Sande Ramage

Sande is an FDR mediator living in the Wairarapa. Her background includes 20+ years pastoral care experience in schools, the military and health. For the last seven years she’s been a restorative justice facilitator, including piloting a restorative programme for prison residents. Formerly, Sande was an Anglican priest and taught religious studies, ethics and philosophy of religion. She retains an interest and expertise in belief systems; how important they are to people and how they can help and sometimes complicate relationships.

Sande’s commitment is to listen deeply and without judgement to people’s stories. She understands that our life stories are multi-faceted, often grounded in sorrow and pain but with threads of hopefulness waiting to be woven into the mix. This means taking time so that listening can go beyond the surface and people have a chance to reframe what sometimes tumbles out in the moment. After individual meetings, Sande encourages the parties to a dispute to go away and reflect before we come back together to create the new pathway, drawing from the past but not bound by it.

Sande has had some enjoyable career highlights but reckons that the most important times have been when she has failed because that’s when she learned the most about life. Sande values a soulful approach to living, which she calls Soul Pilates because it’s about strengthening the inner core. She does this by writing about contemporary spirituality, soaking up classical music at live events, immersing herself in movies on the big screen, reading heaps, walking as daily meditation, doing actual Pilates, enjoying Aussie Shiraz, and when she can, watching her beloved adult daughter play indoor cricket.