Melissa: The Journey for Spouses

When it comes to addiction, sometimes it seems like the addict becomes the focus and the family gets left behind. One of the places that help support spouses of men who struggle with addiction is Journey. We would like to introduce you to Melissa Haas, as she shares about Journey.

Click Here to watch Melissa’s Video…

Melissa: “Journey is a safe place for spouses to come and grieve the losses associated with their guy’s sexual addiction, and a safe place to grow in just what God wants them and has for them regardless of what happens in their marriage.

We started Journey in 2001. I needed a group back then, and what I was looking for was a safe community of women who could walk alongside me as I worked through the consequences and the pain of my husband’s betrayal.

Part of Journey is walking through a curriculum that I wrote based on my own experiences. It’s 10 weeks in the first book, written in a format that gives both emotional help and a place for spiritual connection with God.

I also have another option for women who want to continue on a healing, growing journey. It’s called Continuing the Journey, it’s our Journey Two book. And it walks through our own stories, what we’ve come to believe about ourselves, about God, about others, and how those beliefs may keep us from living a fully-devoted relationship and lifestyle with God.

If you decide to come to Journey, one of the things that you will experience is a large group time, where there is either teaching or testimony from a fellow Journey-er. We use, all of our leaders, all our facilitators are peers. They all have experienced being married to a guy who struggles with sexual addiction. So everyone in the room is like you.

After large group time, we break up into small groups, where we process what we’re learning and experiencing through the curriculum. And those small groups are really the place where community happens: spiritual community happens on our journeys of healing.

All of our groups are facilitated by women who have taken their own journeys down this path. They have all experienced sexual betrayal, because of their husband’s sexual addiction, and they’ve all taken a healing journey, and they are all at a place where they want to give back to other women like you.

It’s really inspiring for me and encouraging to me that Father has continually redeemed the pain of my story, of our story, in a way that helps others heal, and it’s my privilege to walk alongside other women on their healing journeys.”