Dr. Rosita Arvigo, a native of Chicago, is a naprapathic physician, herbalist, international lecturer, and author of 10 books. She's lived in remote areas of Mexico and Belize for over 40 years, where she studied with many traditional healers — the most notable being Don Elijio Panti, the renowned Maya shaman of Belize, and midwife/herbalist Hortence Robinson, both recipients of the coveted National Living Treasure Award. She and her husband, Dr. Greg Shropshire, founded Ix Chel Tropical Research Centre in Belize, an organization dedicated to the preservation, education, and study of medicinal plants in the rainforest. They founded the Belize Association of Traditional Healers, Bush Medicine Camp for Children, The Rainforest Medicine Trail, and Rainforest Remedies, an herbal concentrate company. In 1987, with Dr. Michael Balick of The New York Botanical Garden, they founded the Belize Ethnobotany Project to record and archive the uses of medicinal plants in Belize.

Rosita is founder of The Arvigo Institute and The Abdominal Therapy Collective, which train teachers and practitioners in abdominal therapy and Maya spiritual healing. Now retired from clinical practice, she divides her time between The Abdominal Therapy Collective and teaching in Belize, Mexico, and the U.S. Rosita offers free annual medicinal plant workshops for locals and foreign residents of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.