MY STORY 

For most of my life I’ve worked in international public health and in humanitarian aid, so I’ve lived in many parts of the world. I’ve also been a university academic, teaching and conducting research. I hold a PhD in medical anthropology.

In 2007, my husband and I returned home to New Zealand. I trained as a celebrant at AUT University and my life completely changed.  I do some consulting in the health sector, but my primary work is celebrancy. 

I love people. I love stories, I love writing and I’m an accomplished public speaker. I truly feel honoured to be able to work closely with people at important times in their lives.   

I’m skilled in inter-cultural and inter-faith ceremony and I’m able to incorporate, or blend, aspects of your culture and/or your spirituality. With a knowledge of Scottish Gaelic, I’m happy to include aspects of Gaelic culture in your ceremony.   

I’m a member of the Celebrants’ Association of New Zealand (CANZ) and I work within the Association’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. I’ve recently served as National President of CANZ.  

For me, ceremonies and rituals mark the thresholds of our lives: those transitions from one way of being to another.   

The Irish writer, John O’Donohue, said this:

A threshold is a significant frontier where experience banks up. It is a place of great transformation ... and on each side there is a different geography of feeling, thinking and being.  

I want you to experience a meaningful ceremony which is absolutely based in your wishes and ideas, but most of all, I want you to experience the crossing of a threshold.