Somatic Experiencing International Faculty
SEI FACULTY 2024 -2025
Berns Galloway
MED, CCC, SEP
From the academic perspective, Berns graduated from the University of Victoria with a Master’s in Education in 1995. He received his SEP designation in 2003 and was appointed faculty with the Somatic Experiencing Institute in 2008.
Berns has been working with people since 1980 when he started working with elementary school kids from the experiential perspective. While working in the public school systems, he challenged himself and kids to become more than they imagined by engaging in performance and theatrical endeavours. Here Berns directed, coached and encouraged others to go beyond what was possible. His personal growth led him to challenge his own limitations, leading to a career change from education to counselling/mental health/therapy – working with groups, couples, and individuals.
From a personal perspective, Berns has been exploring identity and how that impacts our experiences. As a cis-gender white gay male, Berns is becoming more familiar with the privileges and limitations these identities have had over his lifetime. How identity impacts others is something he is interested in.
Berns brings his academic, experiential and personal perspectives to the SE trainings, facilitating a bottom-up inside-out process for learning and discovery in service of becoming an effective somatic-oriented practitioner.
SEI FACULTY 2026-2027
Ariel Giarretto
SEP™, CMP, LMFT, MS
Somatic Psychotherapist, Bodyworker
Ariel Giarretto, LMFT, SEP, CMT, CSB, is an internationally known body-oriented psychotherapist, trauma specialist, and trainer. Originally educated as a psychologist, she has additional training as a sex educator and specializes in recovering from sexual abuse and sexual dysfunction. She is the co-developer of “The Full Embodiment Model,” which offers gentle, transformative workshops for people wanting to heal their relationship to their bodies, their sexuality and to intimates.
Trained in a wide variety of somatic therapies, she is primarily informed by Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing (SE), that treats the physiological effects of trauma and overwhelming events.
For 20 years, she has been a full-time SE teaching faculty, training and mentoring practitioners all over the globe. She has additional training in prenatal and birth therapy with Ray Castellino, as well as attachment and early developmental trauma. She is currently based in the Netherlands.