SEI FACULTY 2026
Ariel Giarretto BEG Level Only
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.
SEI FACULTY 2027
Shideh Lennon
SEP, Ph.D
Clinical Psychlogist
Shideh Lennon is a licensed clinical psychologist (NY, VA), Somatic Experiencing® faculty, and consultant in private practice in the beautiful Hudson Valley of New York.
Shideh’s work and teachings are centered in shared humanity, collaboration, warmth, and compassion. From that bedrock Shideh uses her many years of experience in relational psychotherapy and Somatic Experiencing® to uncover the nervous system’s innate ability to reset and heal no matter the extent of trauma.
Shideh received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology more than 25 years ago from Adelphi University’s Gordon F. Derner Institute and completed her Somatic Experiencing® training several years later. She has additional training in Integral Somatic Psychology and Inner Relationship Focusing. Shideh is also a long-time practitioner of Zen and Mindfulness meditation which brings added depth to her teachings.
Born in Iran, Shideh and her family left the country and immigrated to the U.K. in her early adolescence after the Iranian revolution in 1979, before settling on the East Coast of the United States.
Shideh truly loves her work and feels fortunate to be able to give back to her students and clients the deep healing she has found in her own life. She feels most herself when she is teaching, cooking/baking, and laughing.
Somatic Experiencing International Faculty
SEI Faculty
Adv Level - 1, June 1-6, 2028
Level 2, Nov 2-7, 2028
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.