Pip is currently the director of the Grace Gawler Cancer Survivorship and Wellness Institute P/L, where apart from running the websites, his focus is on 55plus wellness, a service to help people age wisely using the latest science and knowhow, and Gut Health Tasmania.
Pip has worked with Grace since early 2007.
He initiated programs such as Prostate Mates and Captain Pip and the Cancer Survivor Ship
Pip and Grace Gawler were married in 2016.
Background: Trained in Physical Education at Melbourne University, Pip specialised in Outdoor Education. After leaving teaching in the late 70s, he established the Ulladulla Windsurfing School, built and managed a ski lodge in the NSW Alps. He taught skiing in winter, white-water canoeing and kayaking in spring and windsurfing in summer.
Pip later started an outdoor adventure company called Wilderness Awareness, which helped participants build a deep connection with nature, a forerunner to eco-adventures. It was called Wilderness Adventures of the Heart in Nature.
USA: While living in America, Pip taught Alpine skiing and snowboarding at a northern California resort. He was also a ski mountain guide on a 4000 metre mountain in Northern California. In summer he was a kayak and white water rafting guide.
Mediation and Conflict Resolution: During spring and autumn Pip was a volunteer in Oregon schools where he taught peer mediation and conflict resolution. Later, in the 1990s, after training as a mediator, Pip worked with young men in the juvenile justice systems of Australia and Oregon, USA. He also worked in an Juvenile Correction Centre and was a volunteer mediator in Oregon courts for community disputes.
Australian sports commission: In 2002, while working for the Australian Sports Commission, Pip conducted a week long course with a high ranking Australian Olympic team; some of whom are gold medallists and therefore, household names. The course address issues of sexism, misogyny and harassment and culminated in a ‘clear the air’ conflict resolution and mediation.
Department of Peace Initiative, Canada: In 2006, Pip was a member of a small delegation put together by the Australian Democrats to attend training in Canada supportive of the Global Department of Peace Initiative.
United States Senate and Congress: In 2007, Pip travelled to Washington DC as a member of Oregon Department of peace initiative group. The department of peace initiative had been tabled as a bill to be put to the Senate and the Congress. Pip and his team visited both the Senate and Congress and met with various senators and congressmen to promote the bill.
Books: Pip has written two booklets, Sustainable Masculinity and Kicking a Goal for Masculinity which are designed as discussion templates to help adults talk about the concept of healthy and unhealthy forms of masculinity with boys, teens and young men. Building respect for women is a central theme. His books and eBooks have been offered free to organisations and individuals.
Testimonials for Pip's Work - Australia and USA
Australia:
Calvary Hospital Workshops Series, Australian Capital Territory, 2003/4
- Refreshing to experience a facilitator who not only spoke from the heart, but also taught a heart-based communication. – Pia Negri, Australian Barnados Youth Group
- Pip was so attuned to participants that he enabled an acceptance of ourselves ‘warts and all.’ This was a personal day, not just a day about facts. He modelled ‘Ethical Communications’ especially in his interactions with us. – Margy Jones, Foster Parent A.C.T
- Pip’s gentle and affirming language encourages us to examine how we can use words to create partnerships. His heart based stories and timely metaphors inspired me. – Peter Portelli, Australia Lifeline, Counsellor
Menslink ACT:
Pip facilitated our organization on mentoring boys. He is a powerful leader who demonstrated diverse experience in working with boys and young men. The concepts he promotes through his workshops and seminars benefit both schools and communities immeasurably. Richard Shanahan CEO- Men’s Link Canberra Australia (Young Men’s Support Network)
Canberra Girls Grammar School:
The gender reconciliation workshops were great. I use the skills I learned on a daily basis with my children and partner. I would any time entrust my students and indeed my own children in his skilful and considerate care. I have taken his excellent adult courses for personal growth and self esteem enhancement (family communication coaching). Pip is a highly sensitive and compassionate facilitator. He is able to quickly establish rapport with people and his excellent teaching skills are based on solid experience and genuine care for young people and adults alike. His techniques and message have far reaching implications in moving toward a community at large. Hans Joerg Kraus – Science Department, Canberra Girls’ Grammar School. March 2002
Media Studies & Health Coordinator, ACT, Australia
Pip Cornall has been a working associate and friend for twenty years. We have shared experiences as teachers of outdoor recreation both in a formal teaching setting and as friends. We’ve been students together, teachers together and Pip has been our teacher on a number of occasions. Pip is a highly committed and energetic teacher and leader who quickly establishes rapport and trust with students and colleagues, engendering from the outset a positive and richly supportive learning environment. He brings a student centred focus to his work, tuned in to the individual and to individual needs. Pip has a ready sense of humour and a passion for working with people. Pip is thorough and well organised in his preparation and delivery. He has a thirst for knowledge and understanding, which is readily communicated. He keeps abreast of current approaches and issues related to fitness, health and well being, particularly in the area of work with young people. Pip asks for and accepts feedback and is remarkable in his drive for critical review and improvement. – Marilyn Higgins – Media Studies & Health Coordinator, ACT, Australia and Neil Montgomery, Outdoor Education Teacher, Narrabundah College, 1983-present. ph: work 6205 6999 home 6247 0404 – Feb 2002
Insync Institute Canberra:
I have known Pip since 2002. We have worked together organising several community dialogues on divisive and challenging events. These high level events involved MLA’s, foreign diplomats, church and interfaith leaders, academics, schools, care agencies, overseas aid providers and community members. Pip is also completing a Yoga and Meditation Teachers Course with me during which he consistently displays – great enthusiasm and a willingness to learn, a high level of teaching and communication skills, commitment to the program, an ability to adapt his teaching to the needs of the participants.
