I am the Honorary Spiritual Support at Teesside Hospice. I support patients in the In-Patient Unit who are there for symptom management or end-of-life care. I also support their families and friends. I listen to their concerns, respond to the questions, and work with them to come to terms with the reality they are facing. Sometimes I am invited to help create their funeral and I have had the privilege of conducting several funerals for hospice patients. I also offer vow renewal ceremonies, end-of-life blessings, reconciliation with the past and with relationships, and Reiki. In addition I support staff, providing reflection times for all clinical staff and listening to individuals in distress. I have a privileged position and am honoured to hold space for staff, patients, families and friends.
I bring many tools to this work – 28 years as an exercise professional, health psychologist, and wellbeing consultant, 15 years as a Reiki Master, 12 years as a cancer rehab exercise specialist, 3 years as a OneSpirit interfaith minister and 2 years as a trauma-informed yoga teacher. I am an intuitive birth and death doula, end-of-life therapist, a Celebrant Plus (Coffin Club) and an experienced pastoral care-giver.
I plan and conduct funerals, working with several local funeral directors, but particularly closely associated with Last Wishes Funerals, York. We run open days and workshops to encourage people to talk about dying, to ask questions, and to plan their own funerals. We are concerned with low-cost, environmentally-safe funerals and use wool, cardboard, willow and other organic material coffins whenever possible.
I lead yoga circles in my community, offering weekly sessions and occasional weekend retreat days. My work focusses on restorative holistic exercise that is physio-spiritual. I weave themes through the sessions and often include chants, mudras (hand gestures), and pranayama (breathwork) as well as asanas (physical postures) and nidras (relaxation/visualisation).
I am passionate about being out in nature, walking, exploring, observing. I write poetry and am part of a global group called Poesy Healers, I take photographs and research plants, mosses, lichens, fungi and also local history, particularly Anglo-Saxon and Norse mythology.
Finally I am a 54 year-old autistic and ADHD woman, married to a man, and controlled by a wire-haired Dachshund and a feral cat!