ALL THINGS DVN

Most people are not deceived by the world around them. They are deceived by the picture they assembled of it, and they defend that picture the way people defend things they cannot afford to lose. The confidence that comes from having already decided what is true is one of the most expensive things a person can carry, because it makes looking unnecessary, and looking is the only thing that was ever...

This episode is a life update wrapped in a revelation. I am opening up about where I have really been, the work I paused to take care of my mental health, the website remodel that has consumed my behind the scenes hours, and the honest truth about why my socials went quiet when I needed to be consistent the most. Then I tell you about the moment that shifted everything. A simple Google search, a w...

What if the exhaustion you cannot explain has nothing to do with how hard you are working and everything to do with what you have been positioned to carry? In this episode of The Codex, Ericka Dontello introduces the ALKYMĒ™ CODEX — an original clinical framework built at the intersection of holistic psychology, neurosomatic practice, and the labor systems that shape human identity. This is not a...

Today we discuss what it looks like to build something meaningful when the people around you have already decided who you are. We talk about why support rarely arrives from the places we expect, how the opinions others form about us can quietly begin to shape the way we move, create, and show up in our own work, and what becomes possible when we stop spending energy trying to earn approval from pe...

In this episode, I introduce the ALKYMĒ Flow, the core framework that lives at the center of my work and guides how I understand transformation across mind, body, and lived experience. This is not a conversation about productivity, mindset, or fixing yourself. It is an orientation into how change actually moves through a human life, why so many people feel exhausted or confused during transitions,...

What starts as a casual trivia night turns into a quiet lesson about power, voice, and what happens when control shows up where collaboration was expected. In this episode, I unpack how dismissiveness hides inside humor, apology, and charm, and how easily good vibes can be used to excuse behavior that doesn’t sit right. We talk about role seizure versus true authority, why confidence and intellige...

In this episode, I share a deeply personal experience that changed the way I understand advocacy, consent, and care inside medical spaces. What began as a routine dental visit turned into a moment where my body was signaling distress and my voice was repeatedly dismissed, forcing me to confront how often patients are expected to endure pain rather than be listened to. This conversation is not abou...

This episode begins with a number, but it quickly becomes something else entirely. .69 cents is not a story about money, and it is not a story about lack. It is a story about the moment a pattern reveals itself fully, when giving without awareness reaches its end, and when a role you have been living inside of no longer has permission to continue. In this episode, I walk through the deeper archite...

In this episode of All Things DVN, we’re sitting together and talking honestly about why this time of year can feel confusing, emotional, or unfinished, even when the calendar is telling everyone to move on. We walk through what the Year of the Wood Snake actually is, why it does not reset on January first, and how it overlaps with what I call the Deep Winter Passage in my own framework. If you’ve...

In this episode, we are stepping into the Deep Winter Passage and talking honestly about why this season feels so intense for so many people. Winter brings emotions, memories, and patterns to the surface in a way that catches people off guard, and my intention today is to give you language for what is happening inside you so you can stop blaming yourself for what is simply part of this cycle. We w...

In this episode, I open the pages of my book The Fat Black Ugly Girl and talk about the conditioning that shaped my voice, my identity, and the roles I learned to play long before I understood I was playing them. I walk you through how code switching became my survival language, not just in work spaces, but in my own culture and family, and how therapy invited me to explore what it means to un-cod...

In this episode, I bring you into a story I've never shared, a story that quietly shaped the entire architecture of my work. When I was a little girl, I spent hours drawing homes on college-ruled lined paper and filling them with tiny stick figures as they moved through each room. I thought it was childhood imagination. I didn't know it was the beginning of DVN THEREPE. Today, I take you into that...

In this episode of All Things DVN, we talk about what it really means when the body keeps score. We break down how unprocessed emotion, unspoken truth, and patterns that never got their closure begin to live in the body as energy. You’ll hear how memory becomes matter, how the conscious and subconscious mind shape our responses, and why your body is not against you. It is trying to protect you and...

