We invite you to learn more about who we are, where we come from, and what we value.
Global lived experience, local expertise.
Our professional backgrounds span licensed mental health, client services, strategy consulting, clinical social work, and pastoral care. The collective backgrounds of our team enable us to more authentically deliver compassionate client services for a diverse range of identities and communities.
Bridging across all kinds of difference, in service of our clients, our community, and each other.
Banister relies on the contributions of individuals from diverse and intersectional backgrounds. We emphasize and prioritize the principles of inclusion and belonging within our organization so that team members can feel confident that their mindset, perspective, capacities, origins, identities, and life experience are recognized, understood, respected, and appreciated.
Diverse business certification
Banister is currently in-process establishing credentials for the following diverse supplier affiliations:
100% Hispanic-owned
100% Female-owned
100% Disability-owned
Please check back here for status updates.
Our ethics
Team members across all areas of expertise are also aligned with NASW’s Code of Ethics, (National Association of Social Workers), which prioritizes the following:
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Service
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Social Justice
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Dignity and Worth of the Person
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Importance of Human Relationships
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Integrity
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Competence
Our values
Integrity
The practice of being respectful, trustworthy, honest and consistent in one’s adherence to moral and ethical principles in thoughts, words, and actions.
Grace
An adaptive, interpersonal expression of love and goodwill, freely given and humbly delivered, that seeks to adeptly bridge across cultural and experiential commonalities and differences in order to serve the needs of others.
Describes skills, qualities and capacities which are unusually good and so surpass ordinary standards for inputs, operations, outcomes, and experiences.
The internal and environmental capacity to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in both addressing challenges and taking advantage of opportunities.
The social quality of openly sharing resources to help others, including a willingness to demonstrate positive regard even when it is not merited or deserved.
Generosity
Creativity
Excellence
About our namesake
Jay Banister Laughlin (1951-2016)
“Banister origins come not just from the experience of my father-in-law’s early death, but also from how he lived his life. Jay gave back to his community in incredible ways. For most of his career, he worked for the city to support his family, while frequently committing to meaningful volunteer roles, such as in support of domestic violence victims in collaboration with local law enforcement.
Later, in his 50’s he went back to school to get his degree in social work in order to give back even further by providing free therapy to low income people in the region. He never talked about or drew attention to these priorities. He just quietly changed many peoples’ lives for the better. ”
-Vanessa Laughlin, Founder
The Historic Stimson-Green Mansion
Banister Advisors, LLC is headquartered at
1204 Minor Avenue, Seattle, WA 98015
Made possible by the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation
Land acknowledgement
Banister Advisors acknowledges that we live and make our livelihoods on the lands of the Coast Salish People, specifically the Duwamish People. We honor with gratitude them, past and present, the land itself, and the Duwamish Tribe.
As a team of advisors whose clinical experiences include our healthcare, carceral systems, adoption, legal, financial, and emergency services, we know intimately that our society harms indigenous peoples. We recognize that colonization is an active, persistent process that continues to exploit, harm, and undermine the lives and cultural integrity of indigenous communities. Even so, we know there exist other unknown effects of systematic obstructions to cultural practices and sovereignty and we each share an opportunity to disengage from our society’s ignorance and impact denial.
Indigenous communities continue to be resilient in protecting their ecological and cultural lifeways and deathways despite ongoing oppression. Banister Advisors respects, shares, supports, and joins this commitment to climate healing and environmental justice by establishing a recurring monthly paid contribution to Real Rent Duwamish (https://www.realrentduwamish.org/ ).
This is one of many opportunities that we are engaging in to change the harmful relationship norms of ignorance and impact denial that exists in our American society. Please consider joining us by making your own contribution to a local indigenous organization in your region.
