Amber Brick, LCSW

Amber Brick, LCSW, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified PCIT Global Trainer, Certified TCIT provider and the Clinical Director of Intensive Family Services at Kids First located in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. Amber was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and raised in Central Pennsylvania.  Amber currently lives in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. 

 

Amber Brick completed her undergraduate education at Penn State University with a Bachelors of Science in Human Development and Family Studies.  She started her career working in the child welfare field and later worked with adults and children with disabilities as case manager.  Amber continued her education at the University of Pittsburgh earning her Master of Social Work degree. While earning her Master’s degree, Amber completed internships through Kids First as an in home parent educator and in the social services department of the Pennsylvania Veterans Home located in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. 

 

Upon graduation with her Master’s degree in 2007, Amber worked as the social worker in a local prison, providing suicide assessments, mental health evaluations and interventions to inmates.  In 2008, Amber returned to Kids First and again provided in home parent education services to parents at risk of losing their children due to abuse and neglect.  In 2009, Amber was promoted to the Clinical Director of the program providing supervision to two staff members.  To date, the Intensive Family Services program has grown to include eight staff members and provides various evidence-based programs including Circle of Security parenting, Infant Mental Health, Parent Child Interaction Therapy, parenting programs for incarcerated parents, and Healthy Families America to families of young children in Blair County, Pennsylvania.   Amber has received additional training in motivational interviewing and reflective supervision. 

 

Amber also provides Strengths Based Family Worker (SFW) training to front line family workers in Blair County.  Amber was a participant in the first training held in 2009 and was trained as an instructor in 2010.  In 2012, Amber was trained as a facilitator for the Leadership Strengths Based Family Worker training program.  To date, Amber has trained over 350 providers of in-home services. 

 

Amber provides several different treatment options to children under the age of ten through Kids First.  Amber is certified in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and provides cognitive behavioral therapy.  In 2010, Amber received training in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and was the first provider of PCIT in her area.  To date, Amber has provided PCIT services to hundreds of families. Amber’s commitment to PCIT has led to referrals from six of her surrounding counties and a constant wait list for services. 

 

Amber’s work with PCIT lead her to apply for a research collaborative offered by Dr. Christopher Campbell and in 2018, Amber was selected as one of twelve participants to be trained in Teacher Child Interaction Therapy (TCIT). Amber has provided TCIT in several classrooms at the Kids First Early Learning Center and Head Start classrooms.  

 

In 2019, Amber joined Dr. Campbell at Parent Child Interaction Therapy Inc. to provide training in PCIT and TCIT.  Amber has participated in multiple trainings since joining the company and has worked with over a hundred clinicians through consultation calls. 

 

Amber also served on the Head Start Policy Council for five years and currently participates in the Evidence Based Committee in Blair County, Infants of Substance Abusing Mothers committee, and Blair County Children’s Round Table.

 

Amber’s passion is to work with families of young children and provide training to clinicians who work with those families to recognize family’s strengths.  Building healthy families and supporting parents to provide nurturing, responsive care to their young children is what lead her to PCIT as an intervention for caregivers.   Amber hopes to grow the mental health services at Kids First by adding additional PCIT clinicians and TCIT trainers to support building healthy relationships between children and their caregivers. 

 

Amber’s greatest joy is her family.  She enjoys spending time with her husband, two daughters and her beloved chocolate lab.  She is an avid fan of her children’s participation in sports. You can often find her yelling labeled praises on a pool deck or basketball court.

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