What if the places you love most aren't just beautiful landscapes - but reminders? Tiny messengers pulling you back to something true. The land carries a quiet wisdom. When we spend time in its presence, we can sense the aliveness of the natural world and recognize pieces of ourselves reflected there—perhaps even a hint of what we are searching for.
WELCOME to Land & Body, a contemplative arts and self development course that invites you to spend four months in conversation with the natural world, exploring how landscapes can awaken awe, wonder, and possibility, and how your body is deeply woven into the life of the land.
This is an invitation to a slow, intentional, creative journey - to let the land’s wisdom guide you toward a clearer view of what you’ve been seeking, through art, story, and deep connection.
Live Zoom Classes
Starts: Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Thursday, October 16, 2025 overseas
What if the land you’re drawn to holds a mirror to who you are becoming?
.jpg)
.jpg)
Hello ~
I'm so glad you're here.
Land & Body is a 4-month immersive journey into the living relationship between place and self — a gentle, creative exploration of how the landscapes we move through can shape, reflect, and awaken the inner terrain of our lives.
Rooted in nature-based practices, quiet observation, and the language of creative expression, Land & Body invites you to wander slowly, listen deeply, and let the rhythms of the natural world speak to you. What hidden truths are waiting in the hills, rivers, forests, and the sea? And what new story of yourself might they be longing to tell?
In a world that moves fast, slow learning offers a different path — one of presence, depth, and integration. Land & Body invites you to listen deeply to yourself and the world around you, honouring your nervous system and natural rhythms. This gentle pace creates space for something real to emerge—not from striving, but from awareness, presence, and meaningful connection.
This program is for you if you want to:
-
Feel more grounded, calm, and clear during life transitions
-
Reconnect deeply with nature in a way that transforms how you see yourself
-
Explore your connection to land, place, and belonging to uncover new insights
-
Experience moments of clarity—glimpses—that reveal who you are becoming
-
Create meaningful art or writing inspired by your relationship with the natural world
-
Strengthen your intuition through focused attention, reflection, and presence
-
Connect with a supportive community of like-hearted women on a similar journey
Classes & Monthly Themes
Wednesday, October 15 or Thursday, Oct 16 2025
Belonging to Place: Noticing Where You Feel Most at Home, and Why
Begin by noticing and connecting with the places where you feel most at home - places that are also alive with wonder and possibility, and may serve as doorways to something new you’re seeking. Using deep reflection techniques, explore the feelings and memories these places bring up for you. Discover the connection between land and body through the work of women artists, whose pieces speak to shared themes of identity, belonging, and transformation - helping you deepen your understanding and inspiring your own creative expression.
Wednesday November 19, 2025 or Thursday November 20, 2025
The Land as Teacher: Listening, Presence, and Uncovering Wisdom
Learn to pay close attention to the quiet messages and stories the land offers through thoughtful and careful observation. Develop your ability to listen deeply and be fully present as you spend time in nature, discovering a new language that brings fresh insights and guidance around tension points and feelings of misalignment in your life. Explore the natural concept of flow, and practice ways to bring its rhythms into your daily life.
Wednesday December 17, 2025 or Thursday December 18, 2025
Listening to the Land: Symbols, Textures, Stories in the Natural World
This month centres on perception—the textures, shapes, and symbols the land offers to your awareness. Through mindful photography, drawing, and other creative practices, you’ll develop a visual language that helps you catch glimpses not only of place but also of what you are searching for within yourself.
Wednesday January 21, 2026 or Thursday January 22, 2025
The Land That Calls You: Mapping the Terrain of Longing and Resonance
Close the season by exploring your personal geography of belonging and yearning—the places you’ve come from, where you are now, and the steps ahead. Through the creative practice of handmade maps, you’ll weave your story into the larger story of the land, uncovering the paths and longings that guide you forward.
Times - 2 Hour Sessions One Wednesday per month x 4 months
October 15: North America
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PST
October 16: Please note this will be a Thursday class for women overseas
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm New Zealand
11:00 am - 1:00 pm Australia
8:00 am - 10: 00 am Vietnam
Each month, we’ll meet online live to explore the landscapes that call to us—places we’ve walked, longed for, or dreamed about. These landscapes may be physical or imagined, real or remembered, but each one holds something meant for you. Along the way, we’ll draw inspiration from artists, writers, creatives, and healers who have walked these paths before us.
As you listen to the stories of others and return to the land again and again, you may begin to notice how place shapes your identity, memory, and belonging. This is an invitation to remember the landscapes that live within you—and to deepen your relationship with the living world around you.
Between monthly sessions, you’ll spend time in the natural world exploring your connection to the landscapes that are calling you, and record the changes and shifts that are happening for you. You can use any medium to do this - creative writing, photography, painting, sketching or simply wandering and observing the ecosystem around you.
Who Will Love This?
Women wanting to find more presence and beauty in everyday life, who are drawn to a creative life and the natural world around them—and the inner world within. This course is for those who want to shift into deeper self-awareness, reflection, and connection with the natural world—so they can discover, express, and integrate the many parts of themselves, and live the life that’s quietly calling them forward. Because a calm and clear mind creates a deeply happy body and soul.
No artistic experience needed. Just a curious heart and a willingness to listen.
Course Fee
Total Hours: 8
Total Seats: 10
Cost: $225 CAD + GST/$175 USD
Facilitator
Rachel Schmidt BSW, PLC
%20(Facebook%20Post%20(Square)).jpg)
✨ Hello, I'm Rachel
I created Land & Body for women who feel more alive around certain landscapes, and are interested in understanding why. This course is for you if you've walked through a forest and felt wonder, stood at the edge of the sea longing for something, or you are searching for a home you can’t quite name.
Land & Body is a four-month creative exploration of how the landscapes we love—and the ones that call to us—can mirror, move, and transform us. Through nature-based mindfulness, contemplative practices, and creative work, we’ll explore the living relationship between place and psyche, body and belonging.
I use nature-based mindfulness, Psychosynthesis, and contemplative arts to support women in reconnecting with the deepest parts of themselves—often through their connection to the natural world. Many of the women I work with carry a quiet longing to live closer to what feels true. The land helps them find the way.
My studio is located in a forest in British Columbia, Canada, surrounded by 150-year-old trees. I hold a degree in social work and bring over 30 years of experience in the helping professions. I’m also certified in Psychosynthesis, a depth-oriented coaching approach that honours the whole self. A mother, artist, and activist, I feel most at home in nature - especially when paddling my kayak across a quiet lake beneath a sky full of stars.
With a background in counselling, teaching, holistic wellness, and the visual arts, I bring together these threads to create rich, reflective experiences like Land & Body. These online gatherings are deeply connected spaces where women come home to themselves through their relationship with land.
"I discovered a new way of being present, not just with nature but with myself. The practices opened up a longing for something more meaningful in my daily life, and what that might look like. Rachel is an amazing facilitator and created a safe and trusting online space, blending her background in counselling and contemplative arts. Highly recommend."
— Maya L.