Somatic Expressive Therapies Training
A Professional Training to Support Clients Well-Being from the Inside Out…
This new and unique training program teaches the integrative use of somatic therapy and expressive therapies to help you confidently enhance the benefits of Whole Hearted Living in your clients lives and in your own.
Before I tell you about this life enhancing training, let’s make sure you’re a good fit.
You are right for the Somatic Expressive Therapies training if you’re a compassionate, self-reflective, warm-hearted therapist with no shortage of commitment to personal and professional growth, who wants to create positive change in your client’s lives and your own. The kind of positive change that brings insight from within, increases creativity and enhances whole brain integration and well-being. You want guidance to apply up-to-date research to your clinical practice by someone you trust, so that you can provide transformational therapeutic sessions that get to the heart of your client’s issues so they feel safe, regulated and connected in their lives, and you receive the kind of feedback that leaves you feeling like you are making a difference in the world.
If you are…
- A Counselling professional working in a school or organisation with children, adults and families,
- A Psychologist, Social Worker, Counsellor, Psychotherapist, Equine, Transpersonal, Gestalt or Expressive Arts Therapist working in or wanting to work in private practice,
- An under-graduate or Masters level student nearing the end of your studies,
- An NDIS worker supporting children, young people and individuals,
- An Aboriginal Health or Case Worker wanting to find a non-verbal, safe and gentle, culturally appropriate way to work with your clients (please see Scholarships information in FAQ below),
- A Counselling Professional who identifies as LGBTQIA+ (please see Scholarships information in FAQ below),
- A mental health professional looking for a therapeutic approach that integrates into your current practice, nurtures and inspires both you and your clients,
You’re in the right place!
Get the Tools…
Somatic Expressive Therapies Training will give you the tools, inspiration and unparalleled support to work in a whole-hearted way, create change in the moment instead of talking about the issue, enhance creativity and get to the heart of the matter gently, safely and quickly.
By the end of this program, you will have…
- An understanding of the Expressive Therapies Continuum, Whole Brain Integration and how and when we can combine Somatics with creativity processes.
- Considered your Therapy Room and Creative Resources that help you create a welcoming space where your clients will feel safe, valued and interested in personal exploration.
- A clear and concise way to introduce Somatic Expressive Therapies to your clients that inspires motivation and interest in whole hearted living so that they will engage in a therapeutic process over time.
- An Embodied Loving Presence that your clients can resonate with so that they feel free to create, explore, play and express their authentic thoughts and feelings.
- The ability to recognise nervous system states and apply creative processes using specific creative mediums that meet your clients sensory, emotional and cognitive needs in order to enhance whole brain integration.
- The knowledge of how to track your client, and your own, nervous system state, so you can notice and amplify shifts toward increased coherence.
- Experienced the magic of Symbology and how it activates change on an archetypal level creating a dialogue between the conscious (explicit) and unconscious (implicit) realms of your client’s inner world.
- An ACA Certified Training certificate, 10 OPD points and be on your way to becoming a Registered Somatic Expressive Therapy Practitioner (SETP).
- Experienced and facilitated many Somatic Expressive Therapy and Symbology interventions yourself and with clients to build confidence in your role as an embodied witness and therapeutic change facilitator.
- Integrated theory and practice into your life and your clinical work so that you can provide safe and effective outcomes for clients.
What is Somatic Expressive Therapy?
Somatic Expressive Therapy is an integrative mental health intervention that accesses both historical and contemporary mind-body wisdom. It is inclusive of ancient cultural healing practices, brings awareness of the inner felt landscape, and is based on the scientific research of neurobiology. Visual art and image making, music and sound, dance and movement, drama and enactment, play and role play, creative writing and the manipulation of art materials such as clay, sand, paint, paper, etc have been around for centuries in all cultures. These healing practices allow us to engage with our senses, perceptions, emotions and symbolic ways of knowing. Somatic Expressive Therapy invites and introduces us to a variety of ways to process information, repair emotional wounds, resolve trauma and restore identity, hope and vitality. At the core of these embodied, cultural and expressive healing practices is restoration. Restoration of the mind, body, heart and soul.
