Hi, I’m Ariela (she/her)

I’m a Los Angeles-based Therapist and Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 7 years of experience working with clients to center and achieve their goals for healing and change. My work is founded in the belief that everyone is deserving of feeling heard, worthy, respected, and safe, and I approach my role with an anti-oppressive, trauma-informed, and culturally-responsive lens. I strive to create an environment that is affirming, non-judgmental, and warm, where clients feel safe to be their whole, full selves.

Healing happens in relationship, including ours. I specialize in building therapeutic relationships with folks in the LGBTQIA+, Non-Binary, Poly, and Non-Monogamous communities, neurodivergent folks, new and soon-to-be parents, and creative professionals. In all my therapeutic relationships, I commit myself to building and earning your trust through humor, compassion, curiosity, and directness. I commit myself to doing my very best to know you, and understand you, and truly see you. While I am a collaborative partner in your process of growth, you are the expert in your story and life. How we work together will be guided by you, your needs, your strengths, and your pace.

Before becoming a therapist, I thought I wanted to work in theater. Telling stories has always been the way I see the world. I worked in the film/tv world and (briefly) in academia before realizing my true passion and studying social work. Now, I translate that understanding of the world through lifting up others’ stories, and helping my clients disentangle, embody, and sit in their own stories, as the master storytellers of their own lives. My passion for social justice comes from my parents’ histories of activism with which they raised me, my responsibility as a holder of white, cis, and class - privilege, and my Jewish background and identity, specifically through the tenet of tikkun olam – striving to make the world a better place.

Prior to living in Los Angeles, I lived in Brooklyn for 12 years. New York City still holds a huge piece of my heart, and I will never give up my New York license; I love working with NY-based clients, as well as California-based clients!

Education and Licensure

I am a graduate of Hunter College’s Silberman School of Social Work in New York City, where I earned my Master’s in Social Work. I have advanced my training in a variety of clinical settings including: a NYC DHS shelter for unhoused families, outpatient therapy for those experiencing domestic violence, mitigation/forensic social work for folks navigating the criminal-legal system, and as a PACT clinician at Ellenhorn, a robust psychiatric recovery program in NYC and LA.

Masters of Social Work, Hunter College - Silberman School of Social Work

New York State Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW #094213)

California State Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW #119590)

Training and Certificates

Emotionally Focused Therapy Externship, EFTCLA, 2024

Ackerman Institute for the Family Dual Program for couples and family therapy, 2022

Motivational Interviewing Basic Training, Ellenhorn Psychiatric Recovery, 2022

Open Dialogue: Training and Practice, Ellenhorn Psychiatric Recovery, 2021

Mentalization Based Therapy, Ellenhorn Psychiatric Recovery, 2021