A Story of Hope - Bethesda Workshops

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 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.

From A Healing for Men Participant

March 2021 was one of the hardest times of my life. I lost my mother, the one person that supported me from the beginning. She had been by rock because when I was 6 years old, I lost my dad in a fatal accident. I had no idea how her passing would impact me. Soon after her funeral, I fell into depression. I didn’t know how to grieve her death or let her go. I was in big trouble emotionally.

After months of wrestling with all the loss, for the first time in my life, I turned to watching pornography. I got on a site and turned it off quickly, I was very upset with myself that I would do something like that. However, a few days later, I got back on the same site and eventually began talking with someone from the site.

That is how it began. Soon the talking turned into lust, and that sparked an emotional affair. This went on for several months. Sometimes I would get convicted for falling into this trap and quit for days, even weeks, yet somehow it would pull me right back in. While I felt convicted and even recommitted my life to God, the spending, lusting, lying, and betrayal of my wife became my life again. This time I was chained to my addiction. My wife and I separated. I really thought I had lost her and my family.

We quickly sought out a recovery facility for sexual addiction and discovered Bethesda Workshops in Nashville, TN. At Bethesda, I was surprised because I thought I was going on a mini guy’s trip, but it turned out to be much deeper than that. Bethesda has a way of revealing your past hurts and showing you the way forward. I didn’t know I was holding on to abandonment, ego, and tons of pride.

I was grateful for the 26 other guys there with me. We bonded and I met 5 of the most wonderful guys there. God provided me with a great community of men. It has been a little over 3 years since Bethesda, and while it has been a hard battle, with God’s help I work on my recovery every day and am so grateful for my progress. My wife and I have also worked hard on our marriage, and I love her more today than 39 years ago.

I am telling my story because there are so many that are succumbing to sex addiction. My story is to help someone before they go down this path or help those already on it know that God can restore them. I am so thankful for grace, mercy, and forgiveness."