Who Do You Think You Are? Between Languages, Between Selves: a Conversation with Aviya Gavriel, Accent Coach & Psychology Mind

What happens to confidence when your voice crosses languages?
In this episode, Aviya Gavriel, Israeli-born accent coach and psychology student based in Los Angeles, joins me to talk about the space between our native and adopted selves, and what it takes to feel at home in both.

We trace her story from a small Israeli village and Orthodox schooldays to an LA adolescence of “matcha and drama.” Aviya shares how she first became fascinated by speech after silently watching a professor’s mouth move, and how studying psychology later helped her understand the link between ego, learning, and voice.

Together, we talk about:
• why slowing down can change not only how you sound, but how you feel;
• how Hebrew and English pull the voice (and the self!!) in different directions;
• the moment confidence stops being ego and starts being awareness;
• the idea of “making yourself a rabbi”: finding a teacher who can hold your uncertainty;
• how forgiveness, even for small classroom humiliations, can free the voice years later.

It’s a grounded, generous conversation about belonging, self-perception, and the psychology behind how we speak - an exploration of what it means to sound like yourself in every language you live in.