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Under British law, when someone dies, you are obliged to dispose of their body in an appropriate manner. You are not required to have a funeral or ceremony. The ceremonial part of the process is there to offer comfort and hope to the people left behind. They are for the benefit of the grieving, not the dead.
Marketing is an essential element of establishing and growing any business. It’s challenging when You are the key product and therefore your marketing can feel like showing-off. Add to this, the fact you’re doing a job that involves talking about death, and many Funeral Celebrants decide that they’ll deal with their marketing another day! We’re […]
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The Funeral Director and Celebrant or Minister will be your support team and expect you to ask them for help. They deal with the situation you are worrying about regularly. If they don't have the answer themselves, they will know who to ask. We tend to be 'brave' and 'cope' with more than we need to when we are dealing with grief.
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Leaving clear instructions about what we want to happen when we die, is a useful and sensible thing to do, and here-in starts the problem. When we die, those who love us are feeling pain and loss, they are often 'holding it together' for the sake of others and they are not feeling useful or sensible. They are now the ones who need to be looked after; not you. I know, that sounds a little harsh, but it is those who mourn our passing who would benefit the most from deciding how to honour us and what they want to include to help them grieve.
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Showing empathy or compassion is vital in our work as Celebrants. However, as we teach in all our programmes, the work we do as professional independent Celebrants, is never about us. This is often a challenge when we are met with grief. We’re taught to show compassion by saying things like ‘I know how you […]
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I am often asked what the difference is between a funeral and a life celebration. It’s the celebration that makes it different. A funeral, traditionally here in the UK at least, is often portrayed as depressing, sad, everyone dressed in black. A life celebration is carried out with a focus on the life of the […]
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It is easy to forget, when we are the people helping a grieving friend, that this looks and feels different for each of us. Grief is often described as a process and we understand there are several stages
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With practice. I encourage students to see themselves as Writers as soon as they start their Celebrant training. Write something every day of your working week. Put it in your diary as a task, to make sure you assign time to complete it. Funeral celebrant skills don't happen by accident; they require dedication to create truly bespoke ceremonies.
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When you meet people in their time of grief, you never know what to expect. We all react in a unique way and there is no format you can follow. What you can do, is be engaged in your listening. This requires a level of being present that may not be something you're used to.
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In this first blog is the series, we’re exploring Funeral Celebrant Skills. The key attributes, experience, qualities and knowledge that you bring to your role as a Funeral Celebrant. Are you well organised? Are you someone that everyone comes to when they need to organise an event or project? Perhaps you’re the person that’s got […]
