I honor and accompany life’s big moments, through deep inquiry and preparation with the individual, couple, family, or organization, so their uniquely tailored ceremony or event transmits dignity, meaning, and joy.

 

I once saw someone describe herself as a “Joy Advocate”. As much as I love that, I think of myself as more of a “Meaning Advocate”. I’m interested in honoring that life is full of big moments we can mark out and amplify in community. Let’s gather together, and once we’re there, let’s be courageous enough to speak from the heart, appreciating each other and the significance of the moment. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. Simple authenticity will do.

 

Sometimes we formalize these gatherings in ceremonies. Ceremonies are important because they communicate to our deepest selves that a change is taking place. In this way, a ceremony is a container that brings us from one stage or state to another. As such, there becomes a before and an after that we feel on a profound level.

 

We can bring any part of life or loss into a ceremonial frame. Here are some of the moments I’ve supported that have developed into ceremonies or other formal expressions of intention. If you have an idea or longing for a ceremony or meaningful event you’d like to create, please contact Many Ways.

 

Weddings & Commitment Ceremonies:

Wedding Services with Many Ways bring over 20 years’ experience supporting couples in deeply preparing to formalize their union, using a process called “values to vows”. By combining this with Systemic Life Coaching and Systemic & Family Constellations, the couple is walking forward to commitment conscious of the underlying values and expectations they each carry from their family of origin, culture, and life experience. Through this work, we develop a ceremony that expresses the couple’s intentions and desires while honoring their families and including their community.

 

Lifecycle Transitions

There is a lot to being embodied, and that too, we can honor in community. Beautiful ceremonies honor women’s life cycles, including menarche, birth (a meaningful alternative to baby showers), and menopause.

 

Ceremonies can also be designed to hold and celebrate gender transition, honoring all that it’s required or cost, while looking forward and celebrating what is to come.

 

Career Change and Retirement:

Contemplating or enacting a change in career can take a major act of courage and imagination. We can honor this transition or retirement from the workforce, truly attending to the layers of meaning over time. By honoring what was given and received, we create the space to do something new with the time, talent, and treasure of our lives. Systemic Life Coaching, Systemic and Family Constellations, and/or Soul Purpose sessions are all excellent accompaniments to this work.

 

Conscious Separations:

Bringing skills of equity-informed mediation and systemic principles, it is possible to hold even difficult, heartbreaking conversations with mutual respect. If a couple has reached a decision to dissolve a marriage, we can work together to find the words and ways to leave with intention. Understanding how to retire a family structure with care is critical support for the people in the family, especially children. Combining this with Systemic & Family Constellations also supports the preparation for future relationships and/or building new blended families later.

 

Memorials:

I’m familiar with the experience and language of grief and am honored anytime I can support a family through the articulation of their love and loss. Some people long for a small, more intimate gathering to accompany a larger memorial, and Many Ways is poised to support this as well.