SETTING A NEW STANDARD IN RETREAT LEADERSHIP
Sacred Space Stewardship
Design the retreat. Fill the room. Learn how to truly hold the humans once they arrive.
A 12-week hybrid retreat leadership training + professional certification for women.
ENROLLMENT IS OPEN · Limited to 10 Participants
September 22–December 8, 2026
4-day Santa Barbara immersion · November 5–8
You've Imagined The Room
People gathered. Phones down. Fully present, the air is alive.
You’re guiding the retreat. Opening the circle. Watching something real unfold between people.
And you can feel yourself thinking, I want to create this.
Then the questions start:
Who would even come? Could I fill the room? And once everyone arrives, would I actually know how to lead it?
Because working one-on-one with people is one thing. Leading a group on Zoom is another. Holding a room full of people for days at a time is a whole other thing.
A calling may bring you to the room, but stewardship is what lets you hold it well.
That’s what this training is for.
Inside the Immersion
This is where the training comes off the screen and into the room. Four days in Santa Barbara. You'll practice live, watch retreat leadership happen in real time, and walk out with your own retreat built, not just planned.
Here’s what the founding cohort experienced. We’re creating this same caliber of experience for our fall cohort this November.
The VIP Dinner
Jack Canfield opened our time together by taking the women through his safe-space practices, a series of exercises designed to create trust, belonging, and connection in a room. They didn't just learn the practices. They lived what it feels like to be held by one, and now know how to bring that into their own retreats.
Then we gathered around one long table for dinner with Jack. Each woman had the chance to ask him one question, creating the kind of intimate conversation and access that made the evening unforgettable.
Openers, Closers & Safe Space Practices
They didn't just learn how to open and close a room. They practiced it themselves, every single day.
Each morning began with intentional practices that brought the group together before a word of content training began. Because how you open a room shapes what becomes possible inside it.
And learning how to close one well matters just as much.
Reflection Circles
Every immersion ends in reflection.
Leadership deepens when you can name what happened in the room and integrate what you've learned before facilitating again.
Every facilitator leaves each practice session with honest feedback, encouragement, and a clearer understanding of her strengths and next edge.
It's how confidence becomes capacity.
Live Facilitation
Six weeks of building their retreats. Then one moment to actually stand up and lead an excerpt of it, live, with the whole cohort as their first participants.
When Sylvie led hers, something in the room shifted and brought tears to more than a few eyes. In the feedback afterward, it became clear why, underneath the exercise itself was what she cares about most, the children living inside every family she'll ever work with. That's the exact heart of the retreat she's building.
When Emily led hers, she brought a writing exercise, and for many women in the room who'd never done anything like it before, it became an unexpected healing portal of its own. That wasn't a demonstration of what her retreat does, it was her retreat, happening in real time, grief and happiness held together in the same room, at the same moment.
In the fall cohort, you'll do the same: build your retreat, then step into the room and facilitate an excerpt of it live.
The Marketing & Sales Intensive
Each woman brought the actual retreat landing page she'd been building during our virtual training into the room.
We worked through the messaging, imagery, positioning, and pricing together, with honest feedback from women who'd gotten to know one another deeply enough to tell the truth and help make the offer stronger.
Then we practiced the enrollment conversations that turn interest into a genuine yes, without pressure or performative selling.
Because knowing how to lead an extraordinary retreat matters. So does knowing how to fill it.
Closing Celebration
We closed with professional branding photos for each participant, captured by Milla Kuhto, and a celebration of everything these women had built and become together. Music, dancing, laughter, and the kind of joy that happens when you've done something you're genuinely proud of.
“I came in knowing how to hold a workshop. I'm leaving knowing how to hold a room, and myself, at the same time. Stewardship isn't just a concept anymore. It's tracking myself, tracking the person in front of me, and tracking the whole group, all at once. I'm more humble, and at the same time, stronger.” — Sylvie Horning
THAT’S THE IMMERSION.
