David Matheson brings decades of experience in facilitation, leadership, and community-building to to gay men’s group travel and retreats at CAKO Tours & Retreats. His path has been anything but ordinary—and it deeply informs the way he creates meaningful group experiences.

Raised in a devout Mormon household, David internalized deeply anti-gay beliefs that led him to repress his own sexuality. After becoming a therapist in 1996, his early work included elements of conversion therapy—an approach he later came to fully reject. By 2019, he had renounced these practices, left the Mormon Church, ended his long marriage, and publicly came out as gay. Today, he practices as a gay-affirmative therapist and is engaged to a man.

Over three decades, David has lived and worked in Los Angeles, New York, and Utah, and spent time teaching in the Democratic Republic of Congo. His clinical and personal experiences have given him deep insight into trauma, shame, religious harm, and other complex challenges faced by many gay men.

Alongside his clinical work, David has been deeply involved in men’s group experiences and retreats since 2001. He co-created two major experiential retreat programs that were conducted hundreds of times and attended by thousands of men, along with numerous shorter groups and workshops focused on connection and community. Through this work, he learned how thoughtfully designed group environments can foster trust, belonging, and lasting relationships.

In the mid-2010s, a former retreat participant encouraged David to bring this work into the gay community—an idea that eventually became CAKO Tours & Retreats.

Today, CAKO brings together David’s passions for meaningful travel, men’s community, and cultural exploration. It currently offers curated, fully hosted group tours, including our upcoming Rio de Janeiro experience, with immersive men’s retreats planned as a future expansion.

CAKO tours are thoughtfully designed small-group travel experiences for gay men centered on culture, adventure, and community. They are not therapy programs. While David’s background informs the care and intention behind each journey, these trips are created first and foremost for enjoyment, connection, and cultural exploration.

In time, CAKO will also introduce dedicated men’s retreats that draw more directly on David’s experience in personal development and group facilitation. These retreats will provide space for deeper reflection and growth—highly experiential and supportive, without being formal psychotherapy.

Through CAKO, David is honored to create spaces where gay men can explore the world together through meaningful small-group travel and community experiences, build lasting friendships and community, and—when they choose—engage more deeply with themselves and one another within a trusted community. To learn more about joining an upcoming journey, visit our registration page.

For those who would like to learn more about David’s personal and professional journey, you can read more here.