Community Funerals

Sarah is a fully resourced Funeral Director and can arrange and deliver a complete funeral experience with her funeral partner, Picaluna Funerals.

Sarah can arrange cremations and burials, funeral services at chapel venues as well as religious services in churches.

Sarah Tolmie – Community Funerals is part of a network of independent funeral directors partnering with Picaluna Funerals throughout Australia. Picaluna enables its local funeral specialists to offer a complete and full suite of funeral choices, including:

  • cremations,
  • burials,
  • direct cremations,
  • memorials,
  • funeral planning
  • and pre-paid funerals.

Sarah Tolmie – Community Funerals offers holistic, community-based, personalised care to families. Sarah lives amongst the
community she serves and collaborates with local professional suppliers – funeral venues, churches and chapels, florists, wake venues, caterers, designers, musicians, print and video creators and even livestream broadcast services.

To learn more about Sarah Tolmie Community Funeral with Picaluna – Click Here

To understand the costs and fees around a typical funeral – Click Here

To watch a video about Sarah Tolmie & Picaluna Funerals – Click Here

Holistic Ceremonial Services

“Every ceremony is individually tailored and created. Sarah helps her families curate an authentic, real and healing ceremony of meaning and honouring.

As a bespoke and holistic celebrant for 17+ years, as well as a trained hospital chaplain (non-religious) and grief & bereavement specialist therapist, Sarah brings a deep experience and care approach to working with families to not only create an authentic ceremony of honouring, remembrance and celebration, but she does so in a way that can bring profound healing, family connection, deep intimacy and even joyful transformation.

Sarah can work with you as BOTH funeral director + celebrant, OR can be engaged as an independent celebrant for memorial service or is happy to also work as celebrant with a different funeral director with whom you may already have a connection and history.

Click here for celebrant fee information

End of Life Consulting

Sarah’s end-of-life consulting practice offers a broad suite of services to support individuals and their families as they navigate through the practical, emotional and spiritual journey of illness, dying, death and grief. Sarah is also trained in death doula skills and basic body care mortuary assisting.

Sarah often works with families well before a death occurs, helping individuals and families navigate the practical, emotional, relational and spiritual challenges when faced with life limiting illness and terminal diagnoses.  She can help families as they move through different stages of need and change; and support them through the challenging conversations to plan and prepare for death.

Sarah has also put together a FREE RESOURCE – a series of shore 5 x videos that discuss death, dying and grief – how to begin to think about it, talk about it and plan for it.  Check out Landscapes of Life & Love and Loss: Traversing the pathyways of death, dying and grief.

Consulting, Funeral and Doula services:

  • Emotional, relational and spiritual ‘pastoral’ care and personal coaching through illness, dying and death (as well as grief & bereavement specialist counselling);
  • Development of support plans and facilitating the conversations at difficult times of treatment/or end of treatment, palliative care and final living pathways;
  • Presence and guidance for the family during the active phase of death;
  • After death care (including body rituals such as home vigils, washing/dressing, anointing, shrouding and funeral rites);
  • Complete & Holistic Funeral Directorial Service – funeral planning & arrangements, funeral conducting and bespoke ceremonial services.

Grief & Bereavement Therapy and Spiritual Chaplaincy

old handsIn our travels through life and love every one of us will encounter set-backs, disappointments and even tragedies. And the longer we live, the more exposure we will have to changes, loss and grief. It is how we navigate through them that is important.

Everyone at some point in their life will suffer grief and quite possibly life altering, debilitating, long lasting grief. Some research indicates it can typically take 5-8years for a widower to regain a sense of wellbeing and for some, never.  The cost of suffering grief is staggering. Joy, health, vitality, relationships, creativity, productivity, clarity and prosperity all suffer. However life carries on with or without your engagement.

Grief is absolutely normal, essential and healthy. It may be a lifelong process, but it should not stop you living your life. That old soothing phrase “it takes time” and “time heals all wounds” is misguided and wrong.  Feeling happy, calm and at peace is not a luxury or something that you must wait years for to return, but an essential and necessity in life, right now. How can you make good decisions, care for yourself and others, be productive and healthy if you are in a constant state of  upset, fear, grief, anxiety, heartbreak and overwhelm?

Unresolved grief is epidemic in modern life. It is a vicious cycle, with the causes of grief, such as divorce, disease, loss of job, depression, bankruptcy, premature aging and death, feeding a closed loop system by also becoming the effects of sustained grief.  In the workplace grief causes lost productivity, accidents and absenteeism.  Chronic stress from grief can prematurely age your cells by a decade. It can even trigger disease and death.

