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Stillness Meditation Therapy Consultancy Melbourne

About Pauline McKinnon, Stillness Meditation Therapy Consultancy founder

Pauline McKinnon Stillness Meditation Therapy Consultancy

Pauline McKinnon. Counsellor & psychotherapist, Clinical Member of AAFT, and Meditation Association of Australia Founding Patron.

Pauline is internationally known as the author of In Stillness Conquer Fear, first published in 1983 and the first known testimony to recovery from years of panic attacks and agoraphobia.   In her search for relief, Pauline consulted medical doctors, specialists, psychologists and a range of alternative practitioners resulting in no difference to this life challenging condition.  Almost by chance she discovered the pioneering work of renowned psychiatrist, Ainslie Meares, the turning point to her recovery with life-changing results.

Acknowledged by Dr Meares as an exponent of his unique style of meditation, in September 1983 Pauline established the Stillness Meditation Therapy Consultancy for the purpose of helping others achieve similar relief.

In 1990, with awareness of childhood issues and preventative health in mind, Pauline published Quiet Magic and Help Yourself and Your Child to Happiness, to assist children and their parents with anxiety and stress management.

This led to a pilot program in meditation for schools, to her teacher training program and to her teaching manual, Let’s Be Still.

Published in 2011 Pauline’s commentary on Dr Meares’ work, Living Calm in a Busy World offers a detailed understanding of this style of meditation.

Pauline is a counsellor and psychotherapist, a Clinical Member of AAFT (Australian Association of Family Therapy), and the Founding Patron of the Meditation Association of Australia, having initiated its formation in 2006.  She played a significant role in the early development of meditation teaching with the Australian Catholic University and is a well-known presenter to a range of organisations including ADAVIC, (Anxiety Disorders Association of Victoria).

“I see Stillness Meditation as the foundation for personal change.  It’s different from other styles of meditation and has proven similarly successful for a vast range of clients I’ve assisted over the years.  I’ve worked with families and pioneered meditation in schools.  I’ve worked in hospitals and with critically ill patients.  I love working at a corporate level and I’ve taught this life-skill to many others through workshops for anxiety support groups, locally and beyond.

My teacher training course has produced dedicated SMT teachers who continue to raise awareness of this unique and natural therapy”. 


Stillness Meditation Therapy Consultancy

Stillness Meditation Therapy Consultancy Melbourne, Victoria

The suburban church hall where Stillness Meditation Therapy Consultancy started

It all began after the publication of my first book way back in 1983.

I had written my first book – a recovery memoir recollecting a hard-won escape from difficult years of high anxiety.  Due to its focus on helping others to find similar relief, my book received generous publicity.  It also brought to community awareness the stories of many people who struggle with the symptoms of chronic or acute anxiety:

nervous tension, exhaustion, ‘burnout’, headaches, butterflies in the stomach, phobias, avoidance behaviour, depression, and the life-limiting isolation of agoraphobia. 

It was renowned psychiatrist Ainslie Meares whose medically based and innovative work changed my life.  Such challenges and successful outcomes are best shared for the benefit of others.  This was an opportunity to give others the possibility of changing their lives.   I knew I must take further action.

So armed with Ainslie Meares approval and the support of my husband and family, I took courage and hired space in a suburban church hall.

It soon became known that I offered Stillness Meditation Therapy as a life skill for anxiety relief and management.  

People came from far and wide and benefited from my journey through anxiety and how Stillness Meditation Therapy helped me.  Very soon, I realised the significance of this, my life’s work.

Clientele increased, and in time I moved to independent premises.  I revised my first book and trained in counselling and family therapy/psychotherapy.  In 1990-91 I published more books – including a popular fantasy story that introduced children to meditation and stress management. It was essential then for me to educate more SMT teachers.  Soon, with the assistance of talented others, our pioneering services introduced meditation into schools.

In recent years anxiety awareness has significantly increased.  Yet anxiety is not something new in recent years – or because of reactions to the COVID pandemic.  Anxiety is part of the human condition.  But it needs to be tamed!

Happily, my deeply felt lived experience, unwelcome though it was at the time, has enabled the story of the SMT consultancy.   Thankfully, this initiative continues to offer therapeutic relief, peace of mind and improvement to the lives of others.

Please see SMT Teaching or contact Stillness Meditation Therapy Consultancy for further information

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