About

Andrew Butler-Pothast, LCSW

What matters to me is helping you to align with what’s important in your life. I want you to feel heard, understood, but also to push into the challenging. To not only make sense of what you’re experiencing but to work with it to do what truly matters to you.

I admire the courage it takes to step out of what you’ve been doing even though it may be daunting and you don’t know how it will go. Reaching out to a stranger or even thinking about seeking help may bring up uncomfortable feelings, memories, beliefs, and other aversive experiences. It requires courage to say ‘this isn’t working’ and to try something different in therapy.

Stepping out of the automatic and unexamined can create countless opportunities to shift what you are doing in any given moment. I believe that anyone and everyone is capable of cultivating change with guided intention, understanding, and dedication. I have seen this shift firsthand and hope that I can help you see it in your own life.

Schedule Initial Call

training

My graduate education was at the University of California, Berkeley. My graduate training was with Veteran Affairs in treating veterans with PTSD and the University of California, San Francisco where I worked with individuals with mental health and substance use challenges. My post-graduate training is in cognitive behavioral and contextual behavioral therapies. This includes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), and mindfulness-based therapy, as well as other evidence-based treatments. Specialized training includes Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP) which is the gold standard treatment of OCD and Prolonged Exposure (PE) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for the treatment of PTSD and trauma disorders. See ‘Services’ for further information on interventions utilized.

While these treatments are shown to be effective for treating specific disorders, I individualize my approach for the person sitting across from me. I am continually adding to my skill set with ongoing supervision and training based on prevailing scientific evidence to offer effective and empirically-supported therapy.

Resume

Recent Training

Functional Analytic Psychotherapy, 2025

Feedback Informed Treatment Intensive, ICCE, 2024

Emotionally-Focused Therapy Externship, ICEEFT, 2023

IOCDF Online OCD Conference, 2023

Inference-based CBT, OCD Training School, 2023

Experience

I have worked for the University of California, San Francisco in emergency psychiatry at San Francisco General Hospital and in community mental health with the City of San Francisco Department of Public Health. I have been practicing psychotherapy since 2019 and have worked in the helping profession since 2012.

My experience is informed by working with a variety of people from diverse backgrounds. I have worked with older adults, teens, veterans, indigenous communities, LGBTQIA+ identified individuals, amongst many others of varying intersectional identities. I am committed to examining my own privilege and positionality with humility and openness. I respect and honor the larger context of human identities and each person’s distinct experience.

Professional affiliation

Association for Contextual Behavioral Sciences San Francisco Chapter, Member

Association for Contextual Behavioral Sciences, Member