Dear Rod,
Both you and Penny made a huge impact on my life! I found that part of my life gave me a huge sense of empowerment and I found PICT therapy was an amazing tool, especially after Penny developed the visualization with the inner child and the time line. It is so powerful and transformative in allowing the client to heal and integrate.
I am so pleased to learn that her legacy is there with so many practicing therapists and training continuing for the next generation.
I felt that the degree at Norwich City College that I was taking, which covered several forms of psychology and counselling, gave me a broad perspective and background on the various different forms of psychological analysis that had found a place in therapy today. PICT therapy to my mind was so far ahead of the others because it combined the best and most transformative aspects of these theories. Allowing the client to integrate all aspects of the conscious and unconscious mind, especially the inner child.
That is the genius of PICT therapy!
S.D. - PICT Therapist
I have just seen on the website to my shock the news of the tragic passing of the beautiful lady Penny.
I first engaged with Penny about 9 and a half years ago as a student. I sent her an email stating I was a student and the reason for making contact thinking I would get a generic response back, to my surprise I got an invitation to interview Penny, she was so open and honest which ended up for me feeling like I had known her a long time.
We did eventually meet a couple of years ago at a workshop in Stockport where I live organised by a fellow colleague. It was a true honour to meet Penny in person she was so authentic and interesting.
I would like very much to pass on my very sincere condolences to all of her family whom she spoke to me about with such high regard, love and pride. She will always be a true inspiration to me and I believe an amazing Beacon to everyone that she has touched. May she rest in eternal Peace and God Bless.
All my very best wishes
Paula. Xx MBACP.
I can hardly believe am writing this email and that am writing it because Penny has taken her last breath and gone to sleep.
With deep sadness and a twinkle of a smile I remember the first time I met her. She was funny and talented and of course she sang for the class as only Penny could.
Then of course I remember her stage presence as she presented the Resourceful Self for ACC in Croydon all those years ago, such a gift and of course the many times I spoke to her on the phone such graciousness.
M. S. - PICT Therapist
Dear Penny,
It is hard to know what to say. I just felt that I wanted to make sure that you know just how special you are. Because of the suffering you endured in your childhood you have been able to help so many people to heal and live happy lives. I wonder what all those people would have done without your incredible ideas and tools. Who would they be now?
For me personally, I feel as though meeting you marked a real turning point in my life. Changing my mistaken beliefs and “reparenting” myself has been the making of me in so many ways. I am sure that thousands of others would agree that your work has been instrumental in their personal growth.
What a tremendous legacy! You are a force of nature and so loved by Rod, who really is the gentle giant. I am so sad for him too but I know that he will be pouring all of himself into your care right now.
To both of you we send our love and thoughts.
Liz & Mike
Dear Penny,
I am so sorry to hear that you are terminally ill. You said in your message that you are OK with this, and I respect your right to be OK with it and support you in your courage and strength to face whatever comes.
What an amazing life you have lived. You found the courage to take your own distress and channel it into supporting others. You are an amazing inspirational speaker, an amazing singer, writer and have a wonderful sense of humour. You have touched so many lives.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the privilege of knowing you and working with you. I shall never forget the week we spent together in the summer of 2017. This was a seminal moment in my healing and in my growth as a person. You gave me unconditional love to enable me to find inner resources to deal with my demons and gave me permission to apportion blame where it truly lies. You enable me to process grief and trauma associated with my losses – treasured pets, birth parents and baby daughter. Despite the enormity of all this, you enabled me to laugh and have fun during our time at Quay Place.
What I will miss most is the comfort of knowing that you are there should I need you. But then hey, what do we know?! Perhaps you will always be there, you will certainly always be in my heart. And you will be ever present in my gorgeous soft toy (whom I have named Penny!), in the earrings, the Lacey Street CD, and in the Faber Castell mechanical pencil you gave me at the end of our time together. I will always treasure these reminders of you.
Whatever comes between now and the end of your life, please know that my thoughts and love are there with you.
J.S. - PICT Client
Hi Rod,
I am so very upset to hear Penny is so sick.
Penny saved my life and I finally grew up. Please let her know how grateful I am and how I have thought of her so often. I feel such an endearing love for her and the healing she bought to me and the world. I regularly read all the books she gave me and her “ Mistaken belief “ guided imagery, it is so powerful I still use it. I also have your business/ customer service booklets.