Kieran O’Callaghan – Director, InSync Institute – Griffith, ACT – ph 6260 6666
USA
Workshops and Trainings:
“Even though I teach mediators I learned many new techniques from Pip’s work. Pip is extremely talented as a facilitator, mediator and peacemaker. His workshop style displays excellent skills in training and teaching. I’m also familiar with the contribution he has made to peacemaking and promoting resiliencies in the global community through his workshops.” Lynne A. Cox – Attorney, Professor of Law and Dispute Resolution Bridgewater Mediation Training
I am a licensed counsellor in the state of Oregon, and I have worked closely with Pip Cornall. Together we have organised educational events for men in Southern Oregon to raise awareness of the cost of violence against women and children. We have been part of a group of men and women who seek to improve physical and psychological safety within families and schools. Of all the men I have worked with, Pip has evinced the most unrelenting dedication and devotion to improving the lives of our youth and increasing the safety of women in our society, as well as uplifting the consciousness and sensitivity of men and boys in our culture. He provides insights and skills that are irreplaceable. – Nando Raynolds M.A – Talent, Or 97540 – (541) 535 1778
“A few months ago my husband and I went through an extremely difficult phase in our relationship. As a result of Pip’s family communication coaching and workshop we now use an emotionally authentic language we both understand enabling us to more lovingly address our issues. Pip is an extraordinarily talented guide, coach and mediator who assists with sensitivity, humor, and profound insight into interpersonal dynamics.” – Martine A. Baker California.
I have interfaced with Pip on many levels; that of co-mediator and instructor of children in conflict resolution in the area middle and high schools. His soft humor and genuine caring made him loved by children of all ages. He served as a tremendous role model. I have been very aware of his work with men and boys in teaching non-violence and mentoring, much of these in outdoor settings. This community has been enriched by his presence and contribution. – Carol Hwoschinsky, M.A., M.F.C.C – Conflict Evolution Associates – Ashland, Or
Of all the men I have worked with, Pip has evinced the most unrelenting dedication and devotion to improving the lives of our youth and increasing the safety of women in our society, as well as uplifting the consciousness and sensitivity of men and boys in our culture. He provides insights and skills that are irreplaceable. Nando Raynolds M.A – licensed counsellor – Ashland, Or (541) 535 1778
In addition to his involvement with the elderly, Pip has shown exemplary service to other populations of our area, especially troubled youth. . His work in mediation and conflict resolution is to be commended. His compassion and fairness for all sides concerned have empowered many people. He has deeply touched our family and the community at large here in the Rogue Valley. – Sheri Harding – Drama Therapist – 541 482 4456
“I have known Pip (Phillip) Cornall for about six years. He is a friend and a colleague. He has also provided mediation services to a multi-million-dollar corporation of which I am currently the president of the board. He was successful in helping to resolve an internal staff management conflict.
I have also organized and co-organized a series of six two and 1/2 day professional trainings in conflict resolution and group facilitation, which Mr. Cornall attended. I know of at least one other weeklong seminar with Dr. Arnold Mindell, that Mr. Cornall has attended because I attended it also. Mr. Cornall also had been participating in an ongoing study group, of which I am a member, to learn more about group organization and skills for solving personal and group conflicts.
Frankly I have never met a person more dedicated to community service than Mr. Cornall. He has spontaneously given hundreds of volunteer hours to our community via mediation and through work with children in our local middle schools, training the children to do their own mediation and on the spot problem solving. – Diane Taudvin CEO Ashland Community Food Co-op
Pip (Phillip) worked as a volunteer for Mediation Works for several years while he was living in Southern Oregon. As a trained mediator and graduate of several other trainings in the area of conflict resolution and group facilitation, Phillip is an accomplished teacher and trainer. We especially valued his work as co-presenter in peer mediation trainings in our local secondary schools. He has a particular interest and skill in working with adolescent boys. We have noticed a growing need for positive adult male role models in school settings. We found Phillip met this need perfectly as he has an ability to quickly develop rapport with young people. Mediation Works is a private non-profit agency that provides mediation and conflict resolution services and trainings to people of Southern Oregon. The scope of our work is determined in large part by the nature of grants we receive. We would certainly consider hiring Phillip to work as a paid employee of Mediation Works in the future, providing we received funding for a project that fit his qualifications. We feel confident that he would bring many skills and strengths to our organization. – Ellen Craine – Community Education Coordinator – Mediation Works, Medford, Or
My family and I became acquainted with Pip Cornall during a five-day group-rafting trip in Northern California. My two sons, who had never paddled a boat, were moved by the patience of ‘Pip’ in demonstrating over and over how to manoeuvre their kayaks. As we were in a group of about ten families, there were many people clamouring for assistance, yet Pip never tired of teaching paddling techniques.
By the second day, the youth on the trip were rushing in the morning to be the ones to ride in Pip’s passenger raft. Mesmerized by his extensive knowledge of wildlife, the teens also received empathy for the problems they were facing in life, as Pip interwove character-building lessons into his narrations along the river.
One evening while we were camped, my eleven-year-old son was distraught over a perceived slight by one of the girls. Pip’s rapport was so strong, that he was able to mediate the conflict in a manner that allowed the girl to express her discomfort with my son’s attentions, while simultaneously acknowledging the painful feelings of my son. As an educator, I was aware of the difficulty in dealing with such a sensitive matter, and was both grateful and impressed with Pip’s diplomacy.
By the end of the 5 day raft trip, it was obvious that Mr. Cornall had gained the trust and respect of all participants. He has a special way of connecting with people in a manner that affirms their worth and draws out their highest integrity. Nobody left the trip without being affected by the genuine concern of this man. – Kate Smith Ca. USA