Founder & Chief Executive Officer
David Hoskins
Monticello, Florida · Cozumel, México
A behavioral health executive, Certified Sex Addiction Therapist, and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist whose clinical work is rooted in a personal story of recovery and return to faith.
Overview
A clinician shaped by the work he does.
David Hoskins is the founder of Sanctuary Clinics, a Christ-centered behavioral health organization with locations in Monticello, Florida and Cozumel, México. He is the founder of Honey Lake Clinic (2015), recognized in its early years as one of the leading residential Christian mental health programs in the United States.
He is a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist (IATAC) and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and brings to the behavioral health field a combination of advanced clinical training and a personal recovery story he has shared publicly on The 700 Club, Homekeepers, and other national media.
David’s professional conviction — drawn from his own life — is that the depth of healing a counselor can offer is rarely greater than the depth of suffering through which they themselves have walked. He believes recovery is not despite a person’s wounds but, in God’s hands, often through them.
“You can only help others as deeply as
you yourself have been helped.”
“You can only help others as deeply as you yourself have been helped.”
— David Hoskins
Early Life
From Beirut
to South Florida.
From Beirut to South Florida.
David Hoskins is the son of Bob Hoskins, international missionary, author, and founder of OneHope, and the late Hazel Crabtree Hoskins. He spent his early childhood in Beirut, Lebanon, where his parents conducted missionary work during the years leading up to and through the Lebanese civil war. The family later relocated to France, and ultimately returned to South Florida, where David finished high school at Westminster Academy in Fort Lauderdale.
The grandson of two Pentecostal pastors and the son of one of the most widely recognized evangelists of his generation, David grew up immersed in international Christian ministry across more than a hundred countries. He speaks English and Spanish, and was the youngest licensed minister and youngest appointed missionary in the history of his childhood denomination.
Education & Credentials
Two decades of formation across theology,
counseling, and clinical practice.
Two decades of formation across theology, counseling, and clinical practice.
Academic
BA, Biblical Studies
Northwest Bible College
MA, Religious Studies
Barry University
Doctoral Candidate, Biblical Counseling
Barry University
Certified Sex Addiction Therapist (CSAT)
Int'l Assoc. of Trauma & Addiction Counselors
MA, Religious Studies
Barry University
Doctoral Coursework, Biblical Studies
The Catholic University of America
PsyD Candidate (in progress)
California Southern University
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
Liberty University
A Life That Informs the Work
From prodigal to
pilgrim.
From prodigalto pilgrim.
“The hallmark of a disciple is not being perfect or doing everything right, but it is the one who always returns to Christ. Peter said, ‘Where else do we have to go?'”
— David Hoskins
For nearly two decades of his adult life, David lived what he has publicly described as a “prodigal” season. After leaving full-time ministry in his mid-twenties, he built an international business career that took him through more than 120 countries and 22 places of residence — including one of the largest foreign-distribution operations in the former Soviet Union, with manufacturing in Belarus, paper and consumer-goods trade across Eastern Europe, and hospitality and restaurant ventures from Russia to the Caribbean.
During those years he also lived with substance abuse and sex addiction rooted in unresolved childhood trauma, including sexual abuse experienced as a young child in Lebanon. CBN summarized this chapter as one in which David “lived a party fueled lifestyle as an international businessman until his dealings with the Russian mafia backfired.”
The turning point came in his late thirties, when — following a season of personal collapse and a long, deliberate process of repentance and clinical recovery — David returned to his Christian faith. What followed was not a return to his previous ministry career but the beginning of an entirely new one: a calling into behavioral health, specifically toward the kinds of suffering he himself had walked through.
David has been transparent about this history in his clinical work, his media appearances, and his forthcoming memoir, From Prodigal to Pilgrim. He believes that authenticity about brokenness — not the projection of an “ivory tower” expertise — is what gives a clinician credibility with the men and women they serve.
