Get to Know Me

About Amanda

Amanda Phillips · Associate Professional Clinical Counselor, APCC #14941

Practicing under the supervision of Debbie Ciulla, LMFT #98887 — an added layer of oversight that keeps my clinical thinking sharp and my families well cared for.

My Path to This Work

Before I became a therapist, I spent years working directly with kids — starting part-time at the Boys & Girls Club, eventually becoming Club Director, and then serving as a school counselor at a charter junior high for two years. More recently, I've spent close to a year working in higher levels of adolescent mental health care, supporting teens through residential and intensive outpatient treatment. That range — from after-school programs to schools to higher levels of care — has taught me what it actually looks like when a kid is struggling, at every stage of that struggle.

My graduate training reflects a similar range: I hold both a Pupil Personnel Services (PPS) credential for school counseling and my clinical counseling registration (APCC), so I bring both a clinical and a school-systems lens to the families I work with.

"It's about a kid finding their footing again, and feeling capable of meeting their life head-on."

Why I Do This Work

What keeps me doing this work now is watching a kid go from surviving their life to actually engaging with it again — picking back up something they used to love, showing up differently with friends, walking into a hard day with a little more steadiness than they had before. That shift is never really about making the hard stuff disappear. It's about a kid finding their footing again, and feeling capable of meeting their life head-on. That's what I'm working toward with every young person I see.

How I Work

I draw from trauma-focused, emotion-focused, and family systems approaches, and adjust to what each child or teen actually needs — play-based work for younger kids, more direct conversation for teens, and consistent collaboration with parents throughout. I believe every behavior tells a story, and my job is to help figure out what that story is, together with your family.

Christian counseling is available for clients who would like it — just let me know during your consultation.

In My Free Time...

For fun, I love spending time with my family. As a mom myself, I love seeing my daughter light up as she discovers the world. I enjoy playing board games, reading, and hosting themed murder-mystery parties. My current personal goal is to start a community, co-ed, casual ultimate frisbee league here in Simi.