Life Scribe

Life Scribe is an in-person writing service, in which artist Scribes capture the experience of the dying, grieving or birthing person. Offered to individuals and their families, a Life Scribe can come to your home, hospital, place of choice, to sit and be with you, to record your experience of birth, death or grief in writing.

The Scribe sessions take place over a customised, hand-crafted, portable writing desk in an aesthetically formalised process, that goes beyond simple transcription, and instead, offers a distillation of all that is spoken and experienced in the presence of the Scribe. 

Life Scribe does not have an agenda; it is not a confessional. Life Scribe is a container, a neutral service, through which attendance and artistry, opens and holds space for what is present and for what needs to be spoken. While there is a formalised process, in essence, each Scribe session is unique, and is led by what occurs within the space that it creates.

A Life Scribe can be present for one or numerous sessions. At the end of the process the family will be gifted with a single edition, bespoke document. This document can be private, shared, passed on, kept or destroyed, depending on the wishes of the person and their family. The creation, sharing and/or destroying of each document will be attended to with the same aesthetically considered, formalised process with each individual person / family. 

When moving through these rites of passage, it can be a great support and deeply healing to put language to the embodied experience; to tell your story. 

BIRTH: Birth is one of, if not the most epic rite of passage a woman will move through in her lifetime. To be able to tell her birth story to celebrate, acknowledge or heal is incredibly powerful. This is offered in a deeply held, supportive way, with the bespoke document a beautiful keepsake for the family, that can be passed on and gifted to your child. 

DEATH: When meeting death many people hold things that need to be spoken, heard, witnessed or held before they can truly let go and die. At other times there will be so much that the dying person might want to reflect on, celebrate and share about their journey of life before they meet that final threshold. 

GRIEF: Life Scribe also provides a beautiful space for those who are grieving. A space for the grieving person to speak on all that they have witnessed, experienced and continue to live through. Finding language for our grief is a vital and worthy engagement, that enables the grieving process and supports one to recognise the hidden gifts, poetry and beauty within.

Please contact us to enquire further or to arrange a meeting with a Life Scribe. We look forward to being in attendance with you and your family.

Life Scribe is also working in partnership with Bard Lewry, offering Life Scribe in Lutruwita / Tasmania head HERE for more information.