Marnie C. Ferree is a licensed marriage and family therapist employed with the Woodmont Hills Church in Nashville, Tennessee, which is the sponsoring organization for Bethesda Workshops. She has a national reputation as a leader in the field of sexual addiction, particularly as it presents in women. In 1997, Marnie established a workshop program for female sex addicts that was the first of its kind in the country and today draws participants from across the United States and Canada. She has directed Bethesda Workshops since 2000. Previously, Marnie provided counseling for sexual recovery (both from sexual abuse and sexual addiction) through the Woodmont Hills Counseling Center, a sister ministry at the church.

Marnie is a frequent lecturer at professional and recovery conferences, churches, and schools. She also consults with Christian organizations and churches about sexual integrity, especially in cases where a leader has fallen into sexual sin. Marnie is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (clinical member), the American Association for Christian Counselors, and the Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health, where she is on the editorial board of the professional journal Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity. She is a Certified Sexual Addiction Therapist (CSAT) through the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals.

Marnie’s book about female sexual addiction, No Stones: Women Redeemed from Sexual Addiction, (Intervarsity Press) is the first Christian book on the subject by a woman personally in recovery. No Stones has been widely acclaimed as a pioneering work and is considered the standard in the field. (Read the very positive review published by Christianity Today by clicking here.) Her second book is L.I.F.E. Guide for Women, a workbook for female sex addicts.

Marnie received her master’s degree in counseling from Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville. She has published dozens of articles in a variety of professional journals, magazines and newspapers. Of particular note is a comprehensive series on childhood sexual abuse, which was published in 1993 in The Tennessean. The series was ground-breaking in telling survivors’ first-person stories on the record, and it generated hundreds of responses.

Marnie and her husband David have been married since 1981 and are parents of a young adult son, married daughter,  and proud grandparents of a wonderful infant grandson.

Read Marnie's Testimony: From Stones to Savior