Course

In Totnes

Price on request

Description

  • Type

    Course

  • Location

    Totnes

  • Duration

    5 Days

Develop and share a blueprint of knowledge and skills for independent funeral advisers; establish best practice in the role of funeral advice and turn this into a Code of Practice;undertake research into different types of funerals; set up a network of professional independent funeral advisers, providing support, ongoing education through seminars and workshops and a forum for the exchange of ideas and information; create a Register of qualified advisers which is available to the public; develop regional groups for local support and development

Facilities

Location

Start date

Totnes (Devon)
See map
7 High Street, TQ9 5NN

Start date

On request

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Course programme

The course

This is a five-day course: three days are followed by a gap of three months in which weekly assignments are completed, before the final two days. We provide you with a 100 page manual, feedback on assignments and supervision for your first five funerals. On successful completion of
these and all assignments, we issue you with your certificate. Each course is for a maximum of only 6 participants.

The course covers all the information you need to know and includes visiting funeral venues, both traditional and less conventional. We also have an exciting team to bring you vital skills practice, including one-to-one work on voice projection and presentation skills with actor Pete Joscelyne, leading singing with musician and singer Ruth Jenni and writing words and speaking intimately to a group with Radio 4 poet Matt Harvey!

Overview of funeral ceremonies

  • The current trends in funerals
  • Re-visioning funeral ceremonies
  • The role of the independent funeral celebrant

The funeral ceremony

  • What makes a good funeral ceremony
  • The purposes of the funeral ceremony
  • The ceremony as a means of transition
  • Structuring a funeral ceremony
  • Different types of funeral ceremonies for sudden, early and complicated deaths
  • Funerals for different faiths
  • How to write a good eulogy or life story and other words
  • The life story told by more than one person
  • Reflecting the character and beliefs of the person who has died
  • Choosing words and music
  • How to create ritual using words, music, movement, flowers, candles, light, scent etc
  • Preparing opening and closing words
  • The committal, when everyone says their final farewell.

Involving the family and community

  • Interviewing and listening to the family
  • Active listening and working with conflict
  • Involving the family and community
  • Creating a sense of ritual

Selecting and preparing the venue

  • Possible venues
  • How the crematorium works
  • Ten ways to improve a crematorium funeral
  • Preparing the ceremony space with drapes, flowers, objects, incense, sound and light

Building skills and confidence

  • Managing yourself and your emotions e.g. anxiety, overwhelm, grief
  • Liasing with funeral directors and crematorium staff
  • Being the funeral celebrant on the day and directing proceedings
  • Creating a safe space for emotions
  • Presentation and voice skills
  • Stance, breath and eye contact
  • Using technical equipment

Promoting your services to the public and the funeral trade and pricing.

This programme is demanding and challenging as well as enjoyable, because we want you to be one of the best funeral celebrants, able to do a really good job for each family.

Learning Outcomes

1. Provide you with knowledge of the history of the funeral in Britain and the current context for funerals.
2. Explore the role of the independent funeral celebrant.
3. Help you to identify and develop the skills needed to be a funeral celebrant, including self-management, presence and presentation, working with and listening to newly bereaved families and writing and finding the right words for each funeral.
4. Understand what a funeral is for and the importance of ritual and ceremony in achieving its purposes.
5. Work with a structure into which any content can be placed.
6. Appreciate the importance of the place in which the ceremony takes
place.
7. Learn to devise, with the family, ceremonies appropriate for the
nature and beliefs of the person who has died and their family and
the circumstances of the death.
8. Learn to write the eulogy, committal and other words for the ceremony,
and to help families choose poetry and music.
9. Orchestrate all the elements of the funeral, including the timing,
setting, words and music.
10.Find out about liasing with other funeral professionals.
11.Understand the basics of operating as an independent funeral
celebrant, including brochures, marketing and charging.

Funeral Celebrant

Price on request