Here’s why the demand for retreats like it keeps growing.
Retreats Have Exploded
Executive leadership retreats. Founder offsites. Creative immersions. Wellness weekends. Private client gatherings. One and multi--day retreats hosted in someone's home or on their land.
People are craving something screens cannot give them.
They want to feel something real again.
Retreats are becoming a powerful, high-value extension of a woman's work because some forms of transformation still require presence.
But there’s a difference between hosting something beautiful and leading something that holds.
That difference is training. Learning how to design, fill, and lead a retreat that actually works.
Industry Stats
The wellness retreat market is valued at $273.15 billion in 2026, and is projected to reach $398.99 billion by 2030. This isn't a niche anymore. It's one of the fastest growing categories in the world.
And this isn't only spiritual or wellness retreats. Corporate retreats alone are a $31.8 billion market as of 2024, projected to reach $73.7 billion by 2034, with more than 70% of mid to large companies now hosting one annually.
Here's the why now. 78% of Americans say they'd choose a completely in-person social life over a digital-only one. That number is measured here, but the craving underneath it isn't bound by any one country, retreat leaders everywhere are seeing the same pull toward real, in-person space.
The demand is here. The question is: Are you prepared to meet it?
Sacred Space Stewardship Is Built On Three Pillars
IF YOU’RE GOING TO LEAD RETREATS WELL, THREE THINGS MUST BE TRUE
STEWARDSHIP
The role itself. The governing responsibility for the whole.
You lead in service to the room. You understand you’re entrusted with people's time, money, vulnerability, and trust.
You hold the arc of the experience from beginning to end. You hold the standard of the work.
This is what allows people to relax into the experience and trust what’s happening in the room.
CAPACITY
The steadiness to remain present.
You track the room without losing yourself. You stay regulated when emotion rises. You respond in real time. You manage logistics without collapsing or controlling.
This is what makes it possible for the work to go deeper without the room becoming overwhelming or unstable.
Holding sacred space isn't about having the perfect words. It's knowing what to do when someone starts crying, when the energy drops after lunch, when one participant dominates the conversation, or when the room goes unexpectedly quiet.
Those moments aren't interruptions to the retreat. They are the retreat.
INTEGRITY
Clean structure around the sacred.
Your pricing reflects the value of the work. Your agreements protect everyone involved. Your sales conversations are direct and clear.
What you promise is what you deliver.
This is what builds trust before people arrive and ensures the experience matches what was promised.
THESE THREE FORM THE STANDARD
This Certification Trains All Three
WHY THIS TRAINING EXISTS
Many people will invest thousands learning how to market and sell a retreat, program, or service. Very few invest in learning how to actually lead once people arrive.
Yet that’s where the real responsibility begins. And where the real magic happens.
What unfolds inside the room is what determines everything. Whether people feel held or lost. Whether they leave transformed or just tired. Whether they tell others or simply move on.
For more than two years, women who attended Michelle’s retreats asked her to teach how she creates and holds these rooms. She didn’t right away.
She wasn’t convinced it could be taught.
So much of what happened inside those rooms came through intuition, conscious awareness, courage, experience, and what she had learned by leading them again and again.
Eighteen retreats later, she realized there was a methodology beneath the instinct.
Sacred Space Stewardship™ is that methodology: the architecture, practices, and principles that allow other women to develop their own capacity to lead rooms well.
This is not theory.
It's architecture built in real rooms.
And learning to lead transformational rooms takes more than a calling. It takes preparation, practice, feedback, and the willingness to keep growing.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
This is full-scope, hands on mentorship and professional certification.
Design: Create a signature retreat with a clear concept, arc, and coherence using proven frameworks you’ll make your own.
Leadership: Learn to hold a multi-day container with stability, manage pacing, energy, emotion, and logistics, and stay present when things shift.
Facilitation: You will practice live. You will receive supportive, structured feedback. You will strengthen your capacity in real time.
