Before you examine Dr. Butler's credentials, it will be perhaps equally enlightening to examine his motivation for embarking on this journey to help embattled individuals, couples and families conquer the plague of addiction:

“For fifteen years I have worked—as a marriage and family therapist— with couples struggling to recover from addiction and heal as families. In that time I have seen much of heartache and sorrow. No sensitive person can view this suffering without grief. I have seen much of hope and healing. No caring person can extend a helping hand and not hope. And I have seen God at work in the lives and hearts of his children, as they work to become more like His children. I have seen hope and healing come to individuals, couples, and families, through prayer, fasting, and the exercise of tremendous will with the support of many loving others. I have seen individuals, couples, and families saved by grace, after all they can do (2 Nephi 25:23).”

As for his academic credentials, Mark Butler is a professor in Brigham Young University’s Marriage and Family Therapy Graduate Program and also a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Clinically, he specializes in helping married couples achieve recovery from a spouse’s addiction.

He earned his B.S. Magna Cum Laude in Political Science and M.S. in Marriage and Family Therapy at Brigham Young University. After practicing therapy for several years, he returned on fellowship to earn his Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy at Texas Tech University, after which he joined the MFT faculty at BYU in 1996.

Mark has focused his scholarly and clinical attention on the study of mediation process and structure in healing relationships, recovery from addictive desire and behavior, attachment-focused healing from marital infidelity, and spirituality in clinical perspective and practice. He is the author of numerous publications and book chapters on these topics. Currently he is authoring Spiritual Exodus, a multi-volume series on recovery from addiction.

He won the 1999 American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Outstanding Research Publication Award. He has presented to regional, national, and international audiences on principles and interventions for promoting recovery from addictive behavior, regularly including an emphasis of spiritual principles and practices related thereto.

Mark and his wife, Shelly D. Butler, together are the parents of five children, and reside in Orem, Utah.

For more information, please examine Dr. Butler's professional vitae.