makes me think of recovery. Recovery means to get back. I think we use the term recovery so often that we lose sight of all that we are returning to. It is surely a state of sobriety. It is so much more though. Recovery (whether from addiction or betrayal trauma) is getting back to our spiritual foundations. We are a soul with a body but often live as we are bodies with a soul. There is a big difference. Obviously, God created the whole of us but our souls need to be nourished. Our soul is our foundation. Sometimes I picture my soul and how strong it is based on how much I have been feeding it. Much like our physical bodies, if we do not feed our soul, it withers. I am not sure what helps you feed your soul. Maybe it is meditation, singing, reading Scripture, walking outside or any of the hundreds of other ways. I do know that spiritual nourishment is not a luxury for recovery, it is a requirement. I am praying that you have your version of Quiet Fridays and experience renewal as a result.

Related Posts