Sales & Ethical Infrastructure: Price responsibly, structure an offer that reflects the value of the experience, and lead enrollment conversations with confidence and integrity.
You’ll also receive exclusive access to The Steward’s Vault, the exact resources I use to design, organize, and lead retreats.
Inside are real-world templates, planning spreadsheets, timelines, participant communications, agreements, facilitator guides, checklists, and behind-the-scenes systems refined through years of experience.
These aren't generic downloads or AI-generated documents. They're field-tested resources built in real rooms with real participants.
You’ll also receive the complete Leader's Guide, Participant Workbook, and Steward's Compass to support you throughout the certification and beyond.
So you can spend less time reinventing the process and more time becoming the leader your future participants deserve.
"Attending Michelle’s Soul Essence Retreat was a turning point for me. I arrived sensing something in my life was ready to shift, even though I didn’t have words for it yet.”
That weekend gave me clarity I had been searching for. The private coaching with Michelle deepened it even further. I left knowing who I am and what I am here to build. Today I lead my own retreats, creating spaces where others can step away from the noise and finally come back to themselves.
— Ellen C.
How to Fill Your First Retreat
Maybe you've never booked a venue. Never priced a retreat. Never stood in front of a room and opened a circle.
Good. That's exactly why this training exists. You don't need a stunning destination, a hotel contract, or a following before people trust you enough to book.
"I don't have a big audience."
It's not about the size of your audience. My first retreats filled through relationships, one conversation at a time, not social media reach.
"I've never led anything like this."
Neither had every woman who's ever led her first retreat. Feeling ready isn't a prerequisite. It's what this training gives you.
My first two retreats happened in my co-facilitator's tiny living room. Participants booked nearby hotels, and we cooked together to keep costs down. As the retreats grew, so did what I invested in the experience: dedicated venues, additional support, and eventually a chef who stayed on property full-time.
The experience comes first. The investment follows.
Before you think about strangers on the internet, think about the people already in your life who would thank you for creating this room. Start with 20 people you'd genuinely love to see there. Your first retreat might not even live on social media. It might begin with the relationships and communities you already have.
A boutique retreat can be just 6 to 8 people. That's not a lot of seats to fill.
How The Training Works
A 12-WEEK HYBRID CERTIFICATION IN THREE PHASES.
Virtual Preparation
PHASE ONE
Beginning September 22, 2026. Tuesdays at 12 PM Pacific.
Each session is a live, intimate working group. You’ll refine your retreat concept, build your offer, practice articulating your work, and arrive in Santa Barbara with your foundation in place.
Across the first six weeks, we’ll cover retreat architecture, ethical pricing and offer structure, marketing and enrollment, and logistical preparation.
You’ll also learn from guest teachers who bring deep experience in retreat leadership and complementary areas of expertise.
PHASE TWO
In-Person Immersion
4 days in Santa Barbara, CA. November 5-8, 2026.
Day 1 opens with a private VIP dinner and safe-space practices with Jack Canfield.
Days 2 and 3 are curated trainings and live facilitation. You’ll lead an excerpt of your own retreat, receive structured feedback, and refine your work in the room.
Day 4 is our closing celebration, with professional branding photography to support the retreat you’re bringing into the world.
Santa Barbara is not a performance. It’s embodiment.
PHASE THREE
Integration & Implementation
Remaining Weeks through December 8, 2026.
You’ll finalize your retreat, implement your systems, and begin taking what you’ve created into the world.
Weekly implementation circles keep you accountable to what’s actually happening as you prepare to launch, with support around what’s working and what needs attention.
This is where your retreat moves from framework toward a filled room, with certification submissions completed along the way.
Meet the Founding Cohort
This spring, these women joined the first Sacred Space Stewardship™ cohort. A few months later, they’re bringing their retreats into the world: dates set, venues secured, landing pages live, enrollment conversations underway, and seats already filling. Meet our founding participants and the women who led them. Portraits by Milla Kuhto, part of your training investment.
