Rachel Schmidt, BSW, PLC
Rachel Schmidt, BSW, PLC
What happens when the life you’ve built is no longer the life that feels meaningful to you?
If you have been feeling a quiet pull inward — a sense that the life you have carefully built no longer fits in the same way — you may already be standing at the edge of something new.
There are times in life when things that once felt certain begin to change. The roles that once defined you shift. The pace that once carried you becomes too much. What once felt important starts to lose its meaning, and what comes next is not yet clear.
It can feel disorienting to be in that in-between place — knowing something is ending, while something new has not yet arrived. Feeling the longing for a life that feels more alive, more honest, more your own, even if you cannot yet name it.
You may have spent years caring for others, building a career, raising children, managing a home, holding everything together. For a long time, that rhythm made sense.
But something is shifting now. That way of living may no longer feel like enough
You are wanting a different kind of life, one that feels more alive, spacious, and deeply your own. A life with more meaning, more beauty, more moments that restore you. A life that is slower, cyclical, restorative, and rooted in what feels deeply real.
This is the work at the heart of The Forest Studio.
Moving between who you once were and who you are becoming is tender, disorienting, and profoundly transformative work. Like travel - arriving somewhere new, where nothing is familiar, and you slowly learn how to belong again - discovering unfamiliar parts of yourself and learning to reorient as you go. This work asks you to release old rhythms before new ones are fully formed. But within that uncertainty is also possibility - a chance to return to yourself in a deeper way than before.
A Place to Come Home to Yourself
Hello, I’m Rachel.
I work with women who sense something is shifting, who feel caught between who they once were and who they are becoming, and are beginning to listen to what is asking to change.
I created The Forest Studio as a quiet, beautiful, reflective space to support women moving through this transition. I bring over 30 years of experience in social work, depth psychology coaching, and teaching to this work, along with my own lived experience. In my 50s, I have navigated the transition of an empty nest, the complexities of caring for aging parents, deep seasons of grief, and the release of a career identity I had simply outlived.
I am also a mother, artist, and activist, and I know that art and the natural world have the capacity to change us — to soften, awaken, and reorient us — especially in times of uncertainty and becoming.
My daily life is anchored in a forest of ancient, 150-year-old trees. For over thirty years, this place has held me steady, keeping me grounded and connected to a natural way of being — one that is seasonal, cyclical, and rooted in the rhythms of the living world.
From this grounded perspective, I partner with women as a supportive ally and thinking partner. Through one-to-one consulting and contemplative art experiences that bring you into relationship with the natural world, you begin to listen more closely to what is calling you.
Below, you’ll find a few different ways to begin.
Rachel Schmidt, BSW, PLC
The Way Forward: Natural Life Design
We don't force or rush the next chapter; we let it unfold. My framework is a slow, seasonal approach designed to help you step out of old identities, listen to the quiet, and gently align your days with what matters most to you now.
The Way We Walk: Natural Life Design
A Glimpse Inside: Land & Body Contemplative Art Courses
What happens when we slow down enough to listen to the land and our own bodies? This gallery showcases the creative artifacts and inner expressions from women who chose to step away from their daily roles to meet themselves at a more elemental level.
Through nature-based mindfulness and quiet, contemplative practice, they bypassed the busy analysis of everyday life and allowed a deeper intelligence to surface. What you will see on the next page are the tangible traces of their four-month journeys — artistic reflections of women learning to experience themselves not just as onlookers, but as a rooted part of the living world. Click below to explore their shared stories of land, self, and belonging.
Kind Words
What women are saying .
Lola, 58
“Working with Rachel is a rare experience. She holds space with such care, insight, and wisdom that you immediately feel seen and supported. Her guidance blends reflection, creativity, and a deep understanding of the inner life, helping you reconnect with parts of yourself that have been quiet or waiting for attention. She supported me in creating a meaningful and exciting next chapter that I am truly loving.”
Maya, 53
“I discovered a new way of being present, with myself and in nature. The reflections in Rachel's life design process opened up a sense of longing for something more meaningful in my daily life, and a curiosity about what that might look like. Rachel is an amazing ally who creates a safe and trusting space, blending her background in counselling and contemplative arts. Highly recommend this work if you too are looking for your next chapter."
Sada, 47
The Land & Body Course helped me see how life moves through landscapes and through myself - in rhythms and flows I had not noticed before. By tuning into these natural patterns, I gained a clearer sense of how to move with life instead of against it. It’s a powerful way to understand change and find balance. This was my 3rd course with Rachel."