About Deborah Hanekamp
For decades my one and only career has been working as a Seeress. My worldwide clientele has been built organically through the years by word of mouth. As I grow, my offerings grow alongside me.
I was called to all things divine and esoteric since my youth and knew from a young age what I wanted to do in the world. I began facilitating healing work in 2000 and leading folks on global immersive healing retreats and pilgrimages in 2005. By the time I was twenty four, I had a large enough number of folks benefitting from our time together to warrant opening my first brick and mortar healing center in New York.
I began mentoring other emerging healers in their work but stopped in 2012 because something felt off to me. I felt like I still had so much to learn. As a young healer, I was so righteous and judgemental. I thought there was a “healed” that you could get to. I didn’t understand that the process of healing is a never ending journey. I thought everyone should do reiki and drink ayahuasca. I thought that meditation, yoga, and herbs could heal even the most broken of minds, spirits, and bodies. I thought it was my responsibility to heal people. I didn’t understand that the truth is people only heal when they are ready to. That what heals me may not work for everyone. That yes, I can see very clearly the places in people that have not healed, but I also have to respect their process. The message of my work evolved into “be your own healer” to reflect this understanding, which from a business perspective makes no sense! At the time, I thought this shift in the way I show up would equate to way less folks interested in coming to see me as the responsibility was now on them.
But in fact, the exact opposite happened.
My community evolved along with me and my work “blew up.” I started being featured in several well read press outlets and from that, a demand grew for me to begin traveling the world to facilitate Medicine Readings, Medicine Reading Ceremonies, and Retreats.
In 2017, I opened my second brick and mortar healing center in New York where I welcomed folks from all walks of life. A+ list celebrities to single moms working the night shift came in for Medicine Readings to be their own healers by connecting to the nature they are. In December 2019, on an intuitive feeling, I closed my space and switched my work to being online, another big business risk that simply felt necessary. In 2020, right as we went into the time we do not mention, my book Ritual Baths: Be Your Own Healer, published by HarperCollins, came out and I launched Space by Mama Medicine, which grew to be very successful. Yet in early 2023, my intuition spoke up with bad business advice…again, this time wanting to close the online membership to encourage the members to leave the nest and fly. It became very clear to me that a spiritual community should not surround one person and sadly, I had to listen and close it down not knowing what would be next. Just knowing I had to heed the call.
Recently I have felt as though my work as a seasoned Seeress has now seen enough moons to explore guiding emerging healers, this time, in support of their Original Essence rather than any one modality. I offer Apprentice of Original Essence and my 1:1 Medicine Readings seem to call to folks who are doing some kind of creative, healing, and visionary work in the world and in their lives and could use some support.
The years have brought me welcomed tolerance and humility. I have learned a lot from my success but even more from my failures as a healer and as a human. I hope to become more humble as I continue to grow. The things I stand for I like to do behind the scenes with no one watching. For example, I love animals and I haven’t eaten meat in over twenty years, but only the people who really know me know that.
In the past decades, no matter how many times I have wanted to give up, I don’t. I remind myself that none of this is about me. I am here in service to Life. The true master, healer, and teacher is Love and this is what the Medicine part of Mama Medicine means to me. The Medicine I speak of is Love. I try to stay close to that wisdom and let it radiate from me whether I am facilitating a Medicine Reading, gardening, or basking in a sleepy Sunday cuddle with my sweet family and my beautiful animals. And I know I still have a lot of growing to do in this way. I’m ready and willing to learn.
I give thanks, reverence, and love to all the teachers I’ve had on this path and all the healing tools I’ve picked up, but in honor and respect, I let go of these teachers and tools because they are not me and they are not mine. My greatest teachers are Nature, My Daughter, My Clients, and Life.
What has always been part of my Original Essence is that I see a lot about people when I meet them. I see the aura, the colors, and shapes around people and that is how I sense energy. I choose to focus on the good I see in people. I choose understanding over judgment. When you come for a Medicine Reading, I want you to feel like you are speaking with an old friend who can help guide you on your path of shining your unique healing light in the world by being your own healer. I’m not afraid to call you out on outdated habits and ways you are choosing fear, but it is with patience and respect for you and your process, with the intention to nurture the healing energy with you.
I hope that when we connect you feel welcome, seen, supported, and inspired. This is the Mama part of Mama Medicine; receptive, patient, nurturing, mama energy.
I’m not here to fix you because you are not broken. I am not here to tell you what you are. I believe you already know where it is you need to go and what it is you need to do. I can’t decide for you. I can only help to encourage your patience, presence, and perseverance as you find your way home to your Original Essence by being your own healer. I think we are all inherently spiritual in our own unique way and maybe what we are seeking is the love that connects us all and is ever present within each one of us.
I believe the sign of a truly spiritual person is kindness. I say this because in my early years on this path, I looked up to many shamans, healers, and teachers, but when I looked closer, was saddened by how they treated the people closest to them. I grew up in a very blue collar rural environment and met many construction workers and bartenders who had more spirituality in their pinky finger than a lot of those calling themselves guru’s or masters. I understood that my teachers are everywhere and I reached for the ones who live their lives with integrity, joy, gratitude, generosity, and humble honor.
We can heal the old wounds carried in the collective consciousness that keep us weakened and divided. My work is open to anyone who is ready to be their own healer and humbly inspire others to do the same.
I like to keep my personal life personal but I will tell you these small things… I love traveling to places that feel foreign to me, meeting people who are totally different from me with an open, humble heart, not taking anything, just learning, adoring, and appreciating the beauty in the uniqueness of this wild human experience and the love that connects us all. I love divine irony, synchronicities, and humor. I love Mother nature’s quirks represented in chickweed, porcupines and chickadees. I like impromptu dance parties, laughing and not taking myself too seriously. I love art, beauty, poetry, cooking herbal infused meals, and gardening. I feel best in a clean, intentional, and simple home environment. I don’t watch much tv or spend much time scrolling on social media. I prefer curling up on the couch with a good book and a cup of nettles tea. I like to try things that I know I will be horrible at like basketball, surfing, and chess just for the fun of being a novice. When I’m not working, I enjoy hiking and spending time with friends, family (I have a ton of first cousins and we all get along), and my sweet little core family consisting of my husband, daughter, two kitties, one dog, and about forty-five house plants. I play outside in all weather and am grateful for the nourishment and guidance of the wild.