Shirrette Butler This career chose her
Shirrette Butler’s 13 years of providing service in the field of addiction and recovery has been more than a career. For the substance abuse clinician at No Turning Back in Baltimore, it’s also been the fulfillment of a personal cause. The catalyst for the Baltimore native’s initial interest in the field was a family tragedy: two of her siblings (a brother and sister) contracted the HIV virus through long-term, intravenous drug use and eventually died. In her grief, Butler had difficulty understanding
how two rational, intelligent people like her sister and brother could continue injecting heroin as their illnesses progressed, even though they were aware of the effects and consequences of their use. “I started doing research on my own, but there was limited information I could access,” says Butler, who joined the No Turning Back staff in 2012. When Butler went to the Baltimore Community College library to find more information on the disease of addiction, she also discovered that she could enroll in substance abuse-
related classes. Gathering more information on substance abuse and the treatment process fed her curiosity, which eventually became a passion to help others afflicted with the disease of addiction. “I didn’t choose the career; the career chose me,” Butler says. “When you have a passion to do something, when you can see a positive change take place in someone that you helped, and that change positively affects their whole family system, it’s phenomenal.”
“We’re doing the best we can to treat the whole person.” —Shirrette Butler, substance abuse clinician at No Turning Back
Passion for addiction recovery While working toward a B.A. degree in addiction counseling, Butler studied the theories of two influential psychologists.The theories piqued her curiosity and played a major role in shaping her philosophy and approach to helping those with addictions: Carl Rogers’ theory of rational thinking, and the rational emotive behavioral therapy
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