About Ryan
Ryan Shelby Butler is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) based in Arizona with seven years of clinical experience. He focuses on practical help for stress, anxiety, depression, addiction, relationship strain, and ADHD. He speaks plainly and aims to make the first step feel manageable for people who are worried or unsure about starting therapy.
He uses a person-centered style that respects each client's values and life story. Sessions often include realistic, solution-focused steps and skills from cognitive and dialectical behavior approaches.
Background and approach
His background also draws on attachment ideas and reflective, meaning-centered work to address relationship and intimacy concerns. Ryan earned a Master of Science in Professional Counseling and a Master of Science in Leadership from Grand Canyon University, after completing a Bachelor of Arts with emphases in psychology, philosophy, and business at Montana State University. He also completed postgraduate study in Christian counseling.
Before clinical practice he worked in higher education in roles that combined counseling, advising, and analytics. In sessions he blends practical skill teaching with exploratory conversation. That might mean learning new coping strategies one week and talking through relationship patterns the next.
He emphasizes values and purpose while helping people build routines that reduce overwhelm and improve focus. Outside of work he spends time with family, serves in church leadership, and enjoys reading and outdoor activities. He describes therapy as a shared process and invites clients to bring their real-life concerns into sessions so they can find workable changes together.
How therapeutic approaches translate to online work
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on clarifying personal values and taking small actions that match those values. Online ACT sessions often mix short exercises, values exploration, and practical homework to help people stay motivated between meetings.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) teaches concrete skills to change unhelpful thinking and behavior. In online CBT, a therapist and client might use worksheets, thought records, and behavior experiments that are reviewed together over video or via messaging.
Ryan treats finding the right approach as a collaborative process. He will listen to a client's goals and preferences and then recommend one or a blend of approaches. Together they adjust methods over time to match how the client responds and what feels most useful.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls let the therapist observe expressions and body language while keeping a familiar setting for the client. Phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited or when clients prefer not to be on camera. Live chat and text-based messaging are useful for brief check-ins, skill practice, or maintaining momentum between longer sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy days and different routines.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Gottman Method
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Systemic Therapy
- Experience
- 7 years
- Licensed
- Arizona
- Languages
- English
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