About Shirley
Shirley Butler is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 23 years of experience in the mental health field. She practices from Montana and brings a long history of community mental health and Tribal behavioral health work. Shirley established her independent practice in 2013 and draws on decades of varied settings to guide her approach.
She values curiosity and listening. Shirley focuses on building a strong rapport before moving into treatment.
How Shirley works
She works collaboratively with each person to set goals that match their needs and life situation. Her work often centers on stress, anxiety, depression, trauma and abuse, and grief. She also addresses relationship and family concerns, parenting challenges, anger, career questions, bipolar disorder, and self-esteem.
Additional focuses include abandonment, codependency, commitment issues, communication problems, forgiveness, post-traumatic stress, self-love, and women's issues. Shirley uses a blend of approaches tailored to the person in front of her. She integrates Attachment-Based ideas, Client-Centered techniques, Cognitive Behavioral methods, Dialectical Behavior tools, and Emotionally-Focused strategies.
She also has experience using Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, often for post-traumatic stress. Her history includes work on a reservation and in diverse cultural settings, which informs how she connects with people from different backgrounds. Shirley aims to help people tell their story, clarify what they want to change, and take practical steps toward those goals.
Shirley lists 10 ways of working on the entry:
What Shirley works with
The areas below are the ones Shirley selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Family conflicts
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self-love
- Women's issues
Training and background
| Register | LCSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 23 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Montana |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How Shirley’s Approaches Translate to Online Therapy
Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on how early and current relationships shape feelings and safety in close connections. It helps people understand emotional patterns and build more supported ways of relating. Client-Centered Therapy centers the person's own experience, using active listening and empathy to help someone clarify goals and make choices that feel right.Finding the right approach is part of the work. Shirley collaborates with each person to choose methods that match their needs, goals, and preferences. She checks in often to adjust the plan when something is not working or when priorities change.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to provide flexible ways to connect. Video calls allow face-to-face conversations for deeper emotional work. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or a person prefers not to be on camera. Live chat and text messaging are useful for shorter check-ins, tracking progress, or when typing feels more comfortable. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules and to maintain consistent contact with a licensed professional.
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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