A year with the same small circle of people who can handle all of you. Three all-inclusive retreats, a monthly call, and a group thread for everything in between.
A room where you don't have to perform.
Held by Dr. Sherry Walling, clinical psychologist.
3
all-inclusive retreats
Four days each. Lodging, meals, and facilitation covered — you book a flight.
12
monthly small-group calls
Two hours, the same people, all year.
∞
the group thread
People who know what you’re dealing with and are there for you. No backstory required.
1
open circle
An optional fourth retreat in July. Both cohorts, plus the people you love.
What People Are Saying
The 2027 Focus
Permission
whose rules am I actually living by?
You built the thing, made the money, raised the kids well. By every external measure, you're winning. And you're still not having a very good time.
Most of us are running on rules we never actually agreed to. Rules about how much rest we've earned. About what we're allowed to want. About how much of ourselves we can bring into a room.
The achieving was supposed to buy us out of those rules. It didn't.
So this year we go looking for the rules — and then we practice setting them down.
The year moves in three parts
Where you’ve come from
January through April
You’re carrying more than you realize. Rules you never agreed to, grief you’ve been outrunning, a pace you mistook for a personality. Nothing new arrives until something moves out.
Notice where you are
May through August
Your hands are free now. This is the season of depth — with your own self first, then with the people where deeper love is possible.
Dream into what’s possible
September through December
What are you actually here to do, and do you have the nerve to do it out loud? How good can it get?
Find your room
Each cohort keeps its own rhythm — its own calls, its own retreats, its own inside jokes by March. A small group of people, chosen carefully, who’ll know your whole story by summer.
Once a year, everyone comes together.
Women’s Gathering
2027 Retreats
January 22 – 25
Cancún or the Miami area
April 8 – 11
California or the Pacific Northwest
November 8 – 11
South Central US
Monthly Call: 3rd Wednesday of each month 12.30-2.30 PM CT
Men’s Gathering
2027 Retreats
January 19-22
Cancún or the Miami area
April 11-14
California or the Pacific Northwest
November 5-8
South Central US
Monthly Call: 1st Wednesday of each month 12.30-2.30 PM CT
JULY 2027
The Open Circle
Twelve months in a closed circle. Once a year, it opens.
Four days with both cohorts, and the one retreat where you can bring the people you love — a partner, a friend, a sibling, a co-founder. Optional, and priced separately. Location announced soon.
Meet your guide, Dr. Sherry Walling.
I’m Dr. Sherry Walling—clinical psychologist, founder of ZenFounder, and long-time guide to entrepreneurs, visionaries, and high performers.
I’ve walked with founders through exits, breakdowns, reinventions, and rebirths. I’ve helped veterans rebuild their nervous systems and CEOs rediscover their joy.
I’ve walked myself through the fire of loss. After losing my father to cancer and my brother to suicide—just six months apart—I found myself unraveling. I was running a business, raising a family, and holding space for others in crisis… but barely surviving my own grief.
Circus arts helped me rediscover joy, freedom, and aliveness in ways words alone couldn’t reach. Movement reminded me how to play and how to experience my body as a powerful tool for healing. Around the same time, I began exploring sacred plant medicine, which helped me break through emotional barriers and access parts of myself that I hadn’t even realized were locked away.
I’m not a life coach with a vision board. I’m a clinical psychologist with over 20 years of experience and more than 30,000 hours supporting high-performers, creatives, and entrepreneurs. My work lives at the intersection of science and soul.
“The Gathering is my invitation to you: to come as you are, to stretch what you think is possible, and to heal in a circle of brave, brilliant humans. We work with mind, body, and spirit—through nature, movement, ceremony, and conversation—so you can return to your life more grounded, clear, and fully alive.”
Meet the Team
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Shama Kanoa Smith
CHEF
Shama cooks every meal at our retreats. The food is made from scratch, on site, and built around whatever each person needs — which at a table of twelve usually means twelve different things.
Shama cooks the way some people pray. You can taste it.
"What do I do for work? Love. My love in action looks like preparing meals in flow state, praying over the food, holding someone in wholeness. Thank you is my prayer. Life is my ceremony."
Nourishing · Present · Devoted
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Shell Closs
BODYWORK
An intuitive wellness professional with multi-modality experience, Shell’s technique restructures mobility by releasing years of accumulated fascial tension within a safe, reverent energetic container for inner journey integration.Drawing on 25 years of kinesthetic observation as a functional fitness trainer alongside deep connective tissue therapies, her practice honors an integrated approach to the physical body—reflecting the true synergy of her complementary modalities.
Prior to each session, she consults with participants to identify key focus areas and tailor the approach to their intentions. Committed to long-term holistic sustainability, she provides post-session guidance to help clients cultivate a balanced, resilient movement practice at home.
She considers it a true honor to support and nourish each individual’s well-being on their path to healing.
