Dr. Miller, Boca Raton Board Certified Psychologist & Psychoanalyst has gained valuable clinical experience serving adult patients in many outstanding medical facilities and hospitals which he now applies to his private practice. As an intuitive professional psychologist, he recognizes that each person has unique emotional needs and struggles which vary with regard to intensity and duration. Regardless of whether the problem is long standing or brief, Dr. Miller Boca Raton Psychologist actively engages his patients to find new ways to understand, cope and resolve their struggles following the principles of psychoanalytic therapy.

Psychoanalytic individual therapy relieves emotional distress and promotes personal growth through insight and self understanding. My aim is to help patients examine their thoughts and feelings in a supportive, safe environment so that they can come to understand repetitive patterns of experience. Treatment focuses on helping patients understand how their problems developed, connecting past to current difficulties. As emotional insight improves, self esteem deepens allowing for healthier conscious choices. Understanding can help a person to develop better coping skills, alleviate distress, regain self control and live more satisfying fulfilling lives. Individual therapy is not only helpful in understanding oneself, but in improving relationships with other people as well.  It is highly effective in treating depression and depressive symptoms, anxiety, fears, grief, anger, guilt, phobias, work stress and healing from trauma.  Self reflection is an important part of therapy.  Dr. Miller will encourage you to speak as openly as possible about yourself and will work with you to develop insight, understanding and solutions.  Active collaboration is a primary component to treatment.  Respect and sensitivity are integral as we together come to understand the ways in which your current and past difficulties have effected you over time so you will be better able to make healthier life choices in the future.

Areas of expertise include:

• Depression & Sadness
• Anxiety, Stress & Panic Attacks
• Couples Therapy (Marriage, Relationship Counseling)
• Personality Disorders including Narcissistic, Borderline, & Schizoid
• Anger
• Attachment Difficulties 
• Sexuality
• Relationship, Intimacy Issues & Commitment Difficulties
• Self Esteem Issues
• Mistrust 
• Child & Adult Emotional Trauma & Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Physical & Sexual Abuse
• Mid-life Crises
• Eating Disorders
• Obsessions & Phobias
• Divorce
• Identity Issues
• Emotional Emptiness
• Psychological Aspects of Infertility
• Insomnia
• Life Transition
• Infidelity

Dr. David Miller, Boca Raton Board Certified Psychologist and Psychoanalyst approach to couples therapy or marriage counseling is unique and comprehensive. He meets with both partners at the initial consultation and evaluates their separate concerns. Dr. Miller optimally meets with the couple together and with each person individually within the context of the couples relationship. In helping couples with their relationship issues, Dr. Miller will ask each person to look closely at themselves to better understand their own psychological makeup and to each person’s contribution to the couple’s dynamic.  Every relationship consists of two individuals combining their own emotional patterns to create a unique relational matrix.  In couple’s therapy or marriage counseling, there must be an ongoing exploration of each person’s individual psychology as well as the special manner in which each person relates or does not within the couple relationship.  In a sense, couple’s therapy or marriage counseling is a combination of both people undergoing individual therapy as well as examining how the relationship produces its own unique characteristics. Integral aspects of treatment include, identifying the sources of conflict and dissatisfaction, helping each person understand their own needs and finding healthy ways to language them. The four primary and necessary components to a meaningful and healthy relationship (friendship, trust, intimacy & sexuality) are thoroughly explored in couples therapy.

While employing a similar treatment approach to his adult patients, Dr. David Miller, Board Certified Boca Raton Psychologist and Psychoanalyst, believes that early intervention with children and adolescents is essential for preventing future problems. The professional relationship that is co-created between doctor and patient is vital.  It is important that the psychologist be professional, intelligent, well trained, trustworthy, compassionate and a positive role model who can guide your child through difficult life transitions.  This allows for maximal emotional growth and healing. Dr. Miller may utilize drawing techniques and role-playing to determine the cause of symptoms because young children sometimes have difficulty with self expression. Upon initial consultation, Dr. Miller meets with parent(s) for collaboration of a mutually agreeable course of treatment ensuring success. Additionally, parenting collaboration is a necessary component of treatment. Dr. Miller often consults with physicians, pediatricians and school counselors about his patients needs.

