Ariah L. Keller

Ariah L. Keller passed away peacefully on July 6, 2022, at the age of 65. Ariah was a devoted mother, a beloved sister, an artist, a true friend, and a deep confidante for so many in her community as a Marriage and Family Therapist.

Ariah, born December 10, 1956, grew up in Glencoe, Illinois with her mother Doris Jean, father William, twin sister Jai, and siblings John and Shona. Originally Cindy, she would come to self-adopt the name Ariah, which suited her far better. She graduated from New Trier East High School in 1975 and completed her undergraduate education at the University of Denver. In high school and college, she studied abroad in Aix-en-Provence, France and Leysin, Switzerland, and had a lifelong love for languages and traveling. She would often switch between speaking French, to English, to Spanish for fun.

Ariah earned her first master's degree in Massachusetts from Lesley College, focusing on Holistic Health and Body-Centered Psychotherapies. She later moved to northern California and completed a second master's degree in Clinical Psychology, with an emphasis on Children and Families, from John F. Kennedy University. Ariah was an extraordinarily compassionate and caring therapist with more than 30 years of experience in the mental health and healthcare field. She changed many lives through her wisdom, direct strength of truth, and open loving heart that saw the very best in and truly cared about her clients, who loved her.

Ariah was a proud, loving, and extraordinary mother to her son, Cameron, who she raised single-handedly in the Healdsburg, California wine country. Together, they lived with a host of beloved family pets, including Bella, Stripes, Patches, Ani, and Beasley.

In her final year, after nearly four decades in California, Ariah returned to Massachusetts to be closer to her "sororal" twin sister, Jai, and for the next big and beautiful chapter of her life. She was very excited to devote herself to painting and writing. After learning she had cancer, she spent her last months with immense grace, living her life to its fullest in the loving company of her son and sister.

She loved people and other cultures, beauty in nature and art, a frequent bar of dark chocolate, and her wonderful pets, like her dogs Seja and Bella. Ariah was a beautiful person inside and out, with a deep integrity, resilient spirit, and ability to connect with everyone she met on a unique level. She was unbelievably strong, incredibly generous, immensely loving, and infinitely wise. Ariah made the world a better and more beautiful place, and she is truly loved and deeply missed by her family, friends, clients, and all those she touched in her extraordinary life.

A website tribute to honor Ariah's life will go live at ariahlkeller.com this spring.

Published in Healdsburg Tribune · December 13, 2022