Andrea Smith - Greater London - willing to travel further afield for additional costs

"I hold the highest possible qualification in celebrancy in the UK - NOCN Level 3 Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy.  I was trained by the leading industry providers, Civil Ceremonies Ltd and Green Fuse which means I have been rigorously assessed for my skill and suitability as a Celebrant.  I hold a current DBS certificate & am fully insured for public liability and professional indemnity.  Overall, this means you can have every confidence in me to create and deliver an appropriate and unique ceremony with sensitivity and empathy.

I am an ordained Interfaith Minister, skilled listener and able to deliver any spiritual or religious content in your ceremony with authority and gravitas.  Compassionate counsellor and minister, I am able to hold and support people through their most emotionally charged times of their lives. In addition, I hold CPCAB L2 Person-centred counselling, have participated in Fundamentals of Re-evaluation counselling and the Compassion Course non-violent communication training with the New York Centre for NVC.  I practice Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (Palouse), I am a trained Flower Essence Therapy Practitioner and have practiced Usui Reiki I & II (Barbara McGregor) since way back in the 1990’s.

I am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.  I hold a first class honours degree in Arts & Festival Management, have a background as a Steiner Waldorf Kindergarten Teacher, and have undergone safeguarding and events training.  After becoming a recipient of a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship, I introduced the Art of Mentoring and 8 Shields to the UK and have joined in Village Building & Peacemaking trainings in the US and Europe over many years as well as helping facilitate Condolence Ceremonies - community grief witnessing rituals - in Germany with Native American (Odawa) Peacemaker, Paul Raphael.

As a professional, I strive to be at the leading edge of my industry and list below some of my recent continued professional development :

Ancestral Lineage Healing Practitioner training, Ancestral Medicine

Medicine Ways, Trackways

Rites of Passage training, Asha Centre,

Tending Grief within Community, Helpers Mentoring Society
Refreshing & Enhancing Funeral Ministry skills, Ceremony Matters
Introduction to Soul Midwifery, The Soul Midwives School
Foundation of Ritual training, Ancestral Medicine
Ancestral Lineage Healing, Ancestral Medicine
Die Wise: Making Meaning at the End of Days, Stephen Jenkinson

Experienced in holding ritual and ceremony, my background also includes organising community camps and deep nature connection facilitation influenced by Starhawk’s Earth Activist Training, Permaculture Design and Bushcraft & Survival/Wilderness Spirit Philosophy training with Trackways.  I also used to be a volunteer for Forest School Camps.  From this you can see that I am very at home conducting ceremonies outdoors in woodland and wilderness settings - natural burials and earth barrows in particular.

I will listen carefully to your story and your wishes, I may suggest meaningful symbolic actions or ritual observances and I will craft a bespoke ceremony to commemorate your loved one the way you want to. On the day, I will conduct the proceedings and perform the formalities with decorum and dignity – the focus is always on you and your loved ones.

It will be an honour for me to help you.

Testimonial :

"I am so grateful to have had you play such an important part in making my mum’s funeral a really beautiful and truly memorable day.  Nearly everyone who was there, or managed to watch it at home, has been in touch since to tell me how sensitive and moving they thought the service was.  I can’t really thank you enough Andrea for guiding me through this incredibly difficult journey.  You have the rarest of qualities that are needed to be able to bring something so meaningful to people at these important moments in their lives.  Steve"

https://www.facebook.com/AndreaSmithCelebrant