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Daniella DeVarney

@danielladevarney

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Harvard MA | Psych Teaching Fellow |
Mind-Body Therapy & Education🧠🚶‍♀️

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

• A NEW Wednesday Night Class:
at @enter.theoasis beginning September 2.
Monday night class @fourmoonsspa and always breathing w @ourbreathcollective.

• Embodied Resilience for Teens:
a small group experience for high-school girls, bringing together psychology, nervous system education, and embodied practice.

• A Therapeutic Photography Experience: a new way to explore identity, patterns, and “being seen”.

• Emotional Well-Being From the Inside Out: back at Harvard for the fall semester assisting this course and sharing one weekly idea, study, tool or takeaway.

More on each of these soon.🤍 taken in Encinitas, California by @danielladevarney

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2 months ago

I’m thrilled to announce the launch of The Contemplative and Integrative Health Center (CIH), @cih_center, a nonprofit bringing together everything I love! Contemplative practice, research, and community care.

This vision began with a question I kept asking myself: how can we make these practices more accessible AND do more research? Especially with women…

Inspired by collaborating with organizations like @b4bc, @hhpfoundation, and @paving.wellness and by women who lead with purpose like my mentor, @bethfrates.md and @tanyabentley - CIH bridges practice, science, and community connection.

Soon, we’ll share community classes, research projects, and ways to get involved.

Please follow along, visit our site, or reach out to collaborate, volunteer, or support our mission through engagement and donations.

This is just the beginning.
Better together,
D by @danielladevarney

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a year ago

Week 2: Emotional Well-Being From the Inside Out
Theme: Physical Activity

I’m sure you already know how good physical activity is for your brain, heart, mood, metabolism, sleep, stress, bones, and recovery… but how can we make it sustainable?

Three ideas:

1. Make it automatic.✔️
Think of movement like brushing your teeth. You don’t renegotiate it every day. You just do it.✔️

2. Make it joyful.💃🏄🏽
What did you love doing as a kid? Swimming, hiking, surfing, climbing, skating, dancing? Go back to something that feels good.

3. Make it social.🚶‍♀️🚶🏼‍♂️
Walk with a friend. Join a class, group, team, or club. Connection makes consistency easier.

Automatic. Joyful. Social.

It’s not about exercising more, it’s about building a relationship with movement that we enjoy and want to keep doing. 🚶🏼‍♂️🏄🏼‍♀️🤸⚽️🧗‍♂️💃 taken in Encinitas, California by @danielladevarney

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a month ago

Yayy, fall semester has begun and I’m back assisting my favorite psych course, Emotional Well-Being from the Inside Out. (Yes, for a second, I forgot which course. 😂)

For Week 1, I’m sharing the framework that guides the semester: PAVING STEPSS, a mnemonic for some core lifestyle/ behavioral practices that support emotional well-being. I also use many of these principles in my private practice and teaching- I care about this work.

Over the next four months, I’ll share little gems from different weeks of the semester: ideas, research, practices, etc.

For Week 1, the framework itself feels like enough:

P — Physical Activity
A — Attitude
V — Variety
I — Investigation
N — Nutrition
G — Goals

S — Stress Management
T — Time-Outs
E — Energy
P — Purpose
S — Sleep
S — Social Connection by @danielladevarney

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2 months ago

Wednesday, 5:30pm. Come move with Daniella. 🌟

Twenty-five years ago, yoga found her as a way to heal. She never left.

Now a health psychologist and lifestyle medicine practitioner — Harvard and UCLA trained — she teaches from the place where contemplative practice meets nervous system science. Yoga, breathwork, functional movement, stillness. Practical. Human. All levels.

📍 Enter The Oasis, Encinitas
🔗 Link in bio to book taken in Encinitas, California by @danielladevarney

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2 months ago

I was on my first podcast… a year and a half ago, lol! With the incredibly talented @robyncohenactingstudio

We talk about all things movement, breath, wellness walks, the arts, my own breathwork study, and the science that supports what I believe and practice personally and professionally.

These embodied practices became a healing journey for me and a pathway to something so much bigger- the belief that the body has to be included in healing, growth, creativity, and human evolution not just to survive, but to thrive!

Check my stories for the full episode.
The Daily Joyride Podcast with Robyn Cohen. by @danielladevarney

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3 months ago

Stoked to be speaking on the Mental Health in Sports panel for Women in Sports Day-advocating for young women athletes and the importance of balance in performance.

Like with any client I work with, I’ll be sharing resilience through the lens of the 6 Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine. Because mental health in sports isn’t just mindset- it’s sleep, recovery, nourishment, stress regulation, movement, connection, play, and purpose. This is strategy.

What’s also cool? it falls on my birthday. Last year I was presenting my research at the International Congress on Integrative Health and this year, I get to support young female athletes. It’s natural to look for meaning on our birthdays and this feels like a perfect reminder that I’m right where I belong. beginning the next lap around the sun doing something I love.