Amy Sullivan, Business Management Analyst + Certified Sacred Space Steward™
Amy turned profound personal loss into a deeper calling to create spaces where grief and gratitude can coexist. She built her first retreat around that very paradox, creating an experience where women can honor both what they've lost and the life they're still living.
“This training changed how I show up everywhere, not just in a retreat room. A week before finishing, I led a fundraiser for military families, and we raised $15,000 in one day. I was more regulated, more present, and I gave myself the grace to let people help me. A steward is more than someone who shows up. It's how you show up.”
Sylvie Horning, Certified Nonviolent Communication (NVC) Trainer + Certified Sacred Space Steward™
Sylvie is a Certified Nonviolent Communication (NVC) Trainer with 20 years of experience creating spaces for connection and peace. She's now bringing that depth into her first expansive retreat offering, Communicate Out of the Box.
"I came in knowing how to run a successful workshop. I'm leaving knowing how to hold a room, and myself, at the same time. Stewardship isn't just a concept anymore. It's tracking myself, the person in front of me, and the whole group, all at once. I'm more humble, and at the same time, a much stronger leader.”
Veronica Ramos-Clark, Executive Director of Fresh Start Counseling Services
Veronica has spent nearly three decades leading counseling services and supporting others through meaningful change. She's now bringing that experience into Blooming in the Shadows, her wellness retreat in Sedona, where seats are already filling.
"Everything is on track for my first retreat, Blooming in the Shadows, in Sedona. My friend as our chef is locked in, seats are already filling, and I couldn't be more excited to create this signature experience for women returning to themselves, built around wellness and sisterhood."
Leighanne Champion, Life & Mindset Coach, CLC, CHC + Certified Sacred Space Steward™
Leighanne has coached women for nearly a decade, helping them find their way back to themselves through life's harder seasons. Her first retreat, Reflect, Refine, Reimagine, is happening this fall in her own home, with seats already filling.
"My retreat, Reflect, Refine, Reimagine, is happening this fall in my own home, and seats are already filling. What I'm carrying forward isn't a checklist, it's a capacity. Staying present, not jumping to conclusions, staying open hearted enough to respond to what each person actually needs. Michelle has unbelievable capacity, and this training is where I started to understand what it takes to build that in myself."
Emily Thiroux Threatt, Author and Host of the Grief & Happiness Podcast
Emily is an author, podcast host, and founder of the Grief & Happiness Alliance, with a body of work devoted to living fully through loss. She's bringing that work into two retreats this year, including the Grief and Happiness Retreat she's co-creating with Amy Sullivan.
"This training gave me the capacity to bring my life's work into the room in a real way. I'm carrying it into two retreats this year, one in Nevada and one on Maui where I live, including the Grief and Happiness Retreat I'm co-creating with Amy Sullivan, a woman I met in this very training. It's built around the power of writing as a portal to healing, and I couldn't do it without what I learned here."
Melissa Jean Rod, Author of The Daddy Files
Melissa spent more than three decades caring for others before turning her own life experiences into her work as an author. She's now created Anchored in Love, a one-day Texas retreat designed to help young women find belonging, connection, and faith.
She's built her first retreat, Anchored in Love, to support young women in finding belonging, with themselves, with one another, and through their unwavering faith.
Patty Aubery, Founding Cohort Co-Facilitator
Patty Aubery was the longtime president of The Canfield Training Group and the architect behind the publishing industry's first billion-dollar brand, Chicken Soup for the Soul. A bestselling author, business mentor, and experienced retreat leader, she brought decades of expertise in messaging to the founding cohort.
“For decades, I've had the privilege of watching people say yes to the dream pulling them forward. Speakers, authors, trainers, and now retreat leaders. There is something powerful that happens when a woman stops waiting for permission and brings what she knows she's here to create into the world.”