The work she developed is the only thing that works. I am doing Marisa Peers RTT online course as a means to an end so I can go to England next year and do Penny’s PICT Diploma with Lindsay Schofield. I have downloaded the requirements for applying. I intend to be Australia’s first PICT Practitioner!
Rod I am so sorry you are suffering too. I know how emotionally and physically exhausting it is looking after a loved one at a time like this. My heart goes out to you both.
I would like to call you this week if that’s OK. I can’t stop crying tonight. Penny is such a beautiful soul.
Love Terese xxx
I had the pleasure and honour to meet Penny Parks few times during one day courses and while I had been studying PICT five years ago in Beccles in welcoming home of Susan Osborne. After that we were planning together with Penny to translate PICT to Polish and give Polish therapists opportunity to learn and use PICT in their language. Finally the idea failed, but PICT is still my favourite therapeutic approach and I am still inspired by Penny’s Park work and ideas.
I will remember her as an amazing person, who could change her very difficult experiences to wonderful tools, which can help other people to find theirs strength and change theirs life. And her incredible work is eternal and will help people as long as they need this help even the lovely creator is not physically with us any longer.
I want to pay my tribute to Penny Parks on my own and on the behalf of the hundreds of my clients, whose lives were changed thanks to Penny’s ideas.
Best regards
B.B. - PICT Therapist
I attended one of Penny’s training sessions a few years back and have been using all that I learnt on that training since!
Penny’s work has been absolutely invaluable to me and my clients in their work with the inner child and also, most importantly, in their healing.
I would be grateful if you could pass on my condolences and heartfelt hugs to her family and team, and let them know that her name will live on as I will continue to use what I have been taught through her.
J.N. PICT Therapist
I owe so much to Penny. Firstly she saved my life, then changed it. I wouldn’t be the person I am today or have achieved everything I’ve achieved without her. In fact I probably wouldn’t be here to tell the tale. I expect thousands of other people will say the same.
I’ll never forget what she did for me nor her singing ‘Cry Me a River’, every time I hear it it reminds me of Penny and always brings a tear.
A.M. PICT Client
Back in 1992 I had the gift of visiting Penny whilst she lived in Trimley, near Ipswich. As a 36 year old man, struggling to come to terms with sexual abuse as a child, Penny gave so much that went a long way to saving my sanity. She taught me how to uncover the roots of the mistaken beliefs that dominated my thinking, and put me onto the path of mental hygiene I practice to this day.
I am a different man to the one Penny showed how to go to my safe place, and help my inner child to dress himself as he wanted to be dressed. The first time she showed me that I was loveable is an event I remember vividly 28 years later.
In 1993 she even attended my wedding.
So many things in this life can shape us, but the gifts Penny gave me truly helped. The simple method of finding the mistaken beliefs and correcting them with truth, is a technique I have practiced on many occasions. It is with pleasure I can say that from the mentally dangerous place I started from, with Penny’s help, I am now a peaceful, satisfied man.
Please give my deepest condolences to her family. I feel sure she will be missed by many.
Fondest regards,
L.G. - PICT Client
Dear Penny,
You cured me of my lifelong phobia of needles.
In one simple and miraculous session – tapping my arm and associating the right thoughts with the right outcome. You made it look so easy. It was life-changing for me.
Sadly you did not cure me of my phobia of writing.
In fairness I did not ask you to…. Otherwise I would be able to write a much more eloquent testimonial to your gifts as a therapist and human being.
With hindsight I should have asked you to help me with so many things.
You have left this world and leave us behind - full of regrets and missed opportunities.
I am deeply grateful to you for leaving me with the image of the “oversized jumper” of handed-down thoughts from previous generations. Thoughts that no longer fit.
I think of this image often and will carry you in my heart.
I remember you as an amazing singer – vibrant and captivating on stage. Such energy.
I will always be sad that you did not write another book. You had several more books in you.
You leave many people behind who will mourn you and smile when they think of you. Tears and laughter at the same time. You would have something funny to say about that.
A life well lived.
With thanks
A.B. - Client
Dear Penny,
We were so very sad to hear your news, quite a shock, as you appeared to have fought off your illness a short time ago.
Christine said that you are still finding the inner strength to laugh about things, just as you were when I spoke to you on the phone a while back. You are an amazing lady Penny.
