When the situation can't wait.
For some situations, an hour a week for months just isn't enough. Banner's intensives concentrate the real work of counseling into two to three focused days — for a marriage at a breaking point, or a family that is being pulled apart.
The days are prepared, led by an experienced counselor, and followed through afterward. It is Rescue at a concentrated pace: real help now, and a way onto steadier ground.
Or call us: 318.396.8152
Banner Institute is a faith-based counseling and coaching practice based in Monroe, Louisiana, offering Christian counseling, coaching, neurofeedback, and crisis & high-conflict services.
Days, not months
An intensive is not a different kind of counseling. It is the same clinical and spiritual work our counselors do every week, concentrated: two to three full days given to one marriage or one family, with preparation before and a plan after. What weekly sessions can circle for a year, an intensive can reach in days.
People reach for an intensive when the situation is urgent, when distance or schedules make weekly work impossible, or when ordinary counseling has not moved the thing that most needs to move. Couples and families travel to Monroe from across the country for this work.
What an intensive takes on
Two situations bring most people to this work.
Marriage in Crisis
An affair uncovered. Conflict that has hardened into contempt or silence. A decision about the future that cannot be put off any longer. You and your spouse spend the days with a counselor doing the real work: naming what happened, rebuilding what can be rebuilt, and facing honestly what must change.
Family Recovery
When addiction takes hold of a family member, the whole household ends up organized around it. A family intensive works with the system, not just the struggler: the family together, re-establishing order in the home, holding boundaries that mean something, and calling the one in its grip toward responsibility and a future.
The same work serves families facing failure to launch, where a young man is stuck and the usual strategies have stopped working.
Who leads the work
Andrew Dodson, PhD, LPC
Founding Director, Banner Institute
Banner's intensives are led by Andrew Dodson, a counselor with more than two decades of clinical experience walking with couples and families through acute crisis.
Andrew is a founder and clinical architect of The Carpenter Shed, a faith-based residential recovery center for young men. That work in family systems and addiction recovery shaped the intensive model he brings to marriages and families at Banner.
He does not work alone. When a situation calls for it, he draws on the rest of Banner: licensed counselors, neurofeedback, and crisis and high-conflict expertise, all in one institution.
More about AndrewHow the days work
01
Before
It begins with a conversation. Tell our Care Coordinator what you are facing, and together you will determine whether an intensive is the right instrument. If it is, the days are prepared for your situation before you ever arrive. This is not a program off the shelf.
02
The Days
Two to three full days at our Monroe office. Concentrated sessions, structured for your marriage or your family: honest assessment, the hard conversations, and the beginnings of a new pattern, with room to breathe between them.
03
After
The work does not end when the days do. You leave with a plan, and follow-up is standard. Andrew walks with you as the change takes hold, and the rest of Banner is there if the next season calls for something more.
Where intensives fit
An intensive is Rescue at a concentrated pace, and it rarely stands alone. In the arc every part of Banner shares, the days are meant to carry you toward Stability: steadier ground, and the longer work of becoming who you were made to be.
The ongoing work
Counseling
An intensive is not a replacement for counseling; it is counseling at a different pace. Many couples and families continue with weekly work afterward, with a counselor who already knows the ground. And when weekly counseling is the right place to start instead, that is where we will point you.
Explore counselingWhen the conflict runs deeper
Crisis & High-Conflict
Some marriages and families are not just in pain; they are in high conflict. Where abuse, manipulation, or an escalating situation is part of the picture, Banner's crisis and high-conflict work comes alongside, with experienced guidance for everyone it touches.
Explore crisis & high-conflict servicesOne institution, one arc: wherever the days leave you, the next step is already under the same roof.
Why Banner is built this wayFrequently asked questions
How is an intensive different from weekly counseling?
Weekly counseling spreads the work across months; an intensive concentrates it into two to three consecutive days. The substance is the same: licensed clinical work held inside a Christian understanding of the person. For many situations, weekly counseling is the right pace, and we will tell you honestly if that is true for yours.
Who are intensives for?
Couples whose marriage is in serious crisis, and families contending with addiction or a young man who is stuck. More broadly, anyone whose situation is too urgent, or too entrenched, for an hour a week to reach.
How long is an intensive, and where does it happen?
Two to three full days, prepared in advance and held at our office in Monroe, Louisiana. The exact shape of the days depends on your situation and is settled in the conversation with our Care Coordinator.
We don't live near Monroe. Can we still come?
Yes. Couples and families travel to Monroe from across the country for this work. If distance is part of your situation, say so in the first conversation and we will plan the days accordingly.
What happens after the intensive?
You leave with a plan, and follow-up is standard. Some couples and families continue in weekly counseling with us; others carry the plan home, with follow-up along the way. The days are the start of the change, not the whole of it.
What does an intensive cost?
We don't publish pricing, because an intensive is prepared for your situation rather than sold off a shelf. Cost is part of the first conversation with our Care Coordinator, discussed plainly before anything is scheduled.
Begin with a conversation
You don't have to be certain an intensive is right. Tell our Care Coordinator what you're facing, and together you'll find the next step, whether that's the intensive, weekly counseling, or something else at Banner.
Two or three days, given wholly to the thing that matters most.
Or call us: 318.396.8152
Contact Us
Submit a form or give us a call | 318.396.8152
Fill out this form and we'll contact you
300 Washington Street, Suite 310
Monroe, LA 71201