About Lisa Hartley

Lisa’s blend of lightness and tenderness brings a smile when you least expect it.

Her work is about accompanying families through the thresholds of life and connecting with the secret beauty of each person celebrated.

She is an artist in bringing families together to feel each other’s love and the love of those who have passed. In this, she sees family as those of the heart, the people we've nourished and cared for over the years, the people we claim as ours and who love us despite our flaws.

Lisa has worked as a celebrant for many years and lived through all the milestones she supports. Her experience of grief at the loss her mother, and being guided through it with support and ceremony, is what inspired her to get certified as a Life Cycle Celebrant® by the Celebrant Institute and Foundation and to become a registered officiant in British Columbia.

The evolution of her business to include DIY coaching, grief support, and long-term relationships with clients came naturally. A ceremony is deeply personal and leads to an intimate connection with your celebrant, who can be a source of support and witnessing over a lifetime. So much of what is gained by a skillful ceremony comes through the full process and by feeling your own signature and voice in what is created. Lisa’s approach leaves room for the true magic to unfold.

Today, she is recognized by families, organizations, and media as an expert in the art of ceremony and all the humanity that surrounds it.

About Lisa’s Book

SYNOPSIS

Lisa’s book is a heart map of loss and healing based on her life on the West Coast. It is part memoir, part companion through grief—always thoughtful and compelling.

Love and Salt Air weaves a delicate story from Lisa’s experience of her mother’s death from stomach cancer to her work as a celebrant supporting grieving clients with ritual and ceremony. It is at once a heartfelt tale and a guidebook for all who are facing the death of a loved one.

Excerpt from Love and Salt Air

“Like the vinegar in Mom’s soups, the grief, deep loss and tragedy draw out our human resilience and strength. The very marrow of our bones is pulled upon when we lose someone we love. We are forever altered. Trust that the alchemy of life will hold us. The connections to our self, our spirit, our soul, our family, our friends, our animals, the natural world—whatever it may be that sustains you, lean on it. You’ll be okay.”

HOW TO BUY

You can purchase Love and Salt Air at your local bookstore or online at the links below. British Columbians preferring not to wait for shipping, can try one of these independent bookstores:

Banyen Books & Sound (Vancouver, BC)
Talewind Books (Sechelt, BC)
Volume One Bookstore (Duncan, BC)