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.

Former Healing for Men Participant

I can remember so vividly while hanging out with my dad as a young boy the declaration, “Don’t ever touch this stuff”. You see my dad was in the throes of alcohol addiction for all my childhood and teenage years. On top of that, he would be diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma when I was 13 and pass away when I was 20. For those 7 years, I watched as my dad became frail and sick. My mom had to perform both roles as a parent a great deal of the time. This was overwhelming for her. I have learned over the years that while I need to honor my parents, I also need to be honest about the costs to my personal story.

I found pornography in my early teen years in the form of magazines. It helped me to escape for a moment all the things happening in my life. I would search for magazines and eventually videos at a local video rental store. Though alcohol would not play a predominant factor in my life like my dad’s, the drugs of choice for me were pornography and masturbation.

As a kid, I used humor at school to mask all the pain I was feeling at home. Oftentimes, I would disrupt class and get sent to the principal’s office to get punished. I was your typical mascot. I desperately wanted to forget about my home life and all the chaos it represented. I wanted to be included by my peers at school, but they didn’t know the real me.

Pornography was there throughout my marriage of 31 years. I sought help eventually, but I wasn’t really getting into my childhood trauma until I started seeing a CSAT in 2023. This was after the 3rd discovery by my wife. At that point, her love for me was really in question. She had really tried the first 2 times but now our children were older and had left the house to follow their own paths in life. I didn’t want to lose my wife, so I had to make a desperate change. My CSAT recommended Bethesda Workshops and the following week I registered to attend. I graduated from the Healing for Men workshop last September.

I met some of the most sincere and honest men I have ever met in those four days at Bethesda Workshops. Relationships that have continued even today. Mike Vaughn and his team helped me tremendously to understand more about where my unwanted sexual behavior gained its roots. I have never been more in touch with what I am presently feeling each day than after I left Bethesda. I check in with my wife several times a week and connect with God more than ever.

I am telling my story because I realized that I had to surrender all of myself and acknowledge that I can’t break the chains of addiction alone. I need healthy connections within my family and community more than ever. There are many others that have chosen this path too and I can tell you that you can find your authentic self, but you must ask for help. There is daily freedom out there for each of you without the guilt and shame of pornography!