A decade-long battle with opiate addiction led Deena to Iboga in 2012. The miracle she experienced completely shattered her addictive patterns, as well as the illusions that had been conditioned into her reality, and from that point on, death became life and life became magic. She had the honour of traveling to Gabon, Africa in 2015, where she completed a Full Initiation into the Bwiti tradition, and became one of the first nine Western women ever to undergo a Womens' Bwiti Rites of Passage. She then co-founded IbogaJourney and dedicated her life to serving the medicine to many courageous souls.

Her greatest achievement came three years ago, when she became Mama to a sweet Iboga baby boy, Atlas. At this time, the medicine gave her clear instruction to stop serving in ceremony and focus on her role as a mother. But her soul contract with Iboga is to be in service always, in all ways. Today, her dedication to Iboga has merely shifted. She offers 1-to-1 sessions via Zoom, curated for both pre-ceremony preparation, and post-ceremony integration. For those interested in continuing on the Iboga path long after the active journey, also available are deeper 1-to-1 dives, focused on traditional Bwiti-based guidance and Iboga-channeled divining sessions.

Her service to the plant medicine community, through these sessions, is the ability to hold space and offer channeled guidance in any frequency. Deena is no stranger to the darkness, and understands her own traumas have given her the ability to show up for individuals who are moving through the intense, heavy parts of the spiritual path. The only way out is through. If we meet darkness in its depth, without fear and with full commitment, the other side of that journey yields light as bright as the dark was black.

Deena’s next steps include a videocast @truth.cast about Iboga and all things truth, as well as a book (11 years in the making) about her personal journeys with Iboga, her Initiation and Rites of Passage in Africa with the Bwiti, and as a provider of this profoundly sacred medicine.

“If you are reading this, you are the answer to your ancestor’s prayers. You are the one in your lineage who has been chosen to do the work. To break cycles, to do the healing for your ancestors, for the future generations, for the planet, for all our relations.”

Shaman Grandmother Kaariina Saarinen, Life and Spiritual Mentor to Deena