Grateful. 💗#lifestylemedicine #healthpsychology #psychology #nervoussystemregulation #womenathletes by @danielladevarney

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8 months ago

Two women will receive three months of weekly sponsored therapy/coaching through CIH, offered as walking-and-talking sessions or remotely. Please fill out the application if this support feels aligned for you.

Please share this with anyone who may benefit from supported care right now.
Apply for scholarship via the link in bio 👉 @cih_center.

#wellnesswalks #walking #somaticspychology #psychology #breathwork #walkingforpeace #therapy #lifestylemedicine #scholarship taken in Encinitas, California by @danielladevarney

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9 months ago

Why would I fly across the country with one of my best friends to witness the Buddhist monks’ “Walk for Peace”? @walkforpeace.usa. The most meaningful reason is friendship and synergy. When something becomes more than the sum of its parts and grows stronger when done together, which is exactly what this peace walk is demonstrating. This mission wouldn’t have been the same alone. Chasing them across the boonies of South Carolina with no plan, no place to stay, and finally witnessing and walking behind them together. The experience holds more meaning because it was shared through witnessing, being witnessed, resonance, reflection, and building lifelong memories in real time.

@laurendollieduke and I have been walking and figuring out life together for years. To have a friend who is as lit up by something, who is a full YES to experiences that feel aligned, challenging, meaningful, and alive is rare, and I don’t take it for granted. Synergistically, we’ve been adding value, inspiration, and joy to each other’s lives for a long time.

Moreover, walking has become a central theme in both of our lives, parallel but different. This year begins my 5th year of Wellness Walks with clients, along with walking daily on my own because I believe that movement, presence, and mindfulness practices matter for our happiness and healing. I also started a nonprofit this year @cih_center dedicated to sharing these wellness practices on a larger scale. Lauren has walked the Camino with her family for the past two years and has written a book about how long-distance walking (pilgrimages) can facilitate healing within families, “This Walk Will Change You”, coming out this year!

As for the monks and Aloka, being in their presence is hard to put into words. Like most things, it’s an energy that’s worth experiencing in person- a sense of steadiness, gentleness, lightness, joy, and devotion. Their message is simple: peace begins with YOU, your daily mindful habits, and your family.

To me, this walk is also a reminder that peace isn’t something we get or arrive at; it’s about consistency, repetition, commitment & small daily choices. And sometimes, doing it together is better. taken in South Carolina, USA by @danielladevarney

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9 months ago

In October, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I’ve had the privilege over the past 3 years of leading breathwork, yoga, and nervous system education alongside other incredible facilitators at the @b4bc (Boarding for Breast Cancer) retreats in both Encinitas and Mammoth. These weekends are a sacred blend of contemplative practices, education, surfing, boarding, sound bowls, cacao ceremonies, nourishing meals, art, journaling, dancing, and women courageously sharing their stories. The synergy (MY JAM!) of community, healing, and lived experience is powerful every single time.

Being part of these retreats and countless others through the years has been a major spark behind launching my own nonprofit, The Contemplative and Integrative Health Center (CIH) @cih_center One day soon, we will offer similar opportunities: spaces where people can access community care, education, and embodied healing in a supportive, evidence-informed environment. B4BC models what true community wellness can look like, and I’m grateful for the honor of being included each year.🎀
@megsporcheron 🙏🏼, food @taramiddleton_ , photos @andiwardrop

And exciting news: CIH will be hosting its first sponsored free community yoga class in Encinitas in just a few weeks. More details coming soon. Follow to find out when! @cih_center taken in Encinitas, California by @danielladevarney

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a year ago

Event Alert! Register for our “Breathing for Resilience” with Daniella DeVarney event alongside the Veteran Student Society! It’s on Saturday, October 25th, from 12 pm to 1 pm EST. 🌱🦅🙌

Register: https://tinyurl.com/danielladevarney

#lifestyle #lifestylemedicine #harvard #harvardextensionschool #harvarduniversity #wellnessjourney #wellness by @danielladevarney

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a year ago

Many of my clients use AI tools between our sessions, and that’s great. But healing and growth go beyond words and advice. They happen through connection & reprocessing.
 In psychology, we call this a corrective experience: when an event is rewritten in the presence of someone safe. This might look like being vulnerable and being met with acceptance instead of judgement - and in that moment, the nervous system learns a new story. This is where healing and growth begin.

When walking together, steps sync, breath aligns, heartbeats settle, and nervous systems attune. It’s a place where we can gently reprocess the past while opening the door to new strength, trust, and possibility. Each step forward is both literal and symbolic. We’re moving through old patterns and into new ways of being, together.

I’m currently taking new clients. If you’re ready for healing and growth, come walk yourself to wellness with me.
#wellnesswalks taken in Encinitas, California by @danielladevarney

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a year ago