Shirley Butler

Shirley Butler is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 23 years of experience in the mental health field. She built a private practice in 2013 after long-term work in community mental health and Tribal Behavioral Health. Shirley emphasizes listening first and learning each person’s story before suggesting next steps.

She spent substantial time living and working on the reservation and also in other communities, so she is familiar with a range of cultures and life experiences. Shirley earned a Bachelor degree in Human Services Rehabilitation from Salish Kootenai College and a Master of Social Work from Walla Walla University. She completed the supervised clinical hours required before sitting for her clinical license.

Her practice focuses on concerns such as stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, depression, grief, parenting strain, relationship and family issues, and anger. She also pays attention to abandonment, codependency, commitment and communication problems, forgiveness, and self-love. She describes trauma as a very personal experience and treats it with attention to individual differences.

Shirley favors building rapport and a strong therapeutic alliance before moving into specific interventions. She uses a collaborative approach to create treatment plans that fit each person’s goals and needs. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is one method she uses for post-traumatic stress and disturbing memories.

People who prefer a calm, steady listener and a therapist who asks questions and crafts individualized plans may find her approach helpful. She works from Montana and offers sessions in English, and welcomes international clients.

How her approaches translate to online work

Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationships shape current feelings and reactions. In sessions it often means mapping patterns in relationships and practicing new ways of relating to others. Client-Centered Therapy focuses on the person in front of the therapist. The therapist listens without judgment and follows the client's lead to help them make sense of their own experience.

Finding the right approach is usually a team effort. Shirley will talk with the client about goals, past experiences, and preferences, and then choose or adapt methods together. That collaborative process helps ensure the approach fits what the client wants to achieve.

The biography does not list specific session formats, so confirm available options before booking. Online therapy can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy life - for example, it can remove travel time, allow shorter check-ins during a work break, or offer a way to meet when relocating or traveling. Licensed professionals can use a range of therapeutic tools online, from talking through daily stressors to practicing skills learned in Dialectical Behavior Therapy or working through troubling memories with EMDR-informed techniques when the clinician and client agree it is appropriate.