Celebrant, mindfulness practitioner, facilitator, communicator, holder of circles, weaver of stories… friend, partner, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister…
What will strike you immediately upon meeting Wendy, whether at work as a celebrant, in the class room, online or in the street, is her warmth, kindness and innate ability to understand and listen deeply. Despite her extraordinary skill-set she has the ability to connect with people she meets as peers and with genuine interest and curiosity, enabling honest conversations about life’s real issues – relationship and marriage, death and dying, stress, mourning and challenges; or joy and celebration.
- Wendy has been a family celebrant for 27 years – weddings, namings, community funerals, intimate home funeral ceremonies, memorials, special birthday celebrations and divorce ceremonies.
- As an award winning celebrant and the author of many celebrant related books and resources, she has provided professional development, celebrant mentoring and resources since 2003 to celebrants around the world.
- Wendy is a practitioner and facilitator of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program and hosts mindfulness programs online.
- She attended the International Intensive Training in Nonviolent Communication (NVC) with trainer Robert Gonzales, and studied NVC Mediation, Convergent Facilitation and other foundational NVC programs; and regularly hosts Ongo: Everyday Nonviolence (Catherine Cadden and Jesse Wiens Chu) and empathy circles.
- Founder and creator of the acclaimed six month program, ‘Celebrating this Precious Life, Honest Conversations about Death and Dying’ bringing together her skills in celebrancy, mindfulness and NVC.
- Facilitator of Mourning and Celebration Circles.
Wendy’s passion and commitment is to mindful presence, deep listening and supporting individuals and groups to engage in honest conversations and meaningful connections and celebrations.
Wendy loves life and she writes, ‘I love to garden. I imagine when my grandsons are older they will remember eating fresh peas from the vine, plucking the asparagus shoots, finding strawberries hidden in amongst the massive leaves, harvesting fresh lettuce, looking for the slugs and watching out for snakes. I also love to volunteer in the NVC and mindfulness community where the people are diverse, enthusiastic, honest and an absolute joy to be with and learn from. I hear the call that poet, John O’Donohue, writes to in his ‘Blessing for Presence’,
‘May you awaken to the mystery of being here
and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence’.
My other loves include climbing mountains, being out in wild places, lying down on the grass or on the warm sand, swimming out in the rip and drifting into the deep water behind the waves and then body surfing in. I love my friends and family.
Lastly, but not least, I love being with my partner. We have given each other lots of opportunities to grow and, 25 years later (2022), I am still grateful to be by his side. We have always lived separately and have lived next door to each for the past 12 years.
All in all, I get to celebrate this one precious life that is mine to live.
