Nathalie Bera-Miller, MD, MPH

“Sometimes when things fall apart, well that’s the big opportunity to change”

-Pema Chodron

Hello and welcome to my practice. What are we without our health? I’ve been a physician for over 30 years, in private practice for 15 years, and am the Founder and Medical Director of Pacific Integrative & Functional Medicine. I’m very happy that you are reading about me and my practice and team. If you’re interested in once and for all being on an effective individualized holistic path of healing and wellness that gets and keeps you feeling better so you can live a fulfilling personal and professional life and if you have the motivation and can carve out some time to systematically pursue this, then I’d love to have you join my practice and work with me and my team. I work with you to identify root causes of chronic health symptoms and conditions and then address them in a holistic way while minimizing or eliminating the need for medicines.

Education/Training

I first became interested in holistic healing in middle and high school after we moved from the Chicago area to California, and as I saw my hard-working artist father regularly read about natural ways to treat his various chronic medical conditions. His interest was also fueled by the tragedy, at age 10, of losing his mother to a deadly adverse reaction to a cardiac medication. When I started to myself develop some medical symptoms and conditions, I became even more curious about natural healing and read two influential books, Diet for a Small Planet and Anatomy of an Illness. My curiosity and my parents’ belief in the power of education lead me to college as a first generation college student. I enthusiastically chose Nutritional Science as my major, first at Cornell University and then at UCBerkeley. I then decided to pursue medicine as a career and was thrilled to be accepted to medical school at UC-San Francisco which was a life transforming experience to say the least. Some highlights for me included learning from Nobel Prize winners Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus in their small group seminar on oncogenes and as a fourth year student assisting with a research project in psychoneuroimmunology (i.e. studying the effect of mood on herpes recurrence).  Amidst overall superb training at my world-renowned alma mater for which I am extremely grateful, I was though very disheartened that only a few hours of the study of medicine covered nutrition. Fortunately, after my internship in Internal Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, I found my way to residency in Preventive Medicine which also entailed studying public health and getting my MPH degree at UCBerkeley. I became Board-Certified in Preventive Medicine and eventually also Certified by the American Board of Integrative and Holistic Medicine. Finally, I became a member of the Institute of Functional Medicine (IFM) and completed all their modules in preparation for the Functional Medicine Certification exam. During this time I also completed a year-long Practitioner Mastermind training with Sara Gottfried, MD, Integrative OB/GYN and author of The Hormone Cure.  I’m so grateful for the visionary work of holistic physicians and other practitioners - particularly those affiliated with and teaching at the IFM and Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine (AIHM) - who have made it possible for physicians such as myself to augment our medical training with integrative and root cause medicine knowledge.

Work history

Prior to my private practice, during the first 10 years of my career I delivered primary and preventive medical care, conducted research in physical activity promotion, and developed and delivered preventive health programs. My work has included…

• Physician at the UCBerkeley Student Health Services. I cared for students and staff in their clinic and urgent care.

• Physician Specialist with the City & County of San Francisco, various positions. I first worked as a physician with the Jail Health Services department, caring for inmates and developing/conducting a quality improvement program. I later worked part-time as an urgent care physician in one of the city’s public health clinics, serving homeless and un-insured individuals. Finally, I worked for over 10 years as a physician consultant with the Disability Evaluation and Consultation Unit of the San Francisco Department of Human Services; I was part of an interdisciplinary disability team evaluating and supporting poor and often homeless individuals disabled by chronic medical and mental health conditions towards getting them SSI support and regular housing and medical care. 

• Assistant Health Officer in Marin County from 2002-2005. I assisted the county’s Health Officer and interdisciplinary public health team in assessing community health, both infectious and chronic illnesses, and responding to priority concerns including infectious disease outbreaks. My work at the time included bioterrorism planning and preparedness and community meetings and education on various topics.

• Visiting Physician Researcher at UCSF's Institute for Health & Aging. I worked with Professor Anita Stewart, PhD, and her team who have researched and published extensively in the field of physical activity promotion. I’ve published articles on the topics of preventive medicine education and physical activity promotion and have given many presentations, including at physician Grand Rounds, on physical activity.

• Co-Director of the California Department of Health Services’ Preventive Medicine Residency. I helped to train physicians interested in careers in Preventive Medicine/Public Health, including developing a case-based learning curriculum.

• Volunteer with the UCSF Alumni Association

• Mentor to pre-medical/pre-health-degree college students. I hope to eventually be a mentor to also UCSF/other medical students and residents.

Personal

I am forever grateful to my late husband, Kirk Miller, who passed away from colon cancer in July 2019 - it is because of his support that my holistic medicine practice exists and that I can practice medicine in the way I believe it should be practiced for the long-term betterment of people’s health and lives. In my non-work hours nowadays, I spend daily time with my two teens (a son and daughter) towards raising them, despite the loss of their father, to be grounded, balanced, healthy, happy humans who also hopefully help make this world a better place. I love being physically active in and exploring the outdoors (especially cycling but also walking, hiking, jogging, playing tennis, boogie boarding, kayaking, sailing, snorkeling, scuba diving), spending time with friends, live theater, reading and writing, cooking and wine tasting. Having played piano including competitively for 8 years as a child and having been part of the a cappella group Vocal Chords in medical school, I love listening to music (of all types except heavy metal) and singing at home with my kids. I hope to one day sing again with a group and/or play piano or guitar again. Last but not least, I consider myself a spiritual person having been raised Catholic but in my older years migrating towards a more inclusive Buddhist philosophy and its emphasis on kindness and mindfulness.

Some of my history that has shaped who I am today includes having had a father who was a stained glass artist his whole life (I love glass art and all other forms of art and creative expression) and whose genes and artistic way of looking at life contributed to my creativity. Having had a mother who was from Normandy and raised me to be bilingual, I spent a lot of childhood summer time in France which lead me to love meeting and working with people of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds. I still have family in France, speak French, and love to travel near and far. The loss of my father, then husband, and then mother during the 5-year period of 2015-2020 had a profound effect on me and my sensitivity to caregiving and caregivers; I understandably struggled during these years and learned a tremendous amount and those lessons now fortunately and positively support my work with patients.

To keep myself in balance amidst a very busy life as a single/widowed working mom, I practice what I preach and start each day with some yoga, breath work and meditation. I get in some type and amount of physical activity/movement pretty much all days of the week. And I end each day with gratitude prayers. I also always keep in mind my father's sage advice "Don't forget to stop and smell the roses."

Publications:

Dannenberg, A. L.; Quinlisk, M. P.; Alkon, E; Bera, N; Cieslak, P.R.; Davis, J. P.; Kaye, K; Paul, S. M.; Rubin, JD; Sewell, CM; Touma, O. U.S. Medical Students' Rotations in Epidemiology and Public Health at State and Local Health Departments. Academic Medicine. Volume 77, Issue 8, August 2002.

Stewart, AS; Grossman, M; Bera, N; Gillis, DE; Sperber, N; Castrillo, M; Pruitt, L; McClellan, B; Milk, M; Clayton, K; and Cassady, D. Multi-level Perspectives on Diffusing a Physical Activity Promotion Program to Reach Diverse Older Adults. Journal of Aging and Physical Activity. 14(3):270-87, July 2006.

Seligman, HK; Grossman, MD; Bera, N; Stewart, AL. Improving Physical Activity Resource Guides to Bridge the Divide Between the Clinic and the Community. Preventing Chronic Disease. 2009; 6(1)

Bera, N; Stewart, AS; Kahn, J; Brown, W; Ritter, P; Bortz, W. Can a Physical Activity Promotion Program for Older Adults Save Money for Health Plans & Health Departments?