Michelle Sorro, Founder & Lead Facilitator, Sacred Space Stewardship™
Michelle has spent years creating transformational spaces where women can feel safe, connected, and fully alive. Since 2022, she's led immersive retreats across the west, refining through lived experience what allows a room to hold real transformation. Sacred Space Stewardship™ grew from everything those rooms taught her about preparation, practice, nervous system capacity, and what it truly takes to hold transformational spaces well.
“Human connection is our most precious commodity. And when people trust us enough to step into a room we’re leading, how we hold that room matters. It takes more than beautiful content or a well-designed experience. It takes the capacity to hold ourselves, to stay present with what’s unfolding, and to create the conditions for real transformation. That’s the standard Sacred Space Stewardship™ was created to set.”
Certification
Certification reflects demonstrated stewardship, capacity, and integrity.
To become a Certified Sacred Space Steward™, participants must demonstrate competency in retreat architecture, container leadership, live facilitation, and ethical infrastructure.
Assessment includes facilitation labs, written framework submission, and faculty evaluation.
This credential is earned.
Certification exists for one reason. The people who trust you with their time, money, and vulnerability deserve a leader who has actually practiced holding that trust well.
Founded By Michelle Sorro
Michelle has led 18 retreats across Sedona, Malibu, Santa Barbara, Ojai, and Austin since 2022, developing a way of holding rooms that participants repeatedly asked her to teach.
PARTICIPANTS DESCRIBE THOSE ROOMS LIKE THIS:
“I felt seen and supported in ways I hadn't expected. Michelle has a way of designing experiences where the transformation happens before you realize it's happening.” — Cindi Trammell
"Life altering. Soul connecting. Self emerging. I honestly don't really have words for what happened in that room. Only that I am not the same woman who arrived.” — Amber Cease
“Michelle has this way of holding sacred space while being fully immersed in the experience herself. She’s present without performing. That is rare.” — Corinna Hayd
"Curator of transformational experiences. Courageous truth speaker. These are the words that describe Michelle. She does not design retreats for applause. She designs them for change." — Dr. Cheri Plett
Since 2018, Michelle has built a multiple seven-figure transformational coaching business and helped launch hundreds of creative voices into the world.
She is the host of Fire and Soul, a top 1% podcast in self growth featuring honest conversations on awakening, conscious leadership, and living what's true.
Before stepping into retreat leadership, she spent ten years in live television commerce on HSN, QVC, and Extra, generating over $222 million in sales.
That experience forged her mastery of presence, pricing, structure, and ethical persuasion in real time.
She knows how to fill rooms.
What those rooms taught her was something else entirely.
Stewardship. Capacity. Integrity.
That is the work she now teaches.
She’s a Certified Canfield Success Principles Trainer, trained directly by Jack Canfield and Patty Aubery, and holds certifications in somatic and trauma-informed practice, Reiki I and II, and 500-hour yoga teacher training.
“Michelle Sorro is the very best I’ve seen at helping people show up, connect, and reach those they’re meant to serve.” — Jack Canfield, Author, Chicken Soup for the Soul
Sacred Space Stewardship integrates all of it:
Sacred Space Stewardship™ is the foundation of an institute devoted to setting a new standard in retreat leadership worldwide. Training women not just to host beautiful gatherings, but to lead transformative rooms with stewardship, capacity, and integrity.
This IS For You If
You feel called to lead retreats and you take that responsibility seriously.
You want formation, not just inspiration.
You’re willing to practice live and receive honest feedback.
You’re ready to build the internal capacity and external structure this work requires.
This Is NOT For You If
You want a course you can consume without doing the work.
You’re unwilling to facilitate live.
You’re looking for a certificate rather than a capability.
You prefer inspiration without accountability.
ENROLLMENT
$7,500
Pay in full or three monthly payments of $2,700.
ENROLL BY SEPTEMBER 1
Enroll by September 1 and receive a private 60-minute VIP Retreat Visioning Session with Michelle, devoted entirely to your retreat vision, where you are, where you're going, and your next clear step.
