About Stillness Trainings

What is the history and intention of Stillness Trainings?

We - Terry Collinson, Brendan Pittwood (Tutors) and Evonne Bennell (Administration) established Stillness Trainings in 2006.

Terry's background is Physiotherapy and during her time working with Judy Reeman in Launceston, Tasmania she was introduced to Craniosacral Therapy techniques that proved effective with some long-term patients. Inspired by the potential for this work, and having discovered how the body heals through her training in Rei-ki with Barbara McGregor she returned to the UK in 1995 and began her Craniosacral Therapy training with Franklyn Sills in London and at the Karuna Institute in Devon.

Having returned to Australia and established a busy craniosacral therapy practice that was rapidly becoming 'biodynamic' in nature, Terry was invited to train to teach in New Zealand and later Australia with Paul Vick and his UK team of teachers under his school, now called Resonance Trainings.

Any fears of a returning to the more mechanical approaches that she had learned during her training were allayed with Paul's sublime teaching and approach, reflecting his own and Franklyn's growing movement towards biodynamics and away from mechanics and protocol-oriented therapy.

Paul Vick trained to teach with Franklyn Sills in the early 1990s in the UK, and taught with Franklyn for many years in London and at the Karuna Institute in Devon. They established the Craniosacral Therapy Education Trust (CTET) with Paul as the principal teacher and course director. Following the call to take the training overseas, Paul began his own school in the late 1990s.

Paul was invited to head the first Australasian practitioner training that completed in New Zealand in 2000, at which time also saw the birth of the Pacific Association of Craniosacral Therapists. The practitioner training included four enthusiastic craniosacral therapy tutors from the UK, and three of these tutors assisted Paul in the second training in New Zealand and first Australian training, completing in 2003. They included Sheila Kean, Ged Sumner, who taught with CTET, and Colin Perrow, who was a course director at the Karuna Institute.

Paul's intention for the teaching was to train tutors to continue his work "down under" and for both he and the team to continue to support graduates with a comprehensive postgraduate programme. He continued to further the development and teaching of BCST with the Resonance principle in such a way that Cranial Osteopaths have commented that his teachings offer an exciting new depth of approach to the work.

Brendan Pittwood is one of Paul Vick’s New Zealand graduates from that first training.  He began work as a mechanical engineer, followed by Osteopathy training (although he did not practice as an Osteopath), and remedial bodywork.  Having been completely inspired by the therapeutic potential of the Biodynamic work,  Brendan soon began to train to teach Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy with Paul Vick in New Zealand and Australia, subsequently training with Ray Castellino in Pre and Peri-Natal psychology.

After many years of training with Paul Vick, Terry and Brendan are committed to teaching with the resonance principle as an inherent part of the training.  We offer Introductory and Open, Diploma level and Postgraduate training in the biodynamic and resonance approach to craniosacral therapy and associated training.  All workshops and courses are based on biodynamic and resonance principles, and also on development from Terry’s training in Reiki and metaphysical causation of disease, and Brendan’s Pre and Peri-natal psychology training. Both Terry and Brendan recognise the value of and are committed to, the effective use of dialogue in therapeutic practice and teaching and they reflect the practice of ‘Nonviolent Communication’ within the learning environment.

As is the nature of the work itself, our training continues to develop. We offer a new ever-unfolding curriculum, enfolding the old with the new and just like the unfolding nature of the teaching, the many discoveries by tutors, students and patients ensure that our adventure into the unknown continues.  There seems to be no end point.

As you come to understand the biodynamic resonance principles, you might also find a resonance with the many aspects of Being, which are reflected in our logo — this "calligraphic mark". The logo also bears a mirrored similarity to the treble clef, representing a resonance with our own frequencies of space and vibration.

Our perspective within biodynamic resonance in craniosacral therapy is to take the second Osteopathic principle as close to an absolute as possible. This principle is that the body has the inherent capacity to heal itself. Therefore part of our journey is to discover the ways we can relate to, and trust that principle.

We honour and cherish the history and development of this work by our teachers and practitioners, past and present and, just like the teaching, the discoveries are ever unfolding. There appears to be no end point.

We aim to offer training of a high standard that brings the essence of the biodynamic and resonant approach into a biodynamic craniosacral therapy training whose foundation has grown out of our own extensive study, experience, training and practice. The courses offered also come from a foundation of the research and teachings of many great thinkers, writers and researchers as well as teachers in the cranial field. Most notable of these are Dr Andrew Taylor Still, Dr William Garner Sutherland, Dr Rollin Becker, Dr John Upledger, Dr Peter Levine, Dr Bruce Lipton, Dr Michel Odent, Dr Erich Blechschmidt, Richard Grossinger PhD, Marshall B. Rosenberg PhD, and our teachers Franklyn Sills, Paul Vick, Ray Castellino, and Barbara McGregor.

We sincerely acknowledge our teachers who have brought us to this place of inspired learning and teaching, and also to our way of education, which comes from the heart and from a place of integrity and respect for ourselves and our students, who will join us on this exciting journey of self-discovery, exploration and becoming.

As you come to understand the biodynamic resonance principles, you might also find a resonance with the many aspects of Being, which are reflected in our logo - this "calligraphic mark". The logo also bears a mirrored similarity to the treble clef, representing a resonance with our own frequencies of space and vibration.

The Stillness Trainings logo developed by chance, if there is such a thing!

In early 2006 Terry met Graeme Davey, who at that time was an artist and designer, amongst so many other attributes. Inspired by his first experience of biodynamic craniosacral therapy, Graeme created our logo, including some of the words below: