About Us

Meet Ashton Vidrine, PMHNP-BC, LMSW

Ashton is a board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and licensed master social worker with over 12 years of experience. He provides compassionate, evidence-based care to children, adolescents, adults, and older adults using a biopsychosocial approach. Ashton incorporates both medication and therapy when needed and values building strong, respectful therapeutic relationships.

A Baton Rouge native, Ashton was inspired to pursue mental health after losing a close friend to suicide in 2000. He holds degrees in general studies, social work, and nursing from LSU and Southern University. His professional background spans hospice, crisis intervention, suicide prevention, Veterans Affairs, substance abuse, and correctional care. He has worked in both clinical and correctional settings. Most recently, he served as a psychiatric nurse practitioner at Louisiana State Penitentiary.

In 2025, Ashton founded Vidrine Psychiatry to offer holistic, patient-centered mental health services to the Baton Rouge community.

Outside of work, Ashton enjoys traveling, painting, and beekeeping. He also plays the drums and spends time with his wife and children. Ashton has three dogs named Lincoln, Beans, and Frankie.

Frankie Vidrine – Therapy Dog in Training

Frankie is a miniature long haired dachshund who is nine months old and has been coming to my office everyday since he was four months old. I got my first dog at the age of four and I have had an assortment of pets throughout my life and currently have three dogs. I also completed my thesis to graduate from the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program on the Effects of Animal-Assisted Activity on Stress of Nurses in a Hospital Setting. Although I did not originally work in the healthcare field, I did volunteer my time from 2004-2011 doing animal assisted therapy with my doberman pinscher named Bogen. We were members of LSU Tiger Human Animal Therapy Services (Tiger HATS). On a monthly basis we visited patients on the pediatric unit at Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge. Bogen and I also volunteered with Volunteers of America Paws to Read program. It is a literacy program at Parker House, a group home for abused and neglected children in foster care. If one likes dogs, I have seen firsthand the benefits of having Frankie present during patients’ appointments.