Areas of expertise include:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Anger
• Self Destructive Behaviors & Cutting
• Obsessions 
• Phobias
• Self Esteem Issues
• Psychological Trauma
• Substance Abuse
• Identity Issues
• Attachment Issues
• Learning Disabilities
• Social Difficulties & Peer Pressure
• School Difficulties
• Eating Disorders
• Divorce/Step Family Related Issues
• Life transitions 

Dr. David Miller, Boca Raton Board Certified Psychologist and Psychoanalyst, practices psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy. Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy are unique forms of intensive psychotherapy that foster personal development and liberation from unsatisfying or painful patterns of living. In pursuit of those goals, the individual in a psychoanalytically informed therapy and the therapist work together in close collaboration. They pay careful attention to the interactions of personal and interpersonal experience, of past and present, of body and mind, of fantasy and reality. It is expected that such an in-depth exploration can set in motion a process of personal transformation.

People seek psychoanalytically informed treatment for many reasons. Some want help with specific emotional problems like depression, anxiety, or stress or are seeking to come to terms with a painful or traumatic personal history. Others may feel stuck in distressing patterns that prevent them from feeling satisfied, from connecting with others, or from finding meaning in their lives. Many people simply desire a deeper self-understanding or greater creativity in their personal lives.

The process of psychoanalysis depends on the establishment of a safe, confidential, and collaborative therapeutic relationship. The frequency of sessions in a psychoanalytically informed treatment typically ranges from two to four times a week. Frequent sessions allow the patient’s dilemmas to come to life in the intricacies of the psychoanalytic relationship.

Patient and therapist work together to understand the meaning of the patient’s emotional reactions, thoughts, memories, fantasies, dreams, images, and sensations in an effort to alleviate personal suffering and to expand the capacity for work, love, and creativity.

Many individuals find that the use of an analytic couch allows them to speak more freely about their most personal concerns, and to access unconscious experience. For others, the experience of a face-to-face dialogue seems essential to the unfolding of the therapeutic process.

The psychoanalytic process weaves a complex tapestry in which therapist and patient can explore the rich and intricate texture of human relationship. This process can be expected to unfold over a considerable period of time. A decision to enter psychoanalytically informed treatment represents a mutual agreement between patient and therapist. Decisions about the frequency of sessions needed to sustain the process are reached jointly.

Psychoanalysis offers a unique and comprehensive method of thinking and working therapeutically. The theory and methods of psychoanalysis originated with Sigmund Freud’s pioneering explorations of the influence of unconscious processes on everyday life and on emotional difficulties.

Although it is recognized that no single theory can account for the complexities of the human mind, psychoanalytic tradition and technique are valuable resources for understanding the psychological processes of personal development and social interaction. Contemporary psychoanalysts draw on a vast body of knowledge—both within psychoanalysis and across disciplines—to understand their patients compassionately and to respond effectively to the broader communities in which they live and work.

Psychoanalysis is also engaged in dialogue with other disciplines like science, history, philosophy, gender studies, visual arts, literature, poetry, music and film. As an evolving domain in its own right, psychoanalysis continues actively to address a wide range of current issues, such as changing social structures, individual alienation, identity and diversity, political violence and emerging cultural realities. In addition, there has been a long tradition of reciprocal influence between psychoanalysis and psychological research, especially in the areas of human development, cognitive science, and social psychology.

Graduate psychoanalysts are licensed mental health professionals like, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, or psychiatric nurses who have had extensive postgraduate training in psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic training consists of a rigorous program of several years of coursework, a personal analysis and experience providing psychoanalysis under the supervision of senior analysts. Psychoanalytic therapists are usually licensed mental health professionals who adhere to basic psychoanalytic tenets in their practice of psychotherapy with children, adolescents, adults, couples, and groups.

This information is provided by the Division of Psychoanalysis (Division 39) of the American Psychological Association (APA). The Division of Psychoanalysis represents, within the broad field of psychology, professionals who identify themselves as having a major commitment to the study, practice, and development of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. For information about the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association, please call (602) 212-0511. For further information about psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy visit our website at www.division39.org. The Division thanks the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis for their permission to reproduce some of the material presented in this brochure.

Dr. David Miller, Boca Raton Psychologist and Psychoanalyst provides Clinical Supervision for Practitioners from all disciplines, at beginning and advanced levels, in developing a Psychoanalytic practice. Dr. Miller also works with practitioners wanting to deepen their work with patients to achieve better long lasting results. His approach to Supervision integrates Classical Psychoanalytic principles with Contemporary Psychoanalytic (Relational & Intersubjective) principles paying careful attention to the transference/countertransference dyad. He aims and seeks to help Supervisees develop their own style of intervention based upon their personal character, skills and patient populations. Supervision or Consultation can be arranged in the office or via FaceTime.