sharon e butler, ms lcsw | psychotherapist

I am now a licensed clinical social worker, with experience working in psychiatric hospitals, a community mental health center, outpatient clinics, and a hospice organization. My patients have had a variety of diagnoses, from major depressive disorder to anxiety and PTSD. The couples I treat struggle with communication and problem-solving, as well as life transitions.

I earned my MSW from the School of Social Work at Loyola University Chicago, interning at the Adult Psychotherapy Clinic at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis and at Rainbow Hospice and Palliative Care. To deepen my clinical work, I completed two fellowships, one at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis and one at the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis. Earlier, I graduated from New College with a bachelor’s in psychology and, interested in the biological basis of human behavior, obtained an MS degree in developmental biology from the University of Chicago.

I have had additional specialized training in child development (New York University), grief support for families (Children’s Memorial Hospital), mindfulness (Adler School of Professional Psychology), grief and loss over the life cycle (Loyola University Chicago), and working with bereaved children (Barr-Harris Children’s Grief Center, Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis). I am certified in advanced grief counseling. I am also certified in the Gottman Method (Level 1), the Developmental Model, and Interpersonal Psychotherapy, all of which inform my work with couples and with individuals who are struggling in their relationships.

Because of my interest in helping those who have suffered trauma, I volunteered as a therapist at the Kovler Center for Victims of Torture. Earlier, I founded a nonprofit organization called Ngiyakubona (siSwati for “I see you”), which ran several projects in southern Africa to help disadvantaged individuals affected by the AIDS epidemic. Recognizing that violence often lies at the root of trauma, I taught methods of positive discipline to schoolteachers in Swaziland (now Eswatini) and gave a talk on the ill effects of corporal punishment at the famous Pratichi Institute in India, founded and chaired by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.