BETHEL — For 15 years, Wayne DuPlessis counseled individuals, couples and families with a host of mental health issues from conflict resolution to coping with grief.

On Wednesday, the 57-year-old therapist was found dead of an apparent suicide at his home.

Working out of an office at the Norway Savings Bank building on Parkway, DuPlessis provided help to the depressed and anxious. He also sought to share his wisdom through workshops and discussions as a member of To Your Health, a program organized by Western Maine Senior College.

“He was a very dedicated member of the community,” said Rosabelle Tifft, chairwoman of the To Your Health Committee. “He was always there to help us.”

DuPlessis had been a member of the committee for three years, Tifft said. If he wasn’t lecturing at a workshop himself, he was advising others or passing around fliers to let local people know about the help that was available.

At about 3 p.m. Wednesday, Bethel police went to his home on Vernon Street. DuPlessis was discovered dead.

Word of the death spread a short time later.

“I was completely shocked when I heard the news,” Tifft said. “I was very saddened.”

In his professional profile on NetworkTherapy.com, DuPlessis described himself as a man who gained insights into human behavior and suffering through a diverse background.

“As one of fifteen children from rural Northern Maine, and having traveled the country from Maine to California and back as a bartender, acquiring three degrees in counseling psychology along the way, gives me unique experiential and formal knowledge of the human condition, which informs and directs my client approach,” he wrote in his profile.

He received his degrees from the University of Massachusetts and the University of New England, where he served as adjunct faculty member.

Maine State Police were investigating the death.