Hi, my name is Jo and I’m an accredited Humanists UK Funeral Celebrant and have been conducting Humanist Funeral Ceremonies  in and around Worcestershire and the West Midlands for the last 6 years.

I have recently relocated to Pershore Worcestershire and will be offering funeral ceremonies in this area at The Vale Crematorium .

I also offer memorial ceremonies in local venues.

I create and deliver meaningful ceremonies that celebrate and honour a person in a way that best ‘fits’ them and does justice to who they were and how they lived their lives.

I’ve always been interested in what people believe and why! Like many of us, I spent a good part of my early years trying to work it all out. I explored various belief systems and even studied theology and philosophy for my first degree.  At 21 I graduated with a theology degree as a non-theist!  Soon after that I trained as a psychotherapist and have spent the  last 25+ years working therapeutically with people and supervising and training counsellors and psychotherapists.

Several years ago it occurred to me that some of the funerals that I’d attended had offered an old and tired format with far too little about the person who had died.  Sadly I have left too many funeral services feeling that the ceremony didn’t quite ‘fit’ the person.  Most of these ceremonies were religious and in many cases religion hadn’t been a part of the person’s life.

It seemed to me that people were not aware of the choices that were available. Thankfully this has changed for the better in recent years and now more people understand that it is perfectly possible to create a funeral ceremony that truly ‘fits’ a person.

My other passions in life include music, dogs, Kayaking, spoken word poetry and politics.  I am also a committed activist for change on issues related to mental health.