New Zealand has one of the more established biodynamic craniosacral therapy communities in the Pacific region. With over nine verified PACT-registered practitioners across Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin, Taranaki, and Whangarei, New Zealand is well represented for a country its size — a reflection of the serious approach training programmes and professional associations have taken here.
The community is connected internationally through PACT (the Pacific Association of Craniosacral Therapists) and has its own national body, the Craniosacral Therapy Association of Aotearoa New Zealand. Several practitioners are also tutors and senior tutors within Body Intelligence, which means they're shaping the training of BCST practitioners across the Pacific and beyond.
Practitioners and their backgrounds
Simon Gosling in Auckland holds BCST and PACT credentials and serves as a Senior Tutor for Body Intelligence. He doesn't just practise but actively teaches the biodynamic approach to the next generation of practitioners across the global Body Intelligence network. A teaching role at this level means a practitioner has been judged to have both the clinical depth and the pedagogical capacity to transmit the work reliably. For Auckland clients, working with someone at this level of engagement is meaningful.
In Nelson, Julie Lacey is also a Body Intelligence Tutor alongside her BCST and PACT credentials. Nelson has become a quiet hub for holistic health in New Zealand, and having a practitioner of this calibre based there extends high-quality BCST beyond the main urban centres. In Wellington, Liz Kirkman holds BCST and PACT credentials and is a Senior Tutor at Body Intelligence — another practitioner whose involvement in training reflects the depth of their formation in the work.
In Dunedin, Heather Wilson brings a particularly interesting combination: a Diploma in CST alongside PACT credentials, and a background as both a registered nurse and a midwife. The nursing and midwifery background combined with craniosacral and PACT training is well suited to perinatal work — mothers, newborns, and infants — where understanding birth physiology and the capacity to work somatically with its aftermath matters.
Taranaki Therapeutics and the New Plymouth school
One of the distinctive features of New Zealand's craniosacral landscape is a PACT-accredited training school in Taranaki. Joanna and Brendan Pittwood run Taranaki Therapeutics in New Plymouth, offering biodynamic CST training that meets the PACT accreditation standard. Having a regional school means practitioners outside the main urban centres can train locally, and that the national community has a second node beyond the Auckland-Wellington axis.
Running a school takes a depth of practice and pedagogical commitment that goes beyond a personal clinical practice. The Pittwoods are working practitioners who are also shaping the standards and culture of the field in their region — an investment in the community that extends what's available in New Zealand over time.
The national association
The Craniosacral Therapy Association of Aotearoa New Zealand provides a national professional home for CST practitioners across both traditions — biodynamic and Upledger. The association supports professional standards, continuing development, and community between practitioners who might otherwise be geographically isolated in a country where distances are real.
For clients, the association is a useful reference point alongside the PACT directory. PACT covers New Zealand comprehensively and requires the 700-hour training standard, so searching pactcst.com is a reliable way to find verified practitioners. New Zealand clients looking for BCST have real options across the country, from the cities to smaller centres — which is more than can be said for most countries of comparable size.
New Zealand's biodynamic CST community is well built, well distributed, and well connected internationally. For clients across Aotearoa, the combination of the PACT directory and the national association gives you a solid foundation for finding someone properly trained.