Director of Religious Exploration

Ariel is very excited to be joining the Unitarian Universalist Church of Studio City!

She looks forward to getting to know each member and hearing more about how she may

be of service to the congregation. She is always open to feedback and suggestions from program

participants or congregants and is available for email correspondence or to schedule a phone call

or in person chat.

Ariel began her Unitarian Universalist journey at 17 when she joined a Buddhist walking

meditation group at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Morgantown in West Virginia and

has attended UU services and engaged in fellowship in WV, VA & CA. She completed her B.A.

in Theatre at West Virginia University with an emphasis in Directing & Producing. She believes

in the power of storytelling to assist humans, across millennia, make meaning of their lived

experience and create community. She is a lifetime member of the St. Andrew’s Society of Los

Angeles and has a deep appreciation for Celtic and comparative world mythology, books,

languages, cinema, comedy, art, music, dance, nature, and culinary arts.

Ariel will soon graduate from Antioch University Los Angeles with a Clinical

Psychology M.A., specializing in psychological trauma treatment. She is interested in Eco-

psychology and believes in the magic of communing with nature to restore, heal, and tend to the

Soul. She enjoys a Jungian infused approach and an interest in Child Psychology that pairs well

with religious exploration and recovery from religious trauma. She has worked as an events

manager at the Santa Barbara Zoo, The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and The Chrysler

Museum of Art. She has taught children’s theatre and taken coursework in creative dramatics,

child development, as well as child and adolescent psychology. In the Fall, she will begin

working towards her PhD in Mythology and Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute in

Santa Barbara, CA.