This is me - unedited

Unravelling who I am and what I stand for

Having a strong sense of self isn’t always easy, especially when your work demands fitting into someone else’s values. During my 23-year career in marketing and communications I worked on many new and existing brands, but when it came to ‘brand Christina’ - it was a completely different process. 

It’s been an unravelling and it’s felt quite uncomfortable and exposing, but it’s about being authentically me, which has been a refreshing and revitalising experience. I no longer feel I have to fit into someone else’s parameters: I am the product and the experience, it is my ethos that is on offer.

This is why my values of Creativity, Empathy and Integrity are my truth.

Creativity is at my core. From being a little girl and playing dress up, going to dancing classes into my teens, reading and writing stories - that form of creation, imagination and storytelling is simply a part of me. My career, to date, in branding and marketing also provided me with my creativity fix to a degree, although not as fully as now, as a celebrant.

I am intrinsically empathetic, which allows me to make connections with others quickly and authentically. I have a close inner circle of friends, many of whom are like family, including my best friend of more than 40 years. I also enjoy meeting new people, I am interested in people and their stories and experiences that have shaped them. This, for me, is what being human is all about, all those meaningful connections we experience through our lives. As a celebrant it is my honour to recognise and celebrate all those connections in people’s lives.

Integrity is perhaps the most important of the three, for me personally. It is something I have struggled with in my working life before now, where I wasn’t always allowed to show up as myself. In becoming a celebrant I have been given the permission I needed to look inward to who I am and what I stand for, and unashamedly be that person, with no apologies. Being the unedited version of me, is my strength as a celebrant.