Welcome to Okan Healing Center—a serene jungle retreat designed for deep restoration of heart, mind, and soul. Just two kilometers from town and five kilometers from the beach, it offers the perfect blend of seclusion and accessibility. Designed for both retreat and exploration, this space allows you to unplug from daily life while staying connected to vibrant local culture, cleansing waters, and nearby sacred sites known for their powerful energy. Explore town, visit the beach, or journey to sacred destinations for ceremony, and contemplation. Each experience supports the healing you cultivate here.
Named after the Yoruba word for “heart,” Okan Healing Center is a sanctuary for deep connection with the divine energies of Mother Earth. We chose this name to honor all our ancestors who walk with us, the wisdom carried through the African diaspora, and the heart-centered healing that has guided our spirits across many lifetimes. We acknowledge that we are on ancestral Maya land and honor the centuries of traditions through which the Maya people have stewarded and cared for this magical jungle.
Our eco-friendly center is intentionally set off the beaten path, inviting the land itself to become part of your healing. The open-air design reduces the need for air conditioning keeping guests connected to nature while minimizing environmental impact.
At Okan, we believe healing happens in community. As we do the inner work—tending to our hearts, bodies, and relationships—we also take responsibility for healing the Earth. Our wellbeing is inseparable from the land, and together we commit to practices that restore both people and planet.
Okan Healing and Retreat Center
“Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation.” bell hooks
After six years of managing their organic farm, Hawk’s Nest Healing Gardens, Hector and Phoebe are opening Okan Healing Center. The work of healing our bodies, the land, and our communities continues from Hawk’s Nest to Okan.
Phoebe Gooding
Born in the U.S. Virgin Islands and raised in the states, Phoebe was shaped by an intergenerational household rooted in respect for resources. Phoebe holds a Master of Science in Environmental Studies and is a steward of Okan Healing Center, as well as a farmer and co-owner of Hawk’s Nest Healing Gardens. With over ten years of experience as a community organizer and five years as a Program Director, she brings a grassroots, systems-informed approach to facilitation, land stewardship, and community-centered program design.
Phoebe gives gratitude for the lessons received through all of her relationships, foremost among them her role as a mother. A heart-centered, strategic thinker, Phoebe is deeply grateful to the community that has allowed her to practice unapologetic, radical racial justice in real life. She continues to center and build on these teachings in service of collective liberation now and for future generations.
Hector Lopez
Hector Lopez has worked in several community projects focused on strengthening the social fabric through the care and regeneration of local ecosystems that allow people to achieve food autonomy for their health.
Through the planting of organic vegetables with a focus on permaculture, he has traveled part of the continent (Mexico, Ecuador, U.S.) sharing his knowledge with children at rural schools, community leaders, women in prison young people from the city and stay-at-home moms in order to empower all those who want to build a better world.
Hector is a writer and author of the novel, The Seven Stones of Creation/Las Siete Piedras De La Creación.
He shares his cultural legacy through millenary spiritual practices that he inherited from his ancestors. He is also passionate about renewable energy and music. Today he works in the triangle area in North Carolina accompanying social movements in search of social justice for the good of humanity.