Behavioral Health Career
A decade of building Christ-centered programs.
| PERIOD | ORGANIZATION | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 – 2013 |
Oasis Treatment Center Founder & Director |
Prior to joining Lighthouse Network's senior team, David owned and led a successful detox and addiction treatment facility in Florida — his first ground-level experience in behavioral health operations, licensing, and clinical program development. |
| 2013 – 2015 |
Lighthouse Network Leadership Team |
David's behavioral health career deepened through his partnership with Dr. Karl Benzio, founder of Lighthouse Network — a national 24-hour Christian addiction-resource helpline. David directed business development while completing his clinical training and certifications. |
| 2015 – 2021 |
Honey Lake Clinic Co-founder & CEO |
In 2015, David co-founded Honey Lake Clinic with Dr. Karl Benzio. Located on a 330-acre former resort property in Greenville, Florida, Honey Lake opened its doors in May 2017 and grew under David's leadership as CEO into what Daily Citizen described in 2018 as “the country's only residential Christian mental health program with distinctives like an all-Christian staff, Christian psychiatry as part of its basic services, and accreditation from the American Health Care Association and Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.”
Within its first several years, Honey Lake was widely recognized as one of the leading residential Christian mental health treatment programs in America. The clinic is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and remains in operation today. |
| 2022 – PRESENT |
Sanctuary Clinics Founder & CEO |
In April 2022, David founded Sanctuary Clinics in Monticello, Florida, on three convictions drawn from his Honey Lake experience:
|
| 2025 – PRESENT | Sanctuary Clinics Cozumel | In 2025, David and Sanctuary opened a second location in Cozumel, Quintana Roo, México. Sanctuary Cozumel was built to address the affordability crisis in U.S. behavioral health, offering a 30-day residential program at approximately one-fifth the cost of equivalent U.S. treatment, with bilingual clinical care for an international patient population. The Cozumel campus reflects David's lifelong international upbringing and his conviction that world-class mental health care should not be limited to those who can afford U.S. pricing. |
Public Ministry & Media
Speaking and writing from
the work itself.
Speaking and writing from the work itself.
David has shared his story and his clinical work with national audiences on The 700 Club (CBN,
2022), Homekeepers (CBN), and additional Christian media platforms. He is a frequent speaker at
churches, recovery conferences, and clinical training events on the integration of trauma-informed
clinical care with Christian spiritual formation.
David has shared his story and his clinical work with national audiences on The 700 Club (CBN,2022), Homekeepers (CBN), and additional Christian media platforms. He is a frequent speaker atchurches, recovery conferences, and clinical training events on the integration of trauma-informedclinical care with Christian spiritual formation.
His forthcoming memoir, From Prodigal to Pilgrim, traces the full arc of his life — from a missionary
childhood in Beirut, through the prodigal years in Russia and beyond, to his return to Christ and his
calling into behavioral health.
His forthcoming memoir, From Prodigal to Pilgrim, traces the full arc of his life — from a missionary childhood in Beirut, through the prodigal years in Russia and beyond, to his return to Christ and his calling into behavioral health.
Why It Matters
A door that doesn’t close.
The men and women who walk into Sanctuary’s doors do not come looking for a clinician who has read about pain. They come looking for someone who has known it, survived it, been healed of it, and built a place where they can be received the way they need to be received.
David’s hope — and Sanctuary’s mission — is that no person seeking recovery would ever again be told the door is closed because the cost is too high, the trauma is too deep, the addiction is too entrenched, or the faith is too late.
“The hallmark of a disciple is not being perfect or doing everything right, but it is the one who always returns to Christ. Peter said, ‘Where else do we have to go?'”
— David Hoskins
Personal Life
Family.
David is married to Dr. Sesi Akoto Hoskins. They reside in Cozumel, México and Monticello, Florida.
Reach David, or learn
more about Sanctuary.
Reach David, or learn more about Sanctuary.
To speak with David directly about Sanctuary’s work in Florida or Cozumel, call our care team — or visit the program pages.
References & Coverage
