About Arielle
A path shaped by many disciplines, unified by a commitment to wholeness.
Rabbi Arielle Hanien PsyD SEP
Arielle's therapeutic work is highly skilled. As a therapist, she is engaging, contactful, present, and empathetic. I highly recommend her as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner.
The Path Here
My journey to this work has not been straight, and I consider that its deepest strength. Before I became a therapist, before I was ordained as a rabbi, I studied physics — the laws that govern how matter and energy move through the universe. I studied sociology — how human beings organize themselves, and what happens when those structures fail. I studied philosophy and women's studies — the questions of meaning, power, and the stories we tell about who we are. I studied peace — not as an abstraction, but as a practice.
Each of these disciplines lives in my clinical work. When I sit with a client, I am drawing on all of it: the physicist's attention to what is actually happening in the system, the sociologist's awareness of context, the philosopher's willingness to stay with unanswerable questions, the peacemaker's faith that resolution is possible even in the most entrenched conflicts — including the internal ones.
My life-long interest in understanding the human experience of brokenness and well-being for individuals and collectives led me to study various languages and disciplines including Physics, Sociology, Philosophy, Women's Studies, Peace Studies, and the Jewish rabbinic tradition. I interweave insights and practices from all these human endeavors to enrich my understanding of how we can live with meaning, wholeness, and joy even in a world of brokenness.
My private practice in counseling (English & Hebrew) blossomed out of my spiritual practice and my work in the community, as people gravitated to this mindful, compassionate approach to an integrated spiritual and somatic practice.
My approach is to empower my clients, utilizing interventions congruent with their belief system and worldview, drawing on their framework of meaning and inviting them to draw upon my expertise in ways that nourish their healing, resilience, and growth.
Inspired by Gestalt, psychoanalytic, and somatic modalities, I integrate Jewish tradition when this is requested, and other spiritual traditions that speak to our shared human experiences.
My intuition as a therapist is informed by continuous reading, study and thought, always with my clients in mind. I enjoy and nourish my own practice with deep work in diverse disciplines and cultures, attending workshops and trainings, consulting and supervising peers, reading and studying, as well as my own ongoing personal experience of spirituality, bodywork, and therapy.
Training and Credentials
I hold a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (PsyD), rabbinic ordination, and certification as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP). These are the formal markers of a training that has been, in truth, a lifelong integration.
My clinical training is grounded in evidence-based approaches to trauma treatment. My SE training under Peter Levine and senior faculty gave me a language for what the body knows. My rabbinic training gave me a framework for the sacred within the broken.
What Shapes My Work
I believe that the therapist's presence matters as much as their technique. I have spent years cultivating the capacity to be fully here — to stay grounded in the face of another person's pain without collapsing into it, to remain curious when the easy explanations don't hold, to hold the tension between knowing and not-knowing.
I speak English and Hebrew. I have lived across cultures and traditions, and I bring that breadth to my understanding of what healing looks like in different contexts.
Credentials & Background
Rabbi
Ordained in the Jewish rabbinic tradition, integrating spiritual wisdom with clinical practice.
PsyD — Clinical Psychology
Doctoral-level clinical training in evidence-based trauma treatment and psychological assessment.
SEP — Somatic Experiencing
Certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, trained under Peter A. Levine PhD and senior faculty.
Interdisciplinary Foundation
Formal study in Physics, Sociology, Philosophy, Women's Studies, and Peace Studies.
Rabbi Dr. Arielle addresses the human condition with great love and understanding. She is both aware of the worst of human suffering, while at the same time holding up a torch to light the way. Educated, culturally sensitive, and inclusive, she is an extraordinary listener — congruent and present in all ways possible — somatically, emotionally and spiritually. Even while going into the deep realm of the psyche with her, the effect tends to be uplifting. Rabbi Arielle especially understands the place of symbols and metaphors in healing. I trust her to earn your trust and to take you far into wellness.
The Name
SourceWisdom reflects my belief that the deepest wisdom is already within you. My role is not to provide answers from the outside, but to help you access the knowing that lives in your body, your breath, your lived experience. The source of healing is not somewhere else. It is here, in the place where your pain and your wisdom meet.SourceWisdom reflects my belief that the deepest wisdom is already within you. My role is not to provide answers from the outside, but to help you access the knowing that lives in your body, your breath, your lived experience. The source of healing is not somewhere else. It is here, in the place where your pain and your wisdom meet.
I'd be glad to hear from you