CERTIFIED SACRED SPACE STEWARD™: PROFESSIONAL RETREAT FACILITATOR CERTIFICATION
Sacred Space Stewardship
A 12-week hybrid certification for women ready to design, fill and lead transformative retreats with stewardship, capacity, and integrity.
Enrollment is Open · Limited To 10 Participants
Fall Cohort Runs September 22 through December 8, 2026
You've Imagined The Room
You can see it.
People gathered. Phones down. The air feels different. Alive.
The kind of energy that only happens in person.
You imagine guiding the arc of the weekend. Opening the circle. Witnessing someone speak a truth she's carried for years.
You feel the pull toward leading something like that.
You were made for it.
And right behind that pull sits another thought. Who would even come. What if I'm not the kind of person who does this.
You are.
This training exists for exactly that gap, between the pull you feel and the doubt sitting right behind it.
And you probably know this:
The room does not belong to you.
It belongs to the people inside it.
And leading it requires more than vision.
A calling may bring you to the room.
Stewardship is what lets you hold it well. The steward tends the whole container: the space, the rhythm, the evolution, the unexpected. She responds in real time instead of bracing or forcing. She knows structure and sacredness belong together.
That’s what this training is for.
Retreats Have Exploded
Executive leadership retreats. Founder offsites. Creative immersions. Wellness weekends. Private client gatherings. One-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 have become a powerful extension of a woman's work because transformation still requires 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, participants have asked me to teach how I design and lead these spaces.
I didn’t say yes immediately. I sat with it.
If I was going to bring this forward, it needed to meet a standard.
I needed to know that what I was teaching could truly be held, practiced, and passed on.
Now it can. And I’m genuinely excited to bring it forward.
Sacred Space Stewardship is the result of lived refinement. What I have learned through experience. What I have strengthened. What I now know can be taught.
This is not theory.
It’s architecture built in real rooms.
You don't become qualified to lead retreats because you've led retreats before. You become qualified because you're willing to show up, learn, and grow.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
This is full-scope professional certification.
Design: Retreats with clear concept, arc, and coherence. A beginning, middle, and end participants feel in their bodies. You'll work from proven frameworks and a clear pathway you can follow and make your own.
Leadership: How to hold a multi-day container with stability so the room stays steady even when things get emotional or unpredictable. How to manage pacing, energy, and logistics without losing presence.
Facilitation: You will practice live. You will receive supportive, structured feedback. You will strengthen your capacity in real time.
Sales & Ethical Infrastructure: How to price responsibly so you can fill your retreat and confidently recoup your investment. How to structure offers. How to invite participants without pressure. How to convert with integrity.
Retreat leadership includes sales. Sales is part of stewardship. You build a retreat framework you can use and refine over time. Not someday. During. While you’re in it.
You'll also work from my own retreats as living examples, real templates, spreadsheets, and planning tools pulled directly from what I've built and run myself, covering every behind the scenes piece of putting on a retreat. You'll have the complete Leader's Guide, Participant Workbook, and Steward's Compass tracking your progress throughout the training. These are resources you'll return to long after the training ends.
"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, 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 here. It's what this training gives you.
My first two retreats happened in my co facilitator's tiny living room. Participants booked nearby hotels, we cooked together to keep costs down, and nobody needed a private chef to feel held. The next two retreats, I invested in a venue because I wanted something all inclusive, and friends stepped in as chefs while we handled the groceries and kitchen support together. It wasn't until two years in that I felt empowered enough to bring on 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 a dream list of 20 people you'd love to see there. Don't filter it by who you think will say yes. Add them because you know they'd get real value from being in the room. Your first retreat might not even live on social media. It might just be a landing page you share privately, in the communities and relationships you already have.
Boutique retreats run 8 to 12 people. That's not a lot of seats to fill once you stop thinking you need thousands of followers to do it.
How The Training Works
A 12-WEEK HYBRID CERTIFICATION IN THREE PHASES.
PHASE ONE
Virtual Preparation
Beginning September 22, 2026. Every Tuesday at 12 PM Pacific for 12 weeks.
Each session is a live, intimate working group. You refine your signature retreat concept, build your offer, practice articulating your work, and arrive in Santa Barbara with your foundation already in place.
Topics across the six weeks include retreat architecture, ethical pricing and offer structure, how to articulate what you do and who you serve, your marketing presence, and full logistical preparation.
