Mimi Buttacavoli

While working as a nurse in England back in 2003, I experienced an inexplicable and inescapable calling to visit South America. I found myself volunteering as a nurse in Lima, Peru, I heard the locals talking about curanderos and shamans. These traditional medicine men sparked my interest and I went in search of knowledge of other healing modalities.

By the time I had completed a course in alternative therapies and studied herbalism with a local curandero in the mountains of Bolivia, I had a profound desire to go deeper into the relationship between sickness, healing and the spirit world. I sensed this was the reason I had been compelled to leave home.

Eventually I joined a shaman-led retreat in the Peruvian Amazon. Immediately after ingesting the healing barks of the sacred trees, I felt a deep connection with trees. The shaman offered to teach me, so for the next four and a half years I lived in the jungle and apprenticed. At the end of this time I was awarded the titles of Maestra (Master Shaman), Palera (tree specialist), and Sanangera (specialist in a healing root called Sanango). A few years later I was also given the title Maestra Ayahuasquera


In order to understand the healing qualities of each tree, I participa...

BA Adult nursing