My Background

Like many other people, the death of close friends and relatives has made me re-evaluate what I want to do with my life.

Naturally, the death of both my mother and a close friend were distressing events that rocked my equilibrium.  Where I was involved in organizing my mother’s funeral, it became part of a healing process.  A meeting with close family and our celebrant allowed us to chat together, reminisce on shared moments that made us smile and unearth some buried memories.

The funeral itself was a celebration of my mother’s life, with the celebrant eloquently conveying why my mum had been so special to us, her friends and family.  It was a warm and touching send-off that enabled us all to say our goodbyes.

The idea came into focus that becoming a celebrant would be a rewarding way for me to help other local people with their grief.

It turns out that I have been training to be a celebrant for most of my adult life.  My commercial background has been helpful as I gained experience as a Humanist celebrant.  Effective planning, clear communication and regular checking with the family, funeral director and venue are simple prerequisites.   Coaching teams and colleagues has helped me understand how to help talk and work with individuals during challenging times.  Building long-term partnership with businesses required my carefully listening to stakeholders to understand what they needed.  Finally, twenty years experience of standing up and presenting to press and customers at product launches has meant that I am comfortable talking to a room full of people.