Rachel Schmidt, BSW, PLC
Rachel Schmidt, BSW, PLC
The opportunity
The Slow Intensive is a four-month, one-to-one creative experience to explore your life, understand yourself more deeply, and discover what comes next in your work and life.
Many women who are drawn to my four-month contemplative art courses are looking for a more personalised opportunity to explore their own questions, experiences, and possibilities in greater depth. The Slow Intensive offers this kind of space: time set aside just for you, with individual support and guidance, and a process shaped around the specific things that are calling to you.
Through a distinctive, deeply nourishing approach, I use the natural world as a place for observation and reflection. Because sometimes the thing standing between us and our most meaningful life and work is not a lack of ideas. It is learning to recognize what is calling us.
-
The image that keeps appearing.
-
The strange question you cannot quite shake.
-
The colour you keep returning to.
-
The landscape that changes something in you.
-
The idea you dismissed three years ago that is suddenly asking for your attention.
What might happen if you followed those threads?
You will spend time in nature. Make things. Experiment. Wander. Look closely. Share unfinished work and have rich conversations. Explore the practices and perspectives of other artists. Through photography, writing, walking, collecting, making, and contemplative practices, you will discover new ways of seeing yourself and your life.
Through this process, you will:
-
Discover your creative voice and see your life in new ways. By paying attention to the images, patterns, ideas, and experiences that draw you in, you can begin to recognize what matters to you and find new ways to express what you see and feel.
-
Reconnect with beauty, goodness, and possibility. Through a closer relationship with the natural world and your own creative practice, you may begin to notice things you had overlooked, see familiar experiences differently, and discover new possibilities for your life and work.
The Slow Intensive isn't counselling. It's a creative, reflective process that gives you time and space to explore what is emerging, follow your curiosity, and discover what might unfold when you approach your life with fresh eyes.
The structure and investment
The Slow Intensive is a four-month commitment, with a high level of individual support throughout. This includes one 75-minute working session with me on Zoom each month, plus email support and follow-up between sessions.
The cost is $250 CAD per month x four months.
I've worked hard to keep the monthly cost accessible so more women can experience dedicated one-to-one support and the equivalent of a personal retreat, without having to travel or step away from their everyday lives.
I sometimes think of the cost as the equivalent of a massage, a yoga class, and lunch out once a month - a meaningful investment in yourself, with dedicated time and space to explore your life and discover new possibilities.
You can pay monthly, and if you find the experience isn't what you need, you can cancel at any time.
Facilitator
Rachel Schmidt, BSW, PLC
%20(Landscape))%20-%2059_edited.jpg)
Hello, I'm Rachel. I'm so glad you've found your way here.
Perhaps you are in a season of change. Something no longer fits, yet what comes next is not fully clear. You may be longing for more meaning, more beauty, more ease, or simply a deeper connection to yourself and the life that is calling you.
I created The Forest Studio as a quiet, reflective space for women navigating these moments. A place to slow down, listen deeply, and reconnect with what matters most.
My work is rooted in over 30 years of experience in social work, contemplative arts, nature-based mindfulness, and Psychosynthesis. More importantly, it is shaped by my own seasons of change. In my 50s, I have navigated an empty nest, caring for aging parents, deep grief, and the gradual release of a career identity I had simply outgrown. I know what it is to stand in the middle of life and not fully know what is next.
I am also a mother, artist, activist, and soon-to-be yoga teacher. Again and again, I have witnessed how art, presence, and the natural world help us find our way back to ourselves. They soften us. They steady us. They help us hear what is true beneath the noise.
If something here resonates with you, I invite you to stay awhile. You may be closer to your next step than you think.
