Deeply rooted in the body and the arts, Arielle received her Bachelor’s degree in integrative physiology and art from CU Boulder before answering the call to pursue her Master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling with an emphasis in expressive arts therapy from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. Within the expressive arts, Arielle specializes in body-oriented modalities including dance/movement as well as dramatic enactment, visual artmaking and writing. She offers clinical experience as a group and individual therapy intern at McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA on the trauma/dissociative disorders unit as well as the generalized anxiety/depression unit where she provided care for adults primarily with histories of trauma, trauma-related personality disorders and PTSD with co-occurring anxious, depressive, dissociative and addictive diagnoses. Her therapeutic background also has roots in grief work, mindfulness and spirituality.

Arielle’s clinical foundation in acute trauma care lends her a balance of stabilizing approaches with her innate inclination for depth-oriented work. She understands from both personal and professional experience the trauma from which compulsive and addictive behaviors often develop and function to protect the self. Her belief in the body’s natural inclination towards life and the wisdom of the human heart and psyche engenders a deep trust within her clients’ ability to recover. The bilateral nature of Arielle’s graduate education and training allows the integration of evidence-based modalities, such as CBT and DBT, with expressive practices to engage both the thinking and feeling function of each respective brain hemisphere. This approach facilitates access to what is known as the creative function in expressive therapy. As an expressive arts therapist, Arielle believes that even brief encounters with creativity in therapy translate to an increasingly creative, or effective, approach to recovery and to life.