Rachel Schmidt is a leadership consultant, coach, and facilitator with than 30 years of experience across social work, community development, project management, and organizational leadership. She works with women leaders, physicians, academic chairs, and senior management teams navigating complex challenges and seeking to make a meaningful difference in their organizations and communities.

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At the heart of Rachel’s work is the understanding that organizations, like the natural world, are living systems. People, relationships, history, culture, and wider systems are constantly interacting, shaping what is possible and how change unfolds. Drawing inspiration from the natural world, she helps leaders look beyond the obvious, recognize patterns and underlying dynamics, and discover new ways of understanding the challenges they face. Her approach is about working with the currents already in motion rather than trying to force change from the outside.

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Rachel brings a distinctive depth to leadership development through her certification in Psychosynthesis, a depth psychology approach that explores the relationship between mind, body, and the deeper dimensions of self. Going beyond conventional approaches focused on skills and performance, she works with leaders to explore the values, beliefs, patterns, and aspirations shaping their choices. She creates space for deeper reflection and self-understanding, helping leaders bring greater alignment between who they are, what matters to them, and how they lead.

 

Her work has taken her internationally, collaborating with African, Indigenous, and Central American women on human rights, social justice, and environmental protection initiatives. As a documentary filmmaker, she produced Defensora, an award-winning film made in partnership with women land defenders challenging Canadian mining companies. The film is used in law school curricula across Canada and the United States and has been featured by Amnesty International.

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Through Inner Current Consulting, Rachel brings together systems thinking, coaching, organizational development, advocacy, storytelling, and the arts. Her work helps leaders see familiar challenges differently, understand the forces shaping their organizations, and find more thoughtful, creative, and human ways forward.