Our CEO
Penny Wilkinson Founder and CEO The Overcomers Place
B.Bus. M.Couns. SEP, PACFA Clinical 24365
Email:
theovercomersplace2020@gmail.com
www.pennywilkinsoncounsellor.com
Penny has a passion for caring for those struggling with addiction and connecting them into safe effective communities that can sustain their wellbeing. She has travelled this journey personally and understands what it takes to turn a life around and sustain real and lasting change from addictive behaviours.
She holds qualifications in business, accounting, mental health, addiction and trauma specialties. Alongside her Masters Degree she has completed over 1000 hours of Professional Development specifically in recent advances in neuroscience, interpersonal neurobiology and the impact of trauma on the brain. Additionally she has completed training with Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing Team and Kathy Kain’s Touch Training in order to effect nervous system regulation. Penny is registered internationally as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and she is a Clinical registered member of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA).
She specialises in applying all this training to those suffering addictions.
Penny began her career in accounting and business in the 1980s quickly switching to human resources where her capacity to network and engage with humanity allowed her to flourish. She married in 1989 and had three children before retraining for counselling. In 2005 Penny brought to Australia, a recovery support model for others seeking a faith-based approach in recovery from all addictions. This network of Overcomers Outreach 12 step Groups now has branches across Sydney and NSW Regional areas. Today Penny works in private practice as an Addiction and Trauma Recovery Specialist at Gladesville. She is also contracted to lead Addiction Day-patient and In-Patient Groups for a leading Psychiatric Hospital, Northside Wentworthville, which is part of the Ramsay Healthcare Group.
Over these years Penny has researched a variety of Addiction Treatment Methodologies travelling extensively throughout USA, Asia, UK, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. In 2010 she was able to work alongside Janis Feely, MBE and Founder of The Living Room in Hertfordshire, England. Janis established this service in 2000. Over many hours of conversation Janis inspired Penny's journey to advance the cause of breaking the cycle of addiction in the lives of others in Sydney. She first ran a trial with Janis in Darlinghurst in 2014. After this success, Penny began planning to open The Overcomers Place. 2020.
Penny's extensive training in the latest neuroscience across four major continents with world leaders in the Addiction and Trauma fields and fifteen plus years experience working with addiction, has enabled her to create this new service model. Today Penny leads the specialised team of Addiction Counsellors providing this unique service. Since that initial meeting with Janis at an ISAAC Conference - International Substance Abuse and Alcohol Coalition - in Egypt in 2006, Penny's efforts have been working towards this dream. The Overcomers Place is a place for those seeking to overcome a range of addictions. This service aims to be accessible, sustainable and effective in breaking the cycle of addiction in our community ONE life at a time.