Creativity, imagination, play and self-expression are used in many approaches that provide mental health intervention with children and adults. These include, but are not limited to: art therapy, play therapy, music therapy, dance therapy, drama therapy, creative writing therapy, clay therapy, yoga therapy and sand therapy. Expressive Therapy is the integrative use of two or more of these approaches within the context of counselling and psychotherapy.
To address the complexity of trauma symptoms, we need multiple ways to access our intuitive wisdom. At the heart of Somatic Expressive Therapies are the principles of sensory based communication, action-oriented creativity processes, and implicit (non-verbal) sensory, emotional and symbolic understanding. The goal is to restore the connection between body and mind through somatic and creative practices that enhance awareness of sensations, emotions and thoughts.
A trauma informed approach to counselling requires access to the limbic system, lower ‘fast’ brainstem, and right brain processing. Neuroscience research suggests that initially bypassing the rational, left brain processing is imperative if we are to work with the implicit memory where trauma resides. This requires the use of language that targets the brainstem, as well as working somatically with the ‘felt sense’ of the body through rhythm, synchrony, movement and entrainment to enhance interoception, the vital skill of reading the signs and cues from the body. Combine these skills with the use of imagination, symbology, creativity and play and you have Somatic Expressive Therapy.
Somatic Expressive Therapies provide whole brain integration, mind-body unity and a culturally safe approach to working both with a client’s physiology and psychology.
Somatic Expressive Therapies Practitioner Training consists of two three-day, in-person accredited workshops to introduce you to the power of Somatic and Expressive ways to work with trauma that promote well-being, integration and creativity…
Inside the Somatic Expressive Therapies Practitioner Training – Module 1
A three-day in-person accredited workshop to introduce you to the power of Somatic and Expressive ways to work with trauma and enhance whole hearted living.
Module 1 > 6 – 8 October, 2023
Introduction to the World of Somatic Expressive Therapies
It’s time to step into another dimension…the world of creativity, imagination, play and symbolism. We start at the very beginning assuming you know nothing and we will build from here. The curriculum is designed to transform you as you go.
To set you up for success we’ll do a deep dive into the history and magic of working with the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC), including the latest research on the neuroscience of the brain and the body to help you achieve total clarity about the roots and rationale behind Expressive Therapies as a mental health intervention for trauma recovery and whole hearted living.
Module Highlights:
- What is the ETC?
- Understanding ‘Flow’ States and Coherence.
- Experiments that explore the different components of the ETC.
- How engagement in the ETC can lead to whole brain integration, body mind alignment and wholehearted living.
- A definition of trauma, types of trauma, symptoms of trauma and a model of trauma recovery.
- The importance of creativity, imagination and play.
- The Triune Brain
- Talking to the Reptilian Brain
- Left + Right hemispheres of the pre-frontal cortex
- Implicit + Explicit Memory
- Professional Pathway to Becoming a Registered Somatic Expressive Therapy Practitioner
When: 6 – 8 October, 2023
Times: 9am – 5pm each day
Where: Diddillibah, Sunshine Coast, Qld
Fees: $850 due by 29 September, OR $1500 upfront payment for both workshops
How: In-Person
Hours: 24 hours
Inside the Somatic Expressive Therapies Practitioner Training – Module 2
A three-day in-person accredited workshop to introduce you to the power of Somatic and Expressive ways to work with trauma and enhance whole hearted living.
Module 2 > 10 – 12 November, 2023
Building Somatic Resiliency Skills
Embodiment is fundamental to the human condition and has become increasingly important in therapy. The Therapist’s body is a vital part of the therapeutic encounter and is considered the most important tool in the therapy room. In this module you’ll learn the importance of developing an embodied presence so that you can be the therapist you’ve always wanted to be; a compassionate witness and powerful change facilitator. You will also learn the basic fundamentals of working somatically with clients to build resiliency and post traumatic growth for whole hearted living.
