Remembering Pia Mellody

Her work laid the foundation for what we now understand as developmental trauma. The model she developed, rooted in her own clinical experience and deep insight, was not only groundbreaking at the time but has continued to stand the test of time.

June 5, 2025

South Pacific Private News

I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of Pia Mellody (1942-2025), a remarkable woman whose work changed the landscape of trauma treatment and whose legacy continues to shape the lives of countless people around the world.

Pia (pictured above with South Pacific Private founder Lorraine Wood) was the founding fellow of The Meadows in Arizona, USA, where she worked alongside luminaries like John Bradshaw, Bessel van der Kolk, and Peter Levine. Her work laid the foundation for what we now understand as developmental trauma. The model she developed, rooted in her own clinical experience and deep insight, was not only groundbreaking at the time but has continued to stand the test of time. Her “Survivors” workshop (known in Australia as “Changes”) remains one of the most powerful trauma intensives, helping people uncover the roots of long-held emotional wounds and begin the path toward healing.

One of Pia’s most brilliant insights was her ability to build a framework for understanding trauma within the context of the 12 Steps. She recognised that trauma work and 12-step recovery weren’t in competition — they were complementary. She saw that for many, long-term recovery from addiction required addressing the underlying trauma that drove the compulsive behaviours in the first place. Her model provided a language and a process that worked in harmony with the 12-step principles, and this integration has helped untold numbers of people sustain recovery and find deeper emotional healing.

My connection to Pia’s work is deeply personal. Both of my parents went through The Meadows in the late 1980s, a transformative experience that led them to ask Pia if she would help them establish a treatment centre in Australia. Pia didn’t hesitate. She generously offered the program and the use of her clinical model, not for profit, not for recognition, but because she believed in the work and in the healing it could bring. That single act of generosity has since helped thousands and thousands of people in this country.

I was lucky enough to spend one-on-one time with Pia in my early twenties. She didn’t suffer fools, spoke her truth plainly, and didn’t waste time on small talk. She had a piercing clarity — the ability to see straight into the heart of someone’s pain and name the pattern. She immediately saw in me a chronic tendency to take too much responsibility in my relationships, and helped me understand that I wasn’t solely responsible. It was a freeing, life-changing insight that I carry with me to this day.

Not long after that, I did the Survivors workshop myself, and it was in that space that I came to understand something profound: I did not cause the pain and disconnection of my family system. For the first time, I saw the innocence of four-year-old me. That moment of self-compassion was transformational, and I owe it to the depth and integrity of the process Pia created.

The last time I saw Pia was in 2021, during the final training session our team at South Pacific Private did with The Meadows. She joined us over Zoom to say hello and share some recollections of her visits to Australia. Her profound spirituality shone through as she spoke of how, in her clinical work, she would quietly say a prayer – asking for wisdom and grace to be present in the room. It was such a moving reminder of the depth and sacredness with which she approached healing work.

For all her intensity and wisdom, she also had a twinkle in her eye. I remember her visits to Australia vividly. The warmth, the humour, and the sound of laughter echoing late into the night as she sat with my parents after long days of training staff at South Pacific. She was fierce, brilliant, uncompromising and she was also warm, deeply generous, and full of life.

We’ve lost a pioneer, a teacher, and a truth-teller. But Pia’s legacy is alive — not just in the institutions she helped build or the clinical models she developed, but in the lives that were changed because she cared enough to tell the truth and offer a path forward.