Why choose me as your celebrant?
As a long-time practitioner of rituals in my work as a therapist and trainer, I know how valuable the creation of a ritual can be to support us as we face life’s inevitable changes.
Rituals are personal, they can be elemental, they are always transformative.
Rituals support us in liminal space. They help us to find meaning. They invite us to really 'be' in our experience, to go over the threshold into a new space and time.
If you decide to commission me, you will get attentive, sensitive, creative and reliable accompaniment to ensure your celebration is an event to treasure.
I will support you to plan, organise, create and, if wanted, lead a ritual that will help you to mark any major transition or life change.
We will create a ceremony to gladden your heart. Together we can celebrate life!
If you aren't familiar with Celebrancy there are some FAQs to help give you a better understanding. Please click on the headings below to find out more:
• My role?
My role is about supporting the key people (be they excited lovers or grieving mourners) to make choices about the ceremony they want - maybe a hand-fasting ceremony or a wedding service, on a barge or a beach or in an air-balloon, or a woodland burial or cremation. Together we will consider 'what fits' : where, what, how, who, when. Whether simple or elaborate, traditional or original, with or without a theme, we will build your ceremony to reflect the look and feel of your particular celebration. This may include readings, music, dress code, activities, readers or speakers. I can support you to write any speeches. I will write the eulogy, if requested, and I lead the ceremony itself. Afterwards, a script of the whole event will be left with you or the family.
• What does a Celebrant do?
A celebrant is a non-religious person who works with you to create an event, a celebration, to mark a particularly significant moment or transition in your life - or the life of a loved one.
Historically or traditionally, this position/role would be filled by a vicar, a priest, a rabbi, an imam or some other religious figure. We live now in a much more secular society. Many people have no religious affiliation. Some have strong spiritual beliefs that do not fit into those traditional categories. We are much more personal, more individual these days.
We want to mark the significant things that happen in our lives in more individual and personal ways. We have come to expect to have choice and we like it.
Asking me to work closely with you as your celebrant to organise an event - like a baby-naming ceremony, a hand-fasting, a wedding, a funeral, even a decision move abroad or the successful conclusion to a divorce - means you can choose what and how you want the event to take shape.
You can influence what happens so that the event truly reflects you, the person or people at its heart.
• When you might want a celebrant?
There are many occasions in our lives that a celebrant can help you to mark or celebrate with a ritual or special event to mark their importance:
- Births
- Baby-naming
- Exam success
- Leaving home
- Making a commitment
- Getting married
- Job or career success or change
- Relationship change
- Divorce
- Moving house
- Retirement or job loss
- Health changes
- Losses and deaths
The truly rewarding aspect about being a celebrant is that I can co-create a ceremony that truly reflects the life or life circumstances of my client that is life enhancing for all concerned.
• What are the costs?
This is always going to depend to some extent on the financial circumstances of the client and the degree of elaboration they want.
My prices at this moment in time range around £400.
• My training?
I am an experienced psychotherapist and counsellor. See 'About Me'
I trained as a funeral celebrant with Green Fuse of Buckfastleigh. I am a member of the Green Fuse Funeral Celebrants’ Guild and hold professional liability insurance with Balens.
I love to accompany people as they come to their own or their loved one's death in a way that celebrates the glories and challenges of being a full human being.
• How I would work with you, for example to plan a funeral?
I always work with my clients in the way that they are most comfortable, but typically most funeral celebrancy takes the following format:
- I will normally come to you in your home or invite you to meet elsewhere.
- I will work closely with you and your family members and/or friends to find out all I can about what was important in the life of your loved one.
- I will take time with you to discover how a ceremony can best reflect the essence of the person who has died.
- I will support you at that time when making choices and decisions can feel really hard.
- I will find out the wishes not only of the deceased person but also of the close remaining mourners to ensure that the ceremony that is created truly fits and celebrates that life.
Testimonial:
"After my wife passed away suddenly, I was recommended Lynne to lead a memorial gathering for her.
I found Lynne to be very sensitive and thoughtful, as she sought to understand the character of my late wife, and then personalised the event to reflect who she was.
Lynne created particular details and ceremony stages which were especially fitting, also involving those attendees who wished to add something personal to the occasion.
Lynne went the extra mile with these preparations, and I know that my wife's friends really appreciated being able to share their memories of times spent together.
The gathering went really well, and so many people agreed with me afterwards that Lynne had been the right person to lead it.
I strongly recommend any bereaved person, or family, to consider an event like this - either as a funeral or separately. A most special way to say goodbye."
Funeral celebrancy
Perhaps the most obvious time that you might want a celebrant, and the one that can be the most difficult to talk about, is a funeral. As a funeral celebrant, I work closely with the funeral director who has the responsibility of dealing with the body.
Tenderly, I now touch all things
knowing one day we will part.
St John of the Cross