We sat down with Mee Ok Icaro to discuss the role of plant medicine in coaching. A powerful voice in the world of visionary medicine and personal growth as a life purpose coach, a writer, a book Doula, a sacred medicine advisor, and integration specialist, Icaro is dedicated to helping individuals heal and find their path in life; skilled in Gabor Maté’s compassionate inquiry, a method she has personally integrated for over a decade to transform her own life.
Icaro also incorporates many teachings from a variety of traditions from ancient to modern, with over ten years of experience with sacred medicines under the guidance of indigenous healers in Peru and Nepal, as well as cutting-edge Western practitioners ranging from Dr. Maté to Harvard specialists overseeing the latest psychedelic trials. With a passion for writing and a talent for prose, Icaro is also an award-winning stylist and poet. Her work has appeared in notable publications like the LA. Times, Boston Globe Magazine, and Michael Pollan’s Trips Worth Telling anthology. She was even featured in Dr. Maté’s New York Times Bestseller, The Myth of Normal, and the Netflix docuseries [un]well.
The role of coaching in the plant medicine space
Icaro shares with us the role of coaching in plant medicine, also known as the psychedelic space, and the realm of the sacred.
“How does the world present differently when you frame the people who have hurt you most in life as your greatest teachers?” Icaro asks.
“One thing that I noticed that the plant, medicine, ethos, and coaching share is a real commitment to centering around the person and really honoring their uniqueness and meeting them where they are.”
As a coach, “You’re there to support and help bring them into their agency and their authenticity. It’s not just about the active ceremonial space. It’s the idea that life is a ceremony.”
Icaro goes on to explain that by integrating these experiences, “we’re learning how to not just leave it in what we call the moloca, which is where the active medicine[…] takes place, but rather the world becomes our temple, in other words.”
Many times, these experiences with the plants will bring up some difficult memories—some somatic sites of trauma—and it’s very important to have a therapist there to support you and help you work those things out. But just as we know in coaching there is that line; that difference between coaching and therapists and therapy. Therapy to me is so great to help you function, to understand why you are the way you are, to understand behavioral patterns and so forth. But so much of it is focused on the path, on the past, and helping you to function in the present. Whereas to me, coaching is really about goal setting and the future and the joy and the promise of becoming who you are and fulfilling your purpose.
How plant medicine plays a role in coaching
Plant medicine in coaching is about integration. “And that’s the thing that’s unique to every person. Every person’s ceremonies are
different. It’s also about really staying connected to your body and what you’re feeling, and what these plants do that’s so amazing is, they greatly increase your awareness.”
“So when you’re working with these plant medicines, they really open you in a way that’s very difficult to get to as an adult in a society that’s very go, go, go! In many ways, it brings you back to your essence. In a way you become more child-like without becoming more childish, and it actually allows you to grow,” explains Icaro, “because so often we get caught up in our minds and what we think we should be doing.”
That’s where coaching comes in. “What do you do with all of this new information? Howdo you process it? What does it mean for your life? And when you have more information, you probably don’t want to live life as usual. We want to make moves. And so coaching can be a really beautiful tool in that space when someone is so open and so connected.”
“It’s also an expansion of awareness outside of ourselves to others,” teaches Icaro, who runs retreats and supports others writing books about their experiences with plant medicine, alongside her regular coaching practice.
If you are interested in taking the conversation a little further, visit holdingcompassionate.space to learn more about Icaro’s work and offerings, the retreat, and the different plant medicines. She is always happy to meet with people for a short 20-minute consultation to see how she can support them and answer questions. And most importantly, “to tell them that they’re doing amazing!”
