Episode 8 With Lisa Butler

Lisa Butler, AM, LCSW is in private practice as a Clinical Social Worker. Twenty years ago Lisa began her social work journey with the Ounce of Prevention via the YWCA's Young Parents Program. She facilitated teen parent support groups and hired program volunteers. During her tenure with this program Lisa discovered the lack of emotional and mental support resources available for Black women and girls. In 2000 Lisa started BlackGurl Inc., a group support program for girls/young women 12-20. BlackGurl Inc. was a curriculum based pregnancy prevention program designed to increase self- esteem, promote critical thinking, and encourage social activism. This award winning program became one of the first of its kind to provide services as a vendor for Chicago Public Schools. This program served both elementary and high schools across the city.

Lisa's commitment to African American women/girls mental and emotional health is rooted in her belief that the key to living whole healthy lives is having safe spaces to process trauma, learn coping strategies, and increase self-worth/self-esteem. In 2013 Lisa's work as a University of Illnois Urbana research assistant for a project examining the impact of emotional stress and trauma on the physical health of Black women and girls reinvigorated her passion for the need to provide psychotherapy in underserved communities. It also opened her eyes to the need for non-traditional therapeutic modalities i.e., yoga, mindfulness meditation, body movement, and creative visualization. She began incorporating these modalities into her work and has witnessed client's lives change. Lisa also believes in the power of group therapy as it offers clients opportunities to share their experiences with others and gain positive peer support.

Lisa continues her work with women and girls to help facilitate emotional healing. She specializes in mother-daughter conflict, self-esteem, forgiveness, shame and anxiety. Lisa believes that most of our challenges begin with our thoughts about ourselves, others, and the world. She uses cognitive and dialectical behavior therapies to teach clients how their thoughts/feelings inform their behaviors and life choices. She believes that helping people recognize the power of their thoughts is key to emotional wellness. Lisa is also the Producer/Director of What's Left Behind, a documentary highlighting the moms/and families of murdered young people in Chicago. Lisa is a Ford Scholar and a graduate of University of Chicago School of Social Service.

In this episode, Lisa talks about her work with women who have unhealthy Mother/Daughter relationships. These go beyond the occasional spat or philosophical disagreements that occur. Her clients are working through verbally, physically and even financially abusive relationships with their mothers. She discusses how these relationships often impair their day to day functioning and are often laden with guilt and a false sense of responsibility for the mother's happiness and well-being.
Lisa, share concrete ways in to work through this miasma and how she coaches clients when a healthy Mother/Daughter relationship is just not possible.