Monique Pangari - SandDreaming

26/02/2026

Anyone else in midlife relate to this? A beautiful article…

“For some women in midlife, the changes to our bodies and the experiences life marks upon us can force a new orientation in the world that is difficult to adapt to.

We may find ourselves nostalgic for a time when it was easier to navigate the world with our hearts wide open. For an age when we felt more adventurous and spontaneous, carried by a sense of magic, trust in connection, beauty, and blessing.

But when hardships happen to you and to those you love—it can toughen you up. You begin to learn that the world isn’t fair, that people can be selfish and even hateful, illness indiscriminate—and your heart naturally contracts. You may feel numb or disconnected, hurt and afraid, or even bitter. Like the hard shell of a nut, a layer grows over your heart to protect it for a season.

In Kabbalah, this husk is called a klipah (קליפה)—and just like a nut requires a shell to survive an impact from a fall, or make it through inhospitable conditions, our hearts face times when a tough exterior is exactly what we need to withstand the hardships of life.“

If your heart has hardened after loss, illness, or disappointment, this piece is for you 🔗 https://open.substack.com/pub/tokopa/p/klipah-husk-on-the-heart

01/02/2026

18/01/2026

The body and mind are always in relationship—and healing happens when we honor both.
✨ Learn more about NeuroAffective Touch® and our trainings → [link in comments]

02/10/2025

Check out our upcoming workshop, "Healing the Hidden Wounds of Adoption", which is being funded by Jigsaw Post-Adoption Centre Queensland.

Healing the Hidden Wounds of Adoption is a 2-day Systemic & Family Constellations workshop that creates a safe and compassionate space to explore the lasting impacts of adoption. Whether you are an adoptee or a birth parent, adoption often carries unseen layers of grief, disconnection and longing.

24/05/2025

🌬️ The Tale of the Sands 🌊

A Sufi Story…

A stream travels from mountain to meadow—until it reaches the desert sands. It tries to cross, but every effort vanishes into the sand. Just when it begins to despair, the wind speaks:
“Surrender. Let yourself be carried.”

Trusting the unseen, the stream rises as vapour, is carried across and rains down on the other side. Transformed, yet still itself.

✨This weekend I’m attending the STANZA Sandplay Symposium in Melbourne—diving deep into the healing language of symbol and sand once again.

In Sandplay, as in this Sufi tale, we witness how the psyche surrenders old forms and finds new ones. Healing doesn’t always come through force… sometimes, it asks us to soften, trust and be carried. ✨

One of the most poignant and powerful tales found in the East, The Tale of the Sands is told and retold in caravanserais, in souqs, and in dhows floating ove...

24/04/2025

In a recent Sandplay training workshop I attended, one of the participants asked the trainer the question about having violent or oppressive symbols in our collection. When working with children, young people or adults who’ve experienced painful atrocities, is it okay to have guns, knives, swords, swastikas, military figurines, guilotines, chains, locks, prisons, dragons, devils, witches, golliwogs, etc in our collection?

This is a reasonable question. As therapists we don’t want to cause harm. What if they act out violence in the tray, or create unspeakable images that cause one to look away? Or bring up their trauma and oppression.

The trainer, in all her wisdom said, “unexpressed energies can’t be transformed”.

In the ‘free & protected’ space of the tray and the therapeutic relationship, trauma can be seen, felt and transformed.

21/04/2025

🌿 EcoSomatic Sand Therapy™ is here 🌿

In-person training in Mparntwe | Alice Springs

Step into the world of symbol, soma & soul—surrounded by the sacred red earth of Central Australia.

This isn’t just another training.
It’s a remembering.
Of the earth beneath your feet,
Of the body as a vessel of knowing,
Of the sacred language of the unconscious.

EcoSomatic Sand Therapy™ blends somatics, expressive arts, nature-based wisdom and sand therapy principles to support deep transformation—for your clients, and for you.

🌾 For psychotherapists, counsellors and psychologists ready to deepen their work

📚 Includes 5 live online lectures, 2 immersive in-person workshops in Alice Springs and a beautiful integration platform

🪶 Certification offered on completion

✨ Limited places.
🌀 Link below to learn more + join us in the red centre.

18/04/2025

I’m so excited to share that I just received Certification as a Registered Sand Therapist, Consultant and Trainer from the World Association of Sand Therapy Professionals (WASTP) of which I’ve been a member for many years through their new international credentialing process.

After training professionals in Sand Therapy since 2008, I finally have a certification (and some new letters after my name) that recognizes my skills and experience as a Trainer and Supervisor in this area.

Watch this space. More training for professionals coming soon!

Time to celebrate 🎉🥳

07/04/2025

I had the amazing privilege of attending a 2-day workshop with Dr Lorraine Freedle this past weekend called ‘When the World is on Fire’ 🔥.

Lorraine is a Neuropsychologist, Certified Sandplay Therapist & Teacher, Consultant and Researcher from Hawai’i. I was thrilled to meet Lorraine in Portugal at the International Society for Sandplay Therapy (ISST) training week last year for the first time and it was an exquisite pleasure to learn from her immense wisdom again in-person this past weekend.

‘When the World is on Fire’ was a very apt name for a deep dive into the topic of ‘existential trauma’ and the power of Sandplay Therapy as a healing tool when events are so big that words just aren’t enough.

Lorraine’s new book, ‘When a Goddess Erupts: Pele in the psyche of women’ offered us a guiding pathway into the topic of the dark feminine and how she helps us heal.

My favourite Lorraine quote this weekend was, ‘Energies unexpressed can’t be transformed’.

I am continually awed by the potent healing potential of Sandplay Therapy for those courageous souls who choose to engage in this healing modality.

Of all the modalities I’ve trained in, Jungian Sandplay is by far the most profound as it accesses all levels of the psyche, is somatic in nature and brings about profound transformation in one’s relationship with the outer world, with others and particularly with Self. ❤️

27/01/2025

Hey folks,

Today is the day… 🥁
New website 🚀…

Here it is…
Www.somatic-sovereignty.com

So much work has gone into this new evolution of my work in the world. If you get a chance to check it out, I hope you find something that inspires you in there.

There’s lots of blog articles, a new free e-book, new programs for face-to-face community events coming up and online self-study programs (which I’m doing a pay-from-the-heart launch gift on for the next few days) which you can engage in from anywhere in your own time - no stress!

If you get a chance to check it out, I’d love to hear from you 🌿🫶🏽✨🙏🏼🪷

Monique Pangari is the Director of Somatic Sovereignty. She supports womxn healing from complex developmental trauma using Somatic Experiencing®, Sandplay Therapy & NATouch®. Her practice is integrative and grounded in Trauma Theory, Social Justice & Liberation Psychology, and Embodiment Practices...

09/01/2025

30/11/2024

It’s sooo good to be home 🏡🍃✨

Safe in the embrace of all that feels, sounds and smells safe and familiar.

In keeping with my pilgrimage routine I’ve been rising early to be with the land - 𝘮𝘺 land - and the nature spirits, reconnecting to my roots, coming home 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦.

Taking my art pad to the places that call me, I’ve been expressing whatever emerges…colours, shapes, words, patterns - and moving my body to the rhythms I find there.

I’ve also arrived home in time to delve into a 2-day training in Trauma Sensitive Yoga with the wise and wonderful Edwina Kempe.

As I integrate the experiences over the past two month and the wisdom arising, I’m feeling inspired to bring 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚, 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙨 into my offerings in the new year 🍃✨🪷

Stay tuned for what’s to come!