Shirley Butler, LCSW

Shirley Butler is a 63 year old Native American Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with a longstanding commitment to mental health care. She has more than 20 years of experience working in a range of settings, including community mental health and Tribal Behavioral Health, where she served both as an on-call crisis therapist on rotation and as an in-office clinician.

Since 2013 she has maintained a private practice, bringing a blend of clinical training and real-world experience to each client relationship. Her educational background includes a Bachelor of Human Services Rehabilitation earned in 1998 from Salish Kootenai College on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Pablo, MT, and a Master of Social Work from Walla Walla University in Missoula, MT completed in 2004. After her MSW she completed three thousand supervised clinical hours prior to sitting for the clinical licensing exam.

She is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), an approach often used for post-traumatic stress and other distressing experiences, and draws on a broad set of clinical tools including attachment-based, client-centered, cognitive behavioral, dialectical behavior, emotionally-focused, mindfulness, motivational interviewing, solution-focused, and trauma-focused therapies. Having lived and worked extensively on the reservation as well as in other cultural contexts, she values cultural diversity and approaches each person with curiosity and respect.

Shirley prioritizes building rapport and a collaborative alliance with clients, tailoring treatment plans to the individual through a process of mutual planning and trust. She emphasizes the healing potential of telling one s story and working together to examine the parts of self a person wants to explore to move toward their goals.