I am the Honorary Spiritual Support at Teesside Hospice, currently completing the Postgraduate Certificate in Chaplaincy Studies. I am a funeral celebrant, sacred listener, healer, and trauma-informed yoga teacher. I describe myself as a panspiritual practitioner.
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 55 year-old autistic and ADHD woman, married to a man, and controlled by a wire-haired Dachshund and a feral cat!
Thank you Leti, yesterday was indeed a very happy and sad one. Celebratory, life-affirming and coming to grips with the reality of Mum\’s time on this earth ended. You were truly amazing and how fortunate were we all to be in your safe hands. 🫶🙏🙌. Tying up the final goodbyes today and reflecting on a life lived so well. Xxxx
Leti i can’t thank you enough 🩷🩷🩷 you were absolutely perfect exactly what i wanted!!!! Thank you for your kind words we were really happy with how today turned out! Thank you so much! You’ve been a real blessing in my life i’m so glad me and mum met you! Xxxx
A Valentine\’s Day honouring to Leti, for your work, for being there for those who have loved, and lost loved ones.
Leti, in these days, you walk now as both Sister, witness and guardian, hand in hand with the ebbing light of a soul preparing to cross the threshold.
Yours is the love that steadies, the presence that soothes, the breath that carries whispers of peace.
In this sacred passage, you are the keeper of her or his story, the gentle bridge between here and the beyond. The moon watches, the stars listen, the river moves her waters to the ocean, and the unseen gathers close-honoring the depth of your devotion and love for your friends & those that are loved.
May your heart be wrapped in the hush of divine grace, and may you feel the eternal embrace of all that is holy, holding you both in love\’s unbroken circle as those moments draw close, and that moment passes.
Soul-spirited love & blessings, Paula
We are so grateful to have had your talents and skills and kindness today Leti. I know people must say this to you a lot but you are truly blessed and amazing at what you do and you are just FAB! I’ll be eternally grateful to you Leti ❤️
You have found your calling; all of the people I’ve spoken to this afternoon have said how amazing you are!!!! 🥰
And that it was one of the most uplifting services they’ve ever been to
To Leti
A very big thank you for a wonderful service and for all the love and support you showed my beautiful wife Vanessa, through such a difficult time.
Vanessa loved you Leti and so do me and our family we will never forget you xxxx
I lost an angel in my beautiful wife Vanessa but then we gained another one in you Leti.
Just a little message to say a big thanks to you. Your support and care throughout this difficult time for me and my family is truly amazing.
God bless you Leti Hawthorn