Amber Miller, PhD

My Background and Approach I am a clinical psychologist with extensive experience in helping children, teens, and young adults with behavioral and emotional challenges in learning better coping strategies to improve their functioning. I use a collaborative approach to guide clients and families in identifying problem behaviors & personal strengths, setting goals, and learning new strategies to lead more enriched lives. I enjoy working with children, adolescents, and families with a variety of clinical conditions, but have developed specific expertise in treating anxiety disorders and eating disorders. I am committed to using evidence-based treatments and personalizing them to fit your particular needs. I primarily use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to guide my treatment approach, but also use Family Based Therapy (FBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), and other evidence-based treatments as needed. I specialize in treating: Eating Disorders Our culture often contributes to us developing complicated relationships with food and with our bodies. We're taught to hate our bodies, feel guilty about eating, and through no fault of our own we end up feeling like controlling our bodies through our food intake is the only way we can feel good about ourselves. But for those who have gone down this path, you may have realized that you didn't get the happiness you sought, and you may now be mentally and physically suffering. Wouldn't it be freeing to be able to accept and love the body you have without needing to change it? I am passionate about helping individuals to overcome eating disorders through a focus on helping you to feed yourself well and create a loving relationship with your own body. Anxiety and OCD Anxiety is a normal (and helpful!) emotion that we all experience. But when anxiety or OCD starting limiting our lives, we can often benefit from getting support in finding ways that work for us to challenge and overcome anxiety. It's not as easy as just sucking it up, so we'll work on understanding what creates anxiety, what maintains it, and ways you can slowly start to take your life back from anxiety or OCD. Parenting It can be a frightening and frustrating situation to see your child struggling. Parenting isn't easy, and when your child has special needs such as ADHD or behavioral challenges it can be hard to sort through the avalanche of advice you might read or hear in order to figure out what applies to your situation. When your child has tantrums or defies your rules, this doesn't mean you're a bad parent! It just means that the parenting approach you're using (which may work perfectly well for other children!) isn't working for this particular kid. I work collaboratively with parents to understand the factors contributing to children's behavior and to develop interventions that parents can use at home to help shape their children's behavior and bring greater peace to your home. My Training I earned my bachelor’s degree in Psychology from UC Davis in 2007 and my doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from UC Santa Barbara in 2016. I completed my doctoral internship at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and then a postdoctoral residency at Kaiser Permanente in San Rafael. My clinical training experiences have included working with children, adolescents, and families with a wide range of behavioral, developmental, and mental health concerns through community mental health clinics, outpatient clinics, and hospitals, and I now see clients through my private practice. Awards • Clinical Excellence Award, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles • Outstanding Research Award, University of California Santa Barbara Professional Affiliations • American Psychological Association (APA) member • Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (SCCAP) member • California Psychological Association (CPA) member • San Francisco Psychological Association (SFPA) member • Marin County Psychological Association (MCPA) member • International OCD Foundation (IOCDF) member Hobbies I love to travel abroad, I’m an avid reader, I practice yoga, and I spend as much time outside hiking, camping, and snowboarding as possible!