Catherine Wright is a celebrant, and a dance teacher, and she works one-on-one with people in Spiritual Accompaniment, mentoring and supervision.
“Dance First; Think Later!” – Samuel Beckett
There is a lot of simplicity and depth in that phrase. Beckett may not have meant it to be a serious remark, but it is excellent advice!
Catherine has always been engaged in awed wondering about the mysteries of what it is to be a human. She didn’t start with dance… or even with the Spirit. She has a PhD in the philosophy of mind and taught academic philosophy in both the USA and Scotland. Her fascination with (and profound compassion for) the painful muddles that we humans get into drew her towards both poetry and psychology. She trained in conflict resolution and therapy (Gestalt and Process Work). Our sorrows and wounds shape us. There is so much depth and richness in learning how to live in kindness with ourselves and others.
Therapy training drew her naturally towards spirituality. She was privileged to learn about psychotherapy from teachers who saw therapy as a spiritual practice. After some resistance, she began to get a sense of the freedom that we get when we feel into being part of something MUCH bigger than ourselves. In particular, engaging with our part in the “BIGGER” that is the whole of the mystery of life brings the possibility of freedom from suffering.
It wasn’t until 1999 that Catherine found conscious Dance. Boom! A door opened. Catherine dived into the amazing teachings of Susannah and Ya’Acov Darling Khan, the founders of a dance practice called Movement Medicine. The centrality of our embodied experience is her daily discipline, practice and refuge. She believes that when we give the body more of a say we have access to much more wisdom than our minds or even our hearts could fathom. Asking your belly or your spine how you feel gives lots of information the mind doesn’t have access to. We learn to befriend our own nervous system. And the dance allows ALL of us to be engaged in meeting life with ALL of our capacity.
One final thing that is absolutely at the heart of Catherine’s teaching is our place in nature. We are one thread in the complex web of life on Earth. Catherine’s teaching is infused with her love of the seasons, the phases of the moon, maybe above all a love of the trees. Poetry, Nature and the Body are her beloved portals to experience spiritual freedom.
From the moment we met over a bowl of delicious soup and lovely conversation, we realised we could cancel all of the other appointments we’d made with minsters because we knew immediately that we wanted Catherine to marry us.
And even with this lovely introduction, Catherine went on to exceed our expectations. The service Catherine prepared was truly beautiful, her voice is calm, warm and sincere, which brought a great sense of gravity to the delivery and helped make the ceremony feel so special. She also helped us personalise aspects with things like a unity candle, a ring warming, and references to Steve’s father which were all incorporated with the more traditional vows we wanted.
Just one of the lovely touches Catherine made was to ask us to write down three things we liked about each other. Unbeknownst to us she then incorporated these into the service beautifully, which gave the service an incredibly personal feel.
It was the perfect combination of the seriousness of the traditional vows and the more informal and personal touch that came from being able to include what we had said about each other. We have lost count of how many guests commented on Catherine and the ceremony. So many people said it was the loveliest one had seen and we can’t help but agree – thank you Catherine! We really feel like you’ve become a friend’
We’ve just got the photos back from the day at House for an Art Lover, and it brought back to us just how fantastic the day was. And you were a big part of that. I’ve spoken to so many people in the few weeks after the wedding who said that was the best ceremony that they had been involved with because of how personal you made it.
At times it was really emotional and at times it was laugh out loud. You can see that from the photos. If you are interested we will forward you some photos for you to use if you’re looking to further promote yourself, which I would wholeheartedly suggest! You should do, so that more couples can have the experience we did.
Just thinking about you makes me smile! You played such a pivotal role on our wedding day.
Your warmth, spirit and beautiful face made the day so special. We found you almost by accident, but I firmly believe you were the only one who was right to marry us. Thank you for your insight, suggestions, kindness and love. We had an amazing wedding day – better than I had dreamt or hoped for.
Our loved ones came, our children had fun, the sun shone warmly from a blue sky and the man I love was romantic and funny. What more could a girl wish for?! I feel blessed to have met you and to have you declare us to be husband and wife