Flourish After 45

A two-day retreat for women navigating midlife, led by Dr Fiona Schneider

Friday 19th and Saturday 20th February 2027

Midlife can bring a lot of change at once: shifting roles at home and work, changes in careers and relationships, teenagers who suddenly feel like strangers, and the physical and emotional realities of menopause. It’s easy to keep going for everyone else and lose sight of yourself along the way.

Flourish After 45 is a two-day retreat at Rydal Hall for women aged 40 and over. It offers time to pause, reflect and look ahead with fresh purpose, set in the peace of the Lake District. Through teaching, small-group conversation, prayer, movement and time outdoors, you’ll explore what it means to flourish in body, mind and spirit in this next chapter of life.

What the retreat covers

• • Shifting roles: balancing love, guilt and boundaries at home and at work

• • Career and calling: navigating job loss, feeling stuck or late blooming, and how faith and identity shape your work

• • Relationships: marriage, loneliness and relationship changes, with breakout groups for married, divorced and single women

• • Parenting teenagers: communication, faith and healthy detachment

• • Menopause and mental health: hormones, fatigue, brain fog and mood, with a whole-person approach that also embraces new freedoms

• • Faith in the wilderness: rediscovering God in the middle years through worship, testimony and quiet reflection

• • Wellness and worth: letting go of shame and finding sustainable, joyful health

• • Vision and purpose: a spiritual gifts inventory, goal setting and writing your own “Midlife Manifesto”

A rhythm of rest and renewal

Each day balances group sessions with space to breathe. There’s optional morning exercise outdoors, breathwork, a “Joy in Motion” movement session, time for journaling and personal prayer, and an evening campfire or candlelit reflection. Meals are shared together, and on Sunday morning you’re welcome to join the service in the Rydal Hall chapel, followed by a closing event before you head home.

You’ll leave with a clearer sense of who you are, what matters most to you, and how you want to live the years ahead.

About your retreat leader

Dr Fiona Schneider brings together medicine, coaching and spiritual direction. She trained as an obstetrician and gynaecologist in London, Leeds and Oxford, and has worked across England and Germany, including at the US Armed Forces Hospital in Frankfurt. She also ran her own women’s health clinic in Germany, where she added herbal medicine, psychosomatic care and nutrition to her practice.

Through her clinical work, Fiona saw at first hand the pressures women carry. She went on to train as a coach, supporting women who juggle many responsibilities and are at risk of burnout. She is also a trained Spiritual Director and a Licensed Lay Minister at All Saints’ Church, Ilkley.

Flourish After 45 began as Fiona’s successful online programme, and this retreat brings it to life in person. Fiona leads the retreat, with guest contributors leading some sessions.

Retreat details

• • Dates: Friday 19 – Sunday 21 February 2027

• • Arrival: Friday at 4pm

• • Departure: Sunday, after the closing event that follows the chapel service. If you’d prefer, you can leave on Saturday evening instead.

• • Price: from £350 per person

• • Who it’s for: women aged around 40 and over in any season of midlife transition