My name is Helen. I have lived and worked in the Zurich area for over 45 years. I conduct funerals in my native English and am also fluent in Swiss German and High German.
I love hearing about the lives of the wonderful people whose funerals I conduct. It is an honour to meet their families and put together ceremonies that celebrate their loved ones’ lives, achievements and personalities.
I have worked in journalism, magazines, teaching and translation, and I use the skills gained in my former working life to create and deliver tributes and ceremonies whose tone and feel fully reflect the person being commemorated.
My Training and Professional Network
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2024-2026 |
Information events on professional topics, Café Goodbye Winterthur
Topics including Woodland Burials, Terramation, Digital Legacy, End-of-Life podcasts, Swedish Death Cleaning, End-of-Life Humour. Hosted by Carla Soldato and Wolfgang Weigand.
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2025 |
Professional Development, Zeremonien-Akademie
Use of symbolic actions in funerals.
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2024 |
Approval by Funeral Celebrants of Switzerland (Verein Trauerredner*innen Schweiz)
for listing as a recommended celebrant. This list is used by many local authorities in Switzerland, including the City of Zurich
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2023 |
Certificate course in Funeral Celebrancy, Zeremonien-Akademie Switzerland
Funeral delivery in German. Practical training in funeral design and delivery, including symbolic actions. Self-reflection on personal beliefs relating to death, and on the role of funeral celebrants.
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2022/2023 |
Diploma course in Funeral Celebrancy, Civil Ceremonies UK.
Practical training sessions in funeral delivery, funeral design and crafting, compassionate and effective meetings with mourning families. Modules covering theory and practice of grief, writing funeral tributes, communicating with the bereaved, legal requirements, organisation of funeral industry.
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2004 |
PhD in Translation Studies, University of Auckland
Historical and analytic study of a pathbreaking English-German translation by an 18th century Swiss translator, Johann Jakob Bodmer.
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1990 |
Diploma in German-English translation
Institute of Linguistics.
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1980 |
Grosses Deutsches Sprachdiplom
Highest language qualification awarded by Goethe Institute only until 2012, level C2-plus.
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