You are driven. You create, innovate, disrupt, lead, build...
You're an entrepreneur. You’re a leader.
It’s a great position to be in.
But the truth is, it can be a hard and lonely path. The things most worth doing are the hardest.
You want to do great work, without sacrificing your sanity, your family, or the passion and drive that got you here in the first place. You want to stay connection to yourself and your goals, even when you’re experiencing grief of hardship.
I'm here to help.
My superpower is finding creative ways to get you unstuck. As one of the world’s only clinical psychologists focused on the mental health of entrepreneurs, I have a unique mixture of elite research training, psychotherapy experience, and time in the entrepreneurial trenches.
I GET it.
I'm here to help you create a life and a business that you love.
Long bio
Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, award-winning and best-selling author, yoga teacher, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, provides mental wellness resources to leaders and entrepreneurs as they navigate transition, loss, conflict, or any manner of complex human experience.
Her new book, Touching Two Worlds, is a poetic, incisive exploration of grief and wholeness in the aftermath of loss. Her best-selling book, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together: How to Run Your Business Without Letting it Run You, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there.
Dr. Walling is an expert in trauma, stress and burnout and her research has been published in academic journals such as the Journal of Traumatic Stress.
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She hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine and has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times.
Sherry is graduate of the University of California, Davis and Fuller School of Psychology. She has a PhD in clinical psychology and master’s degrees in both psychology and theology. She completed research fellowships at Yale University School of Medicine and the National Center for PTSD in Boston. She spent several years working with veterans before going on to become the director of clinical training at House Psychiatric Clinic in Fresno, California.
She’s held teaching appointments at 5 academic institutions including the University of California, San Francisco, and Boston University School of Medicine.
She is currently a mentor in several start-up accelerators including Lunar Startups, Beta, and TinySeed.
Dr. Sherry was also a clinical advisor to MINDCURE Health, a publicly traded mental health company based in Canada. She worked with them to host the Mind Curious podcast.
Sherry's work reflects the “street smarts” of someone who has lived a lot of life. She has experienced poverty, grown wealth, been an athlete, bagged groceries, travelled the world, spent a year in West Africa, had children, sat with dying people, and spent time with people from all walks of life.
On top of all of that, she's been married to a tech entrepreneur for the past 22 years.
Sherry and her husband, Rob, reside in Minneapolis with their children. She teaches yoga classes, loves to paddleboard, and has been known to occasionally perform as a circus aerialist.
Short bio
Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate transition, rapid growth, loss, and any manner of complex human experience.
She hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine and has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times. She was also the host of Mind Curious, a podcast series exploring innovations in mental health care via psychedelics.
Her new book, Touching Two Worlds, is an award-winning, poetic, incisive exploration of grief and joy in the aftermath of loss. Her best-selling book, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there.
Sherry and her husband, Rob, reside in Minneapolis where they spend their time driving their children to music lessons. She has also been known to occasionally perform as a circus aerialist.
I practice what I preach.
I’m a business owner, a parent, a wife, a traveller, an ametuer circus artist, a daughter and a friend.
I don’t always get it right. Sometimes I’m slow to respond. Sometimes I forget something important. Sometimes I miss the mark.
But I’m reaching higher, learning more, and taking time to play and enjoy these precious moments.
Downloadable Headshots
Interviews
Interviews
ECOM Crew Podcast
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Dante 32 Podcast
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LMS Cast Podcast
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2 Cent Dad Podcast
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Ecommerce Fuel Podcast
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Developing Your Marketing Podcast
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The Art of Product Podcast
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Video Interviews
Video Interviews
Feedback
Feedback
Patrick McKenzie, patio11
“Sherry helps people be empathetic and gives them actionable insights to support friends, colleagues, and family members who might be having a rough go of things. If you need someone to talk about mental health, I can't recommend Sherry enough.
Sherry brings an accessibility and non-judgmental approach that are, unfortunately, still rare in the professional world. She understands the realities of the founder world; from working with founders, from being one, and from close personal experience seeing the ups and downs of a successful software business.”
Hiten Shah, Crazy Egg, KissMetrics
“Sherry has a passion for tackling one of the most critical issues with entrepreneurship: mental health for founders. After knowing her for a few years, I did a short interview for her podcast and was blown away at how comfortable I was sharing my personal stories.
Sherry has an ability to help founders with their deep personal struggles in a trustworthy and non-judgmental way. Simply put, she provides exactly the kind of support founders need.”
Thomas Smale, FE International
“Sherry brings a perspective to the world of entrepreneurship that is massively underserved yet widely prevalent. Her approach to mental health is open and honest - using her own experiences to provide insight and identify when you need help (spoiler alert: sooner than you think!)
I have watched Sherry speak a number of times. She’s also been a guest on our podcast and we’ve had various personal conversations. Sherry's insights have always proven invaluable, particularly in areas that are often not discussed publicly.”
Articles
Articles
Circus for the broken heart: How movement can help you work through grief
Flying through the air, eyes locked on that trapeze, has become part of a weekly routine for Dr. Sherry Walling.
Coming Up for Air: One Woman’s Grief Journey
Coping in the wake of personal loss looks different for everyone. For local trauma psychologist and author Sherry Walling, it was in the act of committing words to paper—and the art of taking flight. “There’s just so much emotion in aerial arts.”
The Big Happiness Interview: Dr Sherry Walling on how to manage grief and find hope
I lost both my parents to cancer when I was a teenager so have always been obsessed by books that help you understand grief.
Finding focus, and a path forward through grief, in the circus arts
Circus performance Thursday in Minneapolis will address grief, loss and hope