In this episode, we are talking about what it really means to manifest beyond survival. For most of my life, I manifested from a place of need. I was calling in safety, stability, and enough to get by. My body only knew how to pray for relief, not joy. I share how joining the To Be Magnetic community and starting the Money Challenge helped me see the deeper truth about manifesting. It is not just...

It’s the final stretch of the year, and this moment is asking us to rise with intention. In this surprise mini episode, Ericka drops in to remind you that the fourth quarter is not just about finishing strong, it’s about finishing true. She shares where she’s been, the lessons this season has carried, and how her work continues to evolve through her writing and creative projects. Together, we refl...

EPISODE 50 — WE MADE IT, BABY This is more than a milestone. Fifty episodes deep, I’m reflecting on where ALL THINGS DVN began, what it’s become, and what it’s awakening next. I’m sharing the risks I took, the truths I’ve lived, and the stories that cracked something open in me first before they ever touched anyone else. You’ll hear the episodes that changed me, the hardest moments I almost didn’t...

In this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on what happens when you finally stop performing, stop explaining, and stop waiting for permission to be who you already are. I’m talking about the moment you realize you’ve been carrying opinions that don’t belong to you, expectations that never fit, and a silence that cost too much. This is about choosing peace over pretending, truth over performance...

In this episode, I take you into the moments we pretend not to hear. The birthday party where I wasn’t truly wanted. The quiet sting of being mocked at the dinner table. And the way I learned to rewrite reality to avoid the deeper truth that some people never intended to love me the way I deserved. We talk about the cycle of silence, illusion, and rage that so many of us carry. I name the protecti...

In this intimate episode, I share the story of my red glitter jelly shoes, a memory that holds more than just childhood nostalgia. It carries the silent scars of longing, unspoken promises, and the subtle ways we learn to shrink ourselves to fit into spaces that never truly fit us. Join me as I explore how these early wounds shape the subconscious mind and show up in our adult relationships and fr...

In this episode of ALL THINGS DVN , we’re talking about the cage. The one you might be living in without even realizing it. The pressure to perform. The fear of being seen. The weight of financial stress, perfectionism, and feeling like your dreams are always just out of reach. I open up about what it looked like for me to fight my way out. Not with dramatic exits, but with quiet acts of consisten...

So many of us carry a survival mentality that tells us we have to suffer to succeed. It is a quiet programming passed down through generations, watching loved ones work themselves to exhaustion, never pausing to care for their mind, body, and spirit. In this episode, I break down how this story traps us in burnout and overwhelm and why it is time to rewrite the narrative. Success can be rooted in...

You are no longer in a season of playing small or sitting in the shadows of your own life. This is not the warmup. This is not the sidelines. This is the moment where you recognize that your presence, your gift, and your power were never meant to wait for permission. You are on varsity now, which means the way you move, the way you lead, and the way you carry your calling has shifted. The energy i...

In this episode, I speak from a deeply personal place about the emotional complexity of loving someone who lives with mental illness. This conversation is for those who carry the unspoken weight—the ones who give support quietly, who navigate the emotional shifts, who feel the light flicker on and off in someone they love and still choose to stay. There is often no recognition for the steady prese...

We’ve all heard the phrase — “Put your oxygen mask on first.” But how often do we actually live that truth? In this deeply honest episode, we explore the quiet ways we abandon ourselves in the name of love, loyalty, and survival. From personal heartbreak to the sacred act of boundary-setting, she invites you into the tender, raw reckoning of what it really costs to give from an empty cup. This isn...

At first, it feels like a dream — intoxicating affection, overwhelming attention, a sense of being finally seen . It begins with fireworks — a symphony of promises, affection spun like silk, a flood of words we longed to hear. But sometimes, what feels like magic is the prelude to heartbreak and behind the whirlwind is a different reality: love bombing isn’t love; it’s manipulation dressed in devo...