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 apprenticeship with Maestra Maricela and Maestro Francisco, 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 and niwe rao.

Now I bring people to the family who saved my life. 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) is an award-winning writer, plant medicine guide, life purpose coach, 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. To learn more about her writing, visit Mee-ok.com.