We are thinking of Rod too, as it is a huge roller-coaster of emotions you are both dealing with and it is a difficult time to face together.
I do believe that you are about to embark on an exciting new journey in your eternal sojourn and that we will all meet again before too long.
Thank you for all for the lovely times we had together. We had lots of fun and I really enjoyed the workshops that you had at your place all those years ago. It was an ideal venue for them. Also, the parties and BBQs that you kindly invited us to. We also had that wonderful day at Wyken Hall and the Leaping Hare. Everything was perfect, the weather, the food, the open gardens, the riverside decking where we rested a while, the great conversation, each others company and a visit to the gift shop.
Then there were all of the venues we visited to watch you and your friends singing and making music. At many of them Rod was sorting out the acoustics, always bare-footed so that he could connect to the earth, I am a great believer in that. I also remember having dinner together at Christine and Tom’s – that was a lovely evening too.
You are an unusual couple and interesting too, who have always followed your own dreams and have been loved and admired by many. You have made a big contribution to life for the betterment of others, which is a life to be proud of.
For now, dear friend, we send lots of love and big hugs to you both. Our thoughts are with you and our memories will always be in our hearts.
Bless you both, enjoy the beautiful month of May.
Mags & Ernie
Penny was an inspirational, generous, vibrant, loyal friend who enriched me (us all) and taught me so much.
Her wit and positive approach was a light shining in my life. I will greatly miss her! She will be in my heart and mind as that light shines forever.
A.B.
Dear Rod,
I feel sadness for your loss and share a sense of loss and sadness that so many people who were reached and touched by Penny will also experience now she has passed.
I am and will continue to be forever grateful for her teachings, creativity and bundles of energy. I can remember so well staying at your home to complete training in Penny’s inspirational work.
Through her great skill and tenacity, endless subconscious’s have been re-written. Mine included. My appreciation to be presented with a mirror so pure, so vibrant, so innocent and beautiful has continued to support me in realising the truth about the life that I am, and in turn support others too.
I have often wondered what might have become of me if I hadn’t had the great fortune to meet Penny when I did. She taught me what true compassion is and to bear witness without judgement.
I love her dearly, and always will.
If it is at all possible to attend her funeral, I would truly love to be apart of celebrating her brilliance with you.
N.R. PICT Therapist
George and I were so sorry to hear about Penny passing away. She was an amazing woman who touched many, many lives.
We have a lot of memories of our times with Penny, in particular the trip to Italy that we all shared together.
Music, Therapy, art, teaching and writing kept Penny busy for so long. It was through those avenues that she gave so much to others. It is also through those avenues that so many of us will be sending thoughts and love from the bottom of our hearts.
George & Christine
Penny was an amazing character who leaves behind a massive legacy. Not only in her therapy profession, where I know that she is highly regarded - our friend who is studying to be a counsellor said that Penny’s name came up as a leading light on her course.
But of course, we along with so many others, will remember her for her singing. She had a fantastic voice, and she really knew how to use it to entertain. As someone who is learning to be a singer, I always felt that Penny gave a masterclass in all the things I was taught to do when we sung. I will think of Penny when I try my best to put them into practice in the future.
We feel so lucky that she came to sing in our “Big Shed”, we had such a memorable afternoon with friends and we are sorry the follow up never happened.
Kate & Mike
“Thank You”
Dear Penny,
You may be thinking why a thank you card? But there are many “Thank You’s” to come your way. I want to say I am so sorry that you are living with this, I wish that I could take your pain away, I really do. I so wish that I could visit – but the world is in turmoil at the moment, so visits are not allowed – as you know.
I recall when I first met you! We can all thank you for such a lovely voice and an amazing stage presence! So many great songs. Thank you for welcoming me onto the stage with you at the Caribbean Centre. When I was heavily pregnant with Matthew, now 20, you sang with Roger at PALS for me – thank you!
Apart from your musical accomplishments you have worked so hard to help others come through traumatic times in their lives. Each and every client will, I am sure, be so pleased that they have met you! (there’s another “thank you”).
We should have kept in touch more – easy to say as we have all had busy times in our lives. If you have a moment when you would like a little chat – please call me. I will be thinking of you every day and will send you loving, peaceful thoughts.
With lots of love from Janie and Roger.