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.
Video Resources, Articles, Media & Interviews with Sarah on Holistic Funerals; Death Doula & Sacred Death Care Practices:
Podcast Interview – Life and Love & Loss with Death Doula Sarah Tolmie
Listen: Interview Series on Northern Beaches Radio – Death, Dying and Loss
Read: Articles on Life & Love and Loss by Sarah Tolmie
Attend Events: 2024 Calendar of “Sunsetting Workshops – End-of-Life Planning & Funeral Design”
Do you need help and resources for GRIEF & LOSS – Visit our Picaluna Charity Partner – Griefline
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 20+ 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 Support & Therapy
In life and love, we all encounter setbacks, disappointments, and even tragedies. The longer we live, the more changes and losses we face. How we navigate these experiences matters deeply.
Grief is a natural, healthy, and essential response to loss. Yet, it can also be overwhelming and life-altering. Some research suggests that a widower may take 5–8 years to regain a sense of well-being — and for some, it may never fully return. The toll of grief is immense: it affects our joy, health, vitality, relationships, creativity, productivity, and prosperity. Meanwhile, life continues — with or without our engagement.
Feeling happy, calm, and at peace isn’t a luxury to be delayed for years; it’s a vital necessity, right now. Without support, it’s hard to make good decisions, care for yourself and others, and stay healthy.
Unresolved grief is epidemic in modern life. It creates a vicious cycle: the causes of grief — divorce, disease, job loss, depression, bankruptcy, premature aging, and even death — become its effects too. In the workplace, grief leads to lost productivity, accidents, and absenteeism. Chronic stress from grief can even age your cells by a decade and trigger serious illness.
It doesn’t have to be this way. My grief and bereavement services are designed to support you — with compassion, understanding, and practical tools — so you can begin to heal and rebuild your life while honoring your loss.
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 40% service fee on the total amount. Picaluna is also a ‘for-profit’ social enterprise, donating 5% of its profit to a charity or medical organization of your choice on your beloveds behalf.
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