People come to Banner from very different places. Some are in crisis. Some are stable and stuck. Some are strong and want to grow.
That is why this team looks the way it does. Rescue, Stability, Strength — wherever you are on that road, there is someone here who knows it well.
Banner Institute is a faith-based counseling and coaching practice based in Monroe, Louisiana, offering Christian counseling, coaching, neurofeedback, and crisis & high-conflict services.
Andrew Dodson, PhD, LPC
Partner | Founding Director
Andrew is a founding partner of Banner and the architect of its vision. With more than twenty years in the trenches, he has sat with hundreds of families at their breaking points.
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He founded Banner not to run a counseling center but to do deeper work: meeting individuals, families, and churches in crisis, and walking with them from Rescue to Stability to Strength.
He leads Banner’s Intensives and the Failure to Launch program.
Amy James
Partner | Care Coordinator
Amy is a founding partner of Banner whose vision for healing helps shape the care and concern clients experience.
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She helps guide Banner’s direction, develops meaningful partnerships and services, and nurtures the welcoming culture people feel from the moment they walk through the door.
Above all, Amy is passionate about making sure the hurting and vulnerable are seen, heard, and connected to the help and hope they need.
Counseling
Nikki Eidt
LPC
Counselor
With over 10 years of experience, Nikki walks with individuals through anxiety, grief, loneliness, depression, and sudden life change.
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She has a special passion for couples and families, working from a systemic perspective that brings clarity to the patterns shaping our closest relationships.
Grounded in a solid biblical foundation, she offers a steady, dependable presence, helping clients move from isolation toward connection and from confusion toward lasting hope.
Shantray Smith
LPC-S
Counselor & Life Coach
With a master’s in marriage and family therapy, Shantray has over 14 years of experience providing Christian counseling to women healing from childhood trauma, abuse, divorce, anxiety, depression, grief, and life transitions.
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She is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Life Coach. She utilizes EMDR therapy as an additional tool to help clients process the impact of trauma.
Shantray blends practical, evidence-based tools with a warm, person-centered style — partnering with clients to build skills, shift patterns, and move toward a steadier, more meaningful life.
Kendall Robinson
PLPC, ASAT-C
Counselor
Kendall works with adolescents, young adults, adults, and families, helping clients understand their stories and take ownership of what they can control.
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He takes a whole-person approach, recognizing that mental health is connected to physical health, relationships, lifestyle, and spiritual life.
He is a trained Brainspotting practitioner and a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist candidate.
Katie White
LPC
Counselor
Katie helps kids, teens, and adults find a steady sense of contentment that doesn’t depend on outside circumstances.
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She has a heart for people worn down by chronic dissatisfaction and for those learning what it means to suffer well. Katie takes a holistic approach, recognizing how much lifestyle shapes mental health, and she values honesty and authenticity in every session.
She is trained in Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI), equipping her to support parents and caregivers as they raise and connect with their children. Katie is a graduate of Colorado Christian University.
Camryn Burroughs
PLPC
Counselor
Couples, families, adolescent girls, and young adults come to Camryn with anxiety, depression, OCD, and the strain that can build in our closest relationships.
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Her approach is practical and goal-oriented, set within a warm, person-centered framework. She partners with clients to recognize their strengths and take realistic, meaningful steps toward change.
Camryn believes every person carries inherent value, purpose, and capacity for growth, and she sees faith as an important part of healing. She offers a space to explore identity, purpose, relationships, and personal struggles through both a clinical and faith-informed lens, bringing hope and steady support through difficult seasons.
Crisis & High-Conflict
High Conflict Consultant
Tom Pryde
Tom has spent twenty-five years as a pastor, much of it in the hardest rooms a pastor can enter: homes, churches, and organizations in the wake of abuse and high conflict.
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He is the founder and principal of the Psalm 82 Initiative, and one of the nation’s most trusted voices in abuse response and organizational healing. His counsel is sought by families, churches, and organizations across the country and beyond.
He does not come to take a side. Tom works with everyone a crisis touches — the harmed, and, when they are willing, those who did the harm — because the aim is not victory for one party. It is truth named, people protected, and order restored.
Neurofeedback
Operations and Neurofeedback
Deacon James
Drawing from years in corporate leadership, Deacon manages operations at Banner and leads the neurofeedback program.
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He is drawn to neurofeedback for its ability to produce lasting, measurable change, helping clients move toward peace, healing, and genuine strength. He is also Banner’s certified Birkman practitioner, working with leaders through the Birkman Method.
Whether building teams or serving clients, Deacon’s desire is that every person is living a life rooted in the strengths and gifts God gave them and the calling He has set before them.
Coaching & Spiritual Direction
John Mabray
M.Div.
Spiritual Direction
With 40 years of pastoral experience, John walks alongside people in their interior life with Christ, helping them nurture their faith, discern God’s will, and overcome obstacles to spiritual growth with joy and peace.
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He also offers premarital and marriage mentoring from a pastoral perspective.
John brings not just theology, but a shepherd’s heart, to everyone he serves. He holds an M.Div. from Columbia Theological Seminary.
Whit Bass
M.Div.
Spiritual Direction & Chaplaincy
Whit has walked with people through life’s most demanding moments since 1993, serving in congregations, hospice settings, and the workplace.
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His ministry is marked by deep spiritual intervention and strategic prayer, carrying a chaplain’s heart into every setting.
Additionally, as a work-life coach, Whit has helped people find footing in God’s presence amid the pressures of work and life. He holds both an M.Div. and a Chaplaincy endorsement.
Austin Ross
Coaching
Drawing from his background in professional baseball and years in the corporate world, Austin knows firsthand what it means to chase performance and mistake it for identity.
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He is drawn to walking alongside men as they discern where God is leading and let go of what’s holding them back.
Austin’s desire is that every man he works with finds healing, freedom, purpose, and joy in the true identity God created him to be.
Care & Operations
Katharine Spires
Details & Logistics Coordinator
With a degree in International Trade and Finance from LSU, years in banking, prior business ownership, and extensive volunteer work across the Monroe area, Katharine brings strong organizational skills and a compassionate heart.
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Drawing from her own understanding of spiritual hurt, she is passionate about showing Christ’s love, and is a fierce advocate for clients.
How to begin
One conversation with our Care Coordinator, and you will know who you are meeting with and what the first step looks like.
Or call us: 318.396.8152
Contact Us
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300 Washington Street, Suite 310
Monroe, LA 71201