Throughout the training, you'll also learn from guest teachers with mastery level experience in retreat leadership, bringing perspective and expertise beyond what any one facilitator alone could offer.
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. You facilitate live, receive structured, supportive feedback, and refine your architecture. This is focused work. And a lot of fun.
Day 4 is your closing celebration. We close the container and celebrate what you've built together.
A professional photographer captures both the VIP dinner and your closing celebration, so you walk away with real branding and marketing material already in hand. This is included.
Santa Barbara is not a performance. It’s embodiment.
PHASE THREE
Integration & Implementation
Remaining Weeks through December 8, 2026.
You finalize your retreat framework. You implement systems. You step into leading what you've created.
Weekly sessions continue as implementation circles. You bring what is real, what is working, and what needs support. The group holds you accountable to actually launching what you built.
This is where the retreat goes from framework to filled room. Certification submissions are completed during this phase. Some participants will begin enrolling their own retreats before the program even closes.
Inside the Immersion
Four days in Santa Barbara. This is what it actually looked like.
The VIP Dinner
Jack Canfield opened the evening with his safe space practices, the same techniques that create real belonging and safety in a room. The cohort didn't just hear about it, they felt it happen to them first, then carried it home to open their own retreats the same way.
Then a shared meal at one long table. One conversation. Each woman had one question for a man who's spent his life teaching people how to answer theirs. The first question of the night asked what advice he'd give his younger self now. Write the book sooner than you think you should. The very last question asked what he wants his legacy to be known for. He said he doesn't want one. He wants to fully live in this moment and let the legacy take care of itself.
Openers, Closers & Safe Space Practices
They didn't just learn how to open a room. They practiced it themselves, every single morning, starting the day with fifteen minutes of Jack's own left ear to left ear heart hugs before a word of training began.
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.
Belonging isn't left to chance. It's designed.
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.
The Marketing & Sales Intensive
Each woman pulled up her actual landing page to share with the group. Headlines, photos, and composition, all worked over live, talking through price point with feedback from women who'd really gotten to know one another, so it could be reflected back accurately but more importantly, inspire new ideas. Sales conversations made effective and fun!
Closing Celebration
The day was reserved for branding photos for each participant captured by Milla Kuhto. What it turned into was dancing, music, and real celebration, the kind reserved for women who'd just built something they were genuinely proud of, with the bond between them shining through in every shot.
Meet the Founding Cohort
This spring, six women joined the first Sacred Space Stewardship cohort. A few months later, they're at every different stage of bringing that vision to life, dates set, venues secured, landing pages taking shape, enrollment conversations already underway, and filled seats for some. Portraits by Milla Kuhto, part of your training investment.
Amy Sullivan
Amy didn't set out to become qualified to lead retreats. Life asked something of her she never would have chosen. She's walked the unimaginable path of losing her husband and found her way through it, back to a life that holds joy and love again. That's not incidental to her retreat, it's the reason it exists. Outside this work, she holds an MBA from Washington University's Olin Business School and has spent over three decades leading people and programs for Fortune level organizations.
Sylvie Horning
Sylvie knows what it's like to build a whole life abroad, job, school, home, and then find yourself snapping at your partner over something as small as who's cooking dinner. She's lived it herself, abroad as a child, then as a wife, then as a mother. For 20 years she's trained as a certified Nonviolent Communication practitioner, and now holds space for expat couples and families caught in that same drift, where you stop really talking and call it keeping the peace top bring harmony back to heart of the household.
Veronica Ramos-Clark
Veronica spent almost three decades running counseling clinics as a licensed addiction counselor, working specifically with adult children of alcoholics. She knows that particular kind of vigilance from the inside, the habit of scanning a room before you can relax in it. This fall she's leading her first retreat in Sedona, four days built around hiking red rock trails and sitting by the fire with a circle of women who understand exactly where she started.
Leighanne Champion
Leighanne has coached women for nearly a decade, calling them back into dreaming again in what she names the fall and winter seasons of life, the years when a woman's own wants tend to get quietly shelved beneath everyone else's needs. Her first retreat started right in her own home, built on circle, prayer, and belonging, proof that a room doesn't need a destination to hold something real. She's living what she teaches, with her women’s retreat happening this fall.