Grief, Change & Loss Coaching
Sarah offers individual, couple and family coaching through any change, challenge, crisis, loss & bereavement; private pastoral care consultations; professional challenge and crisis counselling and debriefing.

Group, Corporate and Workplace Consultant Services
Sarah provides consulting trauma, grief and debriefing servivces to organisations, workplaces and larger family groups.

Therapeutic Support & Care + Spiritual Chaplaincy
Sarah brings to her coaching and consulting repertoire transformational techniques for healing and emotional relief include: Theta Healing®, Hypnosis, NLP, Spiritual Counselling & Prayer, P.E.A.C.E Process & Energy Practices and heart-based meditative and visualisation techniques to support wellbeing, vitality and sense of meaning whilst working though and living through grief, loss and change.

Fee Guide

End-of-Life Consulting

First Consultation – $330 for 2hrs + Summary Report/Actions Outline/Quote

Includes a complete practical, relational and spiritual conversation in preparation of end-of-life planning – covering funeral options and choices, current wellbeing and wishes, family landscape and relationship & spiritual needs, inventory/directions on some key documentation to be prepared/aware of/activated – such as, advance care directive, will, enduring guardianship, power of attorney, funeral insurance or preparing a pre-need and/or pre-paid funeral plan. A full summary of the meeting key points including wishes, ideas and follow up actions to take will be provided, as well as a fully itemised quote/estimate of funeral costs as per discussed wishes, if desired.

[note: home visit incur a 25% surcharge on top of the consultation fee to cover travel]

Ongoing Consultations @$160/hr

Holistic Funeral Celebrancy (from $990)

Phase 1 – Funeral Planning, Writing & Preparation Services

  • $400 +GST. Includes all meetings, phone calls, edits, music source/preparation, liason with other suppliers/contributors and ceremony writing time for up to 5hrs. Beyond 5 hours, celebrant time is logged in 15min intervals @$100/hr

Phase 2 – Ceremony Delivery Fee for Funeral/Memorial/Celebration of Life Ceremony: Day of Ceremony

  • $500 + GST (Weekday) $600+ GST (Weekend) Ceremony Delivery Fee based on a minimum of 3hrs – includes travel up to 100kms round trip, set up/pack away, liason with family, delivery of ceremony, provision of lectern and PA system also if required, as well as table. Celebrant will provide a printed booklet, a digital audio recording of the ceremony (optional on request)
  • $100 +GST /hour beyond 3hrs.

Additional travel costs when travel exceeds 100kms for the round trip. These costs are charged at $1km or $50/hr after first hour, and for regional and interstate, upon negotiation. Any costs/supplies/contractors paid  by Sarah on behalf of the client incur a 20% service fee.

Community Funeral Director Services

Sarah partners with her funeral team, Picaluna Funerals.  Picaluna offer a completely transparent pricing approach, sharing with you the actual costs of each item/service you need to deliver the funeral of your choice. Picaluna then simply add a 35% service fee on the total amount.  Picaluna is also a ‘for-profit’ social enterprise, donating 10% of its profit to a charity or medical organization of your choice on your beloveds behalf.

To learn more about Sarah Tolmie Community Funeral with Picaluna – Click Here

To understand the costs and fees around a typical funeral – Click Here

To watch a video about Sarah Tolmie & Picaluna Funerals – Click Here

Grief, Bereavement and Loss Therapy – Indivdual Investment

  • 1 hr session – $160
  • 1.5 hr session – $215
  • 2 hr session – $29510% Discount on COVID_19 Zoom Sessions
  • Home visit surcharge is 25% of session fee.

(crisis/overflow into next hour beyond scheduled appointment time @$160/hr)

Grief, Bereavement and Loss Therapy – Family, Group or Workplace Investment

Grief, Change & Loss Coaching – Holistic Consultant Services – Therapeutic Support & Care
Sarah offers counselling through any change, challenge, crisis, loss & bereavement; private pastoral care consultations; professional challenge and crisis counselling and debriefing. Sarah provides consulting services to support families / communities & workplaces where a beloved member is facing illness, death and dying including end-of-life support plans, end-stage rituals and funeral/memorial services.

Investment:

  • Initial Brief – $160/hr
  • Group (3-12 people) – $355/h
  • Corporate Day Rate – $1320