The next Sacred Space Stewardship™ cohort begins September 22.
Enrollment is limited to 10 women so every participant receives meaningful feedback, dedicated practice time, and direct mentorship throughout the experience.
Enrollment Questions
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No. You need a genuine desire to lead and a willingness to learn. Some participants will have experience. Some will not. What matters is your seriousness about holding responsibility well.
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No. You may arrive with a fully formed idea, the seed of one, or simply a clear knowing that bringing people together belongs in the next evolution of your work. The training is designed to help you shape that pull into a retreat concept, offer, and experience you can actually bring to life.
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No. The principles of stewardship apply to executive retreats, creative immersions, leadership off-sites, wellness gatherings, and private client experiences. The standard is the same: mature, grounded leadership.
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Yes. You will build and refine your own retreat framework during the training. Many participants will begin enrolling their retreats during the integration phase.
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Plan on two to three hours a week for homework and Steward's Compass work. It's enough to keep you moving forward without feeling like a second job on top of your life.
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The live virtual sessions are strongly encouraged because practice, feedback, and connection are central to the training. If life requires you to miss a session, every training is recorded so you can stay current, and our WhatsApp group keeps you connected between calls.
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The in-person immersion is a core part of formation and certification. In rare circumstances, accommodations may be considered. Schedule a clarity call to discuss your situation before enrolling.
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We'll have a hotel block just minutes from the training location, so you won't need to think twice about logistics once you land. Flights, hotel, and transportation to the training aren't included. Thursday night's opening dinner is included, along with light breakfast and lunch on Friday and Saturday, and a light breakfast Sunday morning before we close.
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Certification is earned, not given. Participants must demonstrate competency in four areas, retreat architecture, container leadership, live facilitation, and ethical infrastructure, through facilitation labs, a written framework submission, and faculty evaluation.
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You'll receive the full 12 week certification, including live weekly training, Thursday office hours, and the four day Santa Barbara immersion where you'll practice facilitating, receive direct feedback, and grow alongside an intimate cohort of women committed to the same path.
You'll work from the complete Participant Workbook, Leader's Guide, and Steward's Compass, along with The Steward's Vault, a comprehensive library of real world templates, agreements, planning tools, spreadsheets, checklists, and behind the scenes systems pulled directly from the retreats I've built and led myself.
Together, we'll also create your retreat landing page so you leave with an offer that's ready to share, not just an idea waiting for someday.
Upon meeting the certification requirements, you'll earn your Certified Sacred Space Steward™ credential.
You'll also leave with a professional library of branding and event photography, including individual portraits by Milla Kuhto and immersive event photography by Amber Jenkins, giving you authentic marketing assets you'll use to promote your retreats for years to come.
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The formal training closes at the twelve week mark, but you're not stepping into your retreat leadership alone. You'll have your WhatsApp group for as long as you want it, a circle of women who've been exactly where you are and who you'll keep leaning on long after the program ends. And if you want continued direct support from me as you launch and grow, that's available as an additional investment beyond the program.
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Yes. You can pay in full at $7,500 or choose a payment plan of three monthly payments of $2,700.
A Calling Brought You Here
If you’re meant to lead retreats, that will not go away.
The question is not whether you feel called.
It's whether you're ready to prepare for the responsibility of answering that call.
Because a calling may bring you to the room. Stewardship is what lets you hold it well.
And in the process, you change.
More confidence. More capacity. More trust in yourself when the room doesn't go according to plan. And over time, more ease.
That's what you leave with.
Enrollment remains open until the cohort fills.
If you're ready to become the kind of leader these rooms deserve, I'd love to welcome you into Sacred Space Stewardship™.
“Sacred Space Stewardship was profound for me. It deepened my knowing that this is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. It gave me the tools I'd been looking for, how to imagine, create, and offer a retreat people will love. I already have two retreats planned because of it. If you're serious about offering retreats, this is the place for you.” — Emily Threatt