About Me

I’m Irena Nayfeld, Ph.D. I go by Namyrah.
 

My story is not a linear one. It has emerged from lived experience — an ongoing, intentional unfolding toward what feels true.
 

I spent years deeply trained in psychology and human development, while living largely disconnected from my body. For a long time, I lived in chronic pain, carrying personal and generational trauma I had not yet learned to name, and a persistent inner sense that both my personal life and professional path were not quite my own.
 

More and more, I sensed how standard definitions of productivity, success, and human worth conflicted with my own values — both for myself and for the children and adults with whom I worked.
 

What I was being asked to model and uphold on the outside felt increasingly misaligned with what I knew, felt, and longed for on the inside.
 

After years of health challenges and exhaustion with conventional approaches that offered little relief, it became clear that living disconnected from my inner world was no longer possible.
 

What began as a desire to feel better became a much deeper initiation — back into my body, my life force, my intuition, and my truth.
 

Reconnecting with what I had long suppressed opened a path of profound unlearning and remembering: leaving academia, releasing internalized patterns, reclaiming self-trust, and learning to live from soul rather than obligation.

This path reshaped how I live, work, and show up in the world. It taught me to trust what the body knows, to honor what cannot be measured, and to live in devotion to the sacred within us — and all around us.
 

How I Work
 

My work is grounded in human development, guided by embodiment, intuition, and relational presence.
 

Weaving psychology, somatics, and soul into poetry, facilitation, and guidance, I support people in reconnecting with embodied wisdom and restoring the emotional, relational, and creative capacities that allow us to live and work rooted in what truly matters.
 

Whether through one-to-one mentorship, group experiences, or organizational partnerships, my role is to create spaces where people slow down, listen beneath the noise, and experiment with ways of being and leading that feel more honest, connected, and alive.
 

Training & Education
 

I hold a Ph.D. and M.S. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Miami,with fellowships and postdoctoral training with Princeton University, Stanford University, and New York University.
 

For over a decade, I worked in schools, community agencies, universities, and educational organizations — designing and facilitating developmentally informed, culturally responsive, human-centered curricula and professional development for children, parents, and educators.
 

My own path toward wholeness led me into training in somatics and holistic healing. I am a Certified Feminine Embodiment Coach, Certified Somatic & Emotional Release Practitioner, and Certified Forest Therapy Guide, with ongoing training in somatics, relational awareness, energetic attunement, and embodied social justice.
 

I hold these credentials lightly — as foundations that inform my work, not as definitions of who I am.
 

Some Human Nuggets
 

I practice holding identity lightly, too.
Some that often feel relevant are: daughter, sister, aunt, poet, dancer, immigrant, refugee, queer, gender-expansive, Jewish, highly sensitive, neurocomplex, silly / sacred human.
 

I deeply love live music, movement, swimming in wild water, books and cozy nooks, wandering in wild places (preferably barefoot), and soulful gathering with loved ones.
 

I am shaped by many lands, cultures, and people. I speak Russian, English, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese, and feel most at home in places where many roads meet.
 

I am here for liberation, joy, and justice — not as ideals, but as lived, embodied practice.
 

I can (and will) dance forever.