Anchored · Expansive · Deeply tuned
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Koreen Valdovinos
YOGA TEACHER AND DJ
Koreen Valdovinos is a multifaceted teacher, guide, healer, and wellness event producer with over two decades of experience as a yoga teacher and studio owner. She specializes in trauma-informed somatic experiences, working as a conscious dance guide, women’s circle host, Thai Yoga Bodywork practitioner, and teacher of the neo-tantric arts.Koreen’s teachings are rooted in the belief that the body is a sacred vessel to be celebrated, guiding others toward self-study and self-discovery. She is the creator of Earth Goddess Yoga, Dark Yoga plant medicine journeys, and Sound Temple Ecstatic Dance & sound baths, and is the owner of Open Minds Fusion Studio. She also serves as Music Director at Dance Church Minneapolis.
Grounded · Playful · Unafraid of your edges
It is priced as one thing because it works as one thing. The retreats open something up. The calls and the group are what keep it from closing again on the flight home.
What $1,600 a month actually covers
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Four days each. Lodging, meals, facilitation, bodywork, and ceremony — January, April, and November. You book a flight. There's no resort bill at the end.
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Two hours with the same people, all year, led by a clinical psychologist. Not a webinar.
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People who know what you’re dealing with and are there for you. No backstory required.
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Priced separately — 1:1 calls, custom ceremony for you and your loved ones. Plus the July Open Circle for the whole community.
Meaningful conversations
Embodied practices
Hiking out before sunrise
Healthy, whole meals made on site
Morning circle, under the oaks
Meals together
Rituals and sacred medicine
Sound baths
Conversations that go long
Hot tub, as the light goes
Cold plunges
Cooked from scratch, around your dietary needs
8 Agreements for The Gathering
Intention: We act with purpose. We cultivate focus, honing the ability to find the signal in a noisy world.
Creativity: We listen, risk, and refine the skills to amplify our creative abilities. We bring truth forward.
Beauty: We cultivate and celebrate beauty within and around us.
Embodiment: We honor and pursue a healthy relationship with our bodies. We move, sweat, and challenge ourselves.
Power: We step into power in all aspects of life. We take up space—and are committed to wielding power with high integrity.
Love: We willingly, recklessly commit to love—love of self, love of others and love for the whole damn world. Love is our power.
Discipline: We develop practices that move us into mastery. From breathwork to dieta to meditation, to our specific creative medium, we put in the hours to enjoy the freedom that comes from excellence.
Play: We don’t take anything too seriously. Adventurous mischief is part of our DNA. Joy is the engine, laughter is the fuel. Our wheels are made of dancing.
FAQs
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Twelve days of all-inclusive retreat — lodging, meals, facilitation, ceremony, everything but your flight.
Twenty-four hours of live group work.
And a year of access to a small group of people who will know your business, your marriage, your health and your personal goals before it’s over.
Travel is not included.
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Founders, creatives, high-performers.
Some are building businesses, others are in transition, and many are asking deeper questions about how to live, lead, and love with intention. What they share is a hunger for growth, connection, and a life aligned with their values.
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That’s why there’s an application and a call, rather than a checkout button.
Sherry builds these rooms deliberately, and turns people down — not out of exclusivity, but because a container only holds if everyone in it is genuinely ready.
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This circle is for those who may come from different paths but share that same deep longing for more—more joy, more connection, more life.
It is for anyone who feels like they've lost touch with that part of themselves that used to feel playful, adventurous, and free.
You don’t need to have experience with ceremonial retreats or even someone who feels in touch with their body right now.
If you are ready to try something different, to stretch yourself (literally and metaphorically), and find joy in new experiences, you are welcome.
You’ll be guided and supported every step of the way, with options to go as slow or as fast as you need.
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We’re not religious, but we are reverent.
The Gathering is spiritually rooted—through ceremony, nature, embodiment, and presence—but we honor all belief systems (or none).
We simply ask that you come with an open heart and a willingness to connect to something greater than yourself.
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This is a yearlong container.
The Gathering is built on trust, consistency, and rhythm. It’s not a drop-in model—we grow together over time.
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Yes! You don’t need to be broken to want more than fine.
This isn’t therapy and it isn’t a rescue. Most members arrive functional, successful, and quietly aware that "fine" has been doing a lot of heavy lifting.
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To the Open Circle retreat, yes — that’s what it’s for. Once a year both cohorts come together and you can bring the people you love: a partner, a friend, your sister, a co-founder.
The rest of the year is yours alone.
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It happens — illness, a birth, a funeral, a deal that can’t move.
We understand participants have a life, and we’ll work it out.
Apply for 2027
$1,600/month
Registration is open, and it starts with a conversation. Send the application and we'll find a time to talk — no commitment until you've spoken with Sherry and you're both sure this is a great fit.
Cohorts stay small on purpose. When one fills, it closes for the year.