Module Highlights:
- Polyvagal Theory & Practices
- Building Somatic Resiliency Skills
- The Resilient Zone
- The Skill of Somatic Tracking
- The Skill of Somatic Grounding
- The Skill of Somatic Titration
- The Skill of Somatic Resourcing
- The Skill of Somatic Shift + Stay
- The Skill of Somatic Pendulation
- The Skill of Somatic Self-Touch
- The Skill of Somatic Gesturing
When: 10 – 12 November, 2023
Times: 9am – 5pm each day
Where: Diddillibah, Sunshine Coast, Qld
Fees: $850 due by 27 October, 2023, OR $1500 upfront payment for both workshops
How: In-Person
Hours: 24 hours
Frequently Asked Questions
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What Past Training Participants Have Said…
“Monique is absolutely lovely & wonderful! She has such a great mix of personal, accessible energy along with depth and breadth of experience, as well as the ability to convey theoretical concepts clearly.”
“Monique’s facilitation was excellent! She is knowledgable, articulate, safe, compassionate and confident. Thank you Monique for creating an opportunity for supported regulation when I became dysregulated.”
“This workshop was amazing, brain activating and sparkling! I love the practical exercises despite being confronting at times.”
“I found this workshop so valuable, both personally and professionally. Like a missing link being uncovered!”
“I love the theory and practice, it’s a great mix of the two.”
“Monique’s ability to hold a safe, nurturing space in which to learn and heal was paramount to the emotional, relational and intellectual depth I was able to go to in the training.”
“Monique has amazing depth and breadth of knowledge and experience. She beautifully modelled the counselling skills I want/need to develop. Monique is 100% authentic!”
“The program highlight for me was the freedom of being able to blend all the various modalities in new, different and personal ways.”
“I really appreciated the pace and the commitment to integration of the information.”
About Your Trainer
Monique Pangari
M Ed (SGC); M Ed (BM); B Ed/B Arts (Psych); SEP; Adv Dip ET; COSP; EFT-C; NAT; PMACA
Monique is the creator of three training modalities: Somatic Expressive Therapies, Somatic Sand Therapy and Somatic Attachment Focused Expressive Therapy™ (SAFE-T). She is a mother of two, a trained School Teacher, a certified Trainer and an accredited and experienced Psychotherapist. She has experience working and living in an Aboriginal community as a classroom Teacher, with children at-risk in schools as a Behaviour Support Advisory Teacher, with children and families affected by abuse as a Child Protection Child & Family Therapist, as a specialist Counsellor in the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, as a Counsellor with families experiencing Separation & Divorce, as a Clinical Consultant supporting schools to prepare for, respond to and recover from suicide, and as a state-wide Post Adoption Support Counsellor & Intermediary. Currently she works with women in private practice on the Sunshine Coast, Qld and is a Trainer and Supervisor of counselling and psychotherapy professionals.
Monique is passionate about using the model of attachment theory and the creative practice of Expressive Therapies, including Sandplay Therapy, to enhance her understanding and practice with traumatised populations. She invites therapists to consider…what if your own personal trauma and attachment wounds were the key to being a successful compassionate therapist? What if your own creative process of healing those wounds gave you the map to helping others heal their trauma and attachment wounds?
Monique has undergraduate training in Education and Psychology and holds two Masters Degrees. She is a Level 4 Member of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA), a member of the ACA College of Supervisors and has post-graduate qualifications in Somatic Experiencing®, NeuroAffective Touch®, Dynamic Attachment Repatterning Experience (DARe), Emotion Focused Therapy for Couples, Circle of Security Parenting and Circle of Security Core Sensitivities, Family Constellations, Voice Dialogue, Expressive Therapies and Sandplay Therapy. Find out more
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