A little bit about me
My world
Hi there. I’m Rachel (she/her/hers) and I live in Bristol with my husband, three children and our lovely dog.
I grew up in Dorset with easy access to the outdoors for cycling, horse riding and orienteering. Work experience in vets and on farms, camping holidays in North Wales, expeditions on Dartmoor and walking in the mountains with the dog whatever the weather all helped to nurture my love for nature. A gap year conservation project in Nepal and travelling and learning Spanish in South America really shaped what I wanted out of life – to make a difference for both animals and humans.
So, I studied (and partied and made lifelong friends!) in Leeds and Edinburgh; taught vocational Animal Care courses (and got married) in Oxford; trained to teach English as a Foreign Language in Lisbon (and studied dolphins in the zoo) and then settled in brilliant Bristol (with regular trips to France) where I worked in the field of animal welfare and staff wellbeing in a university environment, and also volunteered for Pets As Therapy, for nearly twenty years. By then, my children were growing up fast, I was feeling older, the policemen were looking younger and I decided I was ready for a new direction.
Why a celebrant?
Wanting to make use of my existing skills, I was looking for ideas when I saw an advert for a celebrant training course with the International College of Professional Celebrants. It was an epiphany moment! I recalled the sense of pride I had felt as a teenager reading a poem at my grandpa’s funeral and how it helped me accept the fact that he had died. I still vividly remember my own wedding day and how important it was for us to do things our way – if only we had known that celebrants existed, putting together the ceremony would have been so much easier. I remembered not getting our children christened because we are not religious, feeling that it would have been nice to mark their arrival in the world in some significant way but not knowing how to go about it. I mournfully recollected our dog’s final visit to the vet after we had all said our goodbyes and wishing that we had commemorated his life in some way to help our grieving process.
The intensive practical training by experienced and passionate professionals, gave me the opportunity to practice and be assessed on all types of ceremony from couples and namings to funerals. Empathy and active listening skills were honed and the importance of diversity and equality considered thoroughly in providing a truly inclusive experience for clients, both during interviews and when creating the wording of a ceremony. As well as the thorough learning, I came away with the support of a celebrant network. This means that I keep myself regularly updated with Continued Professional Development sessions and in the unlikely event that I might be unable to provide a ceremony, then I would be able to suggest another celebrant who I think would be a good fit for you.
Why should I be your celebrant?
My love of yoga, running, recorder playing, singing in a choir and having fun at festivals have seen me through the ups and downs of life. The key themes connecting everything are love, words and music. I recently built further on love and words by completing Mental Health First Aid training, a truly enlightening experience and I now have an updated wellbeing toolkit to dip into whenever, and by whoever, it might be needed.
So now here I am – a trained celebrant keen to connect with people like you, to put you at ease and let my reliable, adaptable and compassionate nature shine through.
Allow me to guide you calmly through your most precious moments.
Browse my ceremony pages and then contact me to book or find out more.