Emily Thiroux Threatt
Emily has lived through the death of two husbands, her parents, her sister, and many people she loved. Rather than let grief and happiness compete for space, she's spent years learning to hold both at once. She spent over 30 years teaching writing at the university level, then turned her own grief into multiple books, a podcast with 500+ episodes, and the Grief and Happiness Alliance, a nonprofit running free weekly gatherings for people writing their way through loss. Her retreats are taking place on Maui and in Las Vegas.
Melissa Jean Rod
Melissa started babysitting at seven, then years of odd jobs, then nine years as a nanny, then over three decades as a wife, mother, homemaker, and caregiver. Somewhere inside all of that she wrote The Daddy Files, a story of secrets, forgiveness, and the search for identity, which won the International Christian Book Award in 2026. She brings that same steady presence into Anchored in Love, a one day retreat in Texas Hill Country built to help women exhale and feel fully seen.
Michelle Sorro, Founder & Lead Facilitator
Michelle has spent years creating sacred rooms where women come fully alive in who they are. Since 2022, she’s led immersive retreats across Sedona, Malibu, Santa Barbara, Ojai, and Austin, learning through lived experience what allows a room to feel safe, connected, and deeply transformative. Sacred Space Stewardship grew from everything those rooms taught her, including lessons she learned the hard way. She created this certification to give women the preparation, practice, and leadership capacity to hold rooms where real belonging and real transformation can happen.
Patty Aubery, Founding Cohort Co-Facilitator
Patty is the architect behind one of publishing’s first billion-dollar brands, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and the longtime president of The Canfield Training Group. For decades, she has helped speakers, authors, and coaches clarify their message, grow transformational businesses, and bring their work into the world. A bestselling author and experienced retreat leader, Patty brought her mastery of business, messaging, and human connection to the founding cohort, helping each woman shape a retreat people could understand, trust, and say yes to.
Certification
Certification reflects demonstrated stewardship, capacity, and integrity.
To receive designation as 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 immersive retreats across Sedona, Malibu, Santa Barbara, Ojai, and Austin since 2022, refining a model of leadership that participants repeatedly ask to learn.
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 don't 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 is present without performing. That is rare.”
— Corinna Hayd
"Curator of transformational experiences. Courageous truth speaker. 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 thousands of creative voices into the world.
She is also the host of Fire and Soul, a top 1% podcast in spiritual growth featuring honest conversations on awakening, conscious leadership, and living what's true.
Her work has been featured in SUCCESS Magazine in an editorial titled "An Authentic Awakening."
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. A skill she’s taught thousands.
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:
This certification marks the founding of an institute devoted to raising the standard of retreat leadership. 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 internal steadiness and external structure.
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.
FALL COHORT BENEFIT
Participants who enroll by September 1 will receive a private 90-minute Retreat Design Session with Michelle.
This session is devoted to your retreat vision. Where you are, where you are going, and your next clear step.
As the institute grows and case studies are documented, tuition will increase.
This is the Fall 2026 Cohort. Enrollment is open. Limited to 10 participants.
This cohort will remain intentionally small so each participant receives meaningful feedback, dedicated practice time, and direct mentorship throughout.
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. 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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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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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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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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Showing up live is where the real magic happens, but it's not required. Every session is recorded, so you'll never fall behind if life gets in the way. We'll also have a WhatsApp group running the whole journey, so you can ask questions, share wins, and stay connected between sessions.
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You'll receive the full 12 week training, live weekly sessions and Thursday office hours, plus the Santa Barbara immersion itself, four days of live practice, direct feedback, and mentorship alongside the cohort. You'll work from the complete Participant Workbook, Leader's Guide, and Steward's Compass, along with a resource library of templates and planning tools you can return to as you build. We'll also design your own retreat landing page for you. Upon meeting certification requirements, you'll earn your Sacred Space Steward credential, and you'll leave with professional branding photography from your time together, portraits from Milla Kuhto and event photography from Amber Jenkins, real marketing assets ready to use.
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Yes. You can pay in full for $7,500, or spread it across three monthly payments of $2,700. The payment plan carries a small premium, $600 total, over paying in full.
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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.
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 learn, to grow, to finally step up.
Because stewardship isn't instinct.
It's earned, one room at a time.
And as you earn it, the room changes.
Not perfection. But confidence. Capacity. And, over time, ease. That's what you'll leave with.
Enrollment remains open until the cohort fills.
I would love to see you inside.
"Sacred Space Stewardship 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, Sacred Space Stewardship is the place for you." — Emily Thiroux Threatt