Mee Ok Icaro

I’m a Korean adoptee and abuse survivor who was bedridden for three years and in a wheelchair for five with terminal scleroderma. After Western medicine had nothing left to offer, I found my way to the Peruvian Amazon.

A Shipibo family met me broken, almost dead, and became the first people who didn’t exploit my vulnerability – they only sought to help. That was nearly a decade ago.

I’ve been in a 10-year healing journey with Maestra Maricela Rios inuma, training in the tradition of an onaya (Shipibo healer) in order to become a master facilitator and sacred ally. I’ve completed dietas with 10 master plants and am currently completing two simultaneous year-long dietas with noya rao, niwe rao, and a magnet. Recently, I have been invited to train as a maestra.

Now I bring people to the family who saved my life and apprentice with them upon their invitation. I facilitate retreats at Inin Nete Sacred Healing Center, offer ceremony preparation and integration guidance, and walk with writers in telling their stories.

Mee Ok Icaro (Shipibo name Inkanñabhi “Inca Daughter of the Marosa”) is an award-winning writer, sacred medicine facilitator and guide, and co-founder of Inin Nete Sacred Plant Medicine Healing Center. Her work has appeared in notable publications like the LA Times, Boston Globe Magazine, and Michael Pollan’s Trips Worth Telling anthology. She was featured in Gabor Maté’s New York Times bestseller The Myth of Normal and the Netflix docuseries [Un]Well.

Mee Ok holds a BA in Philosophy from Boston University and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction, and has studied the history of sexuality, medicine, and German at Harvard. She is an IFC certified life coach, and a member of the Institute of Coaching based at McLean Hospital, a member of Mass General Brigham, and the largest psychiatric affiliate of Harvard Medical School. To learn more about her writing, visit Mee-ok.com.