Penny Stopforth is a registered Clinical Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). She holds a Bachelor of Social Science, an Honours degree in Psychology, and a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Rhodes University, all awarded with distinction.
Penny’s professional career spans clinical, academic, forensic, and community-based settings. She began her work as a counsellor at FAMSA and later facilitated relapse prevention groups at Fort England Hospital. She completed her clinical psychology internship and community service at Fort England Psychiatric Hospital, where she worked with individuals experiencing severe mental illness. Alongside her clinical training, she lectured in Psychopathology at Rhodes University.
From 2015 to 2017, Penny worked at Valkenberg Hospital in Cape Town, specialising in criminal capacity assessments of children and adolescents, an area in which she continues to have a strong professional interest. She has also contributed to academic training through guest lecturing at the University of Cape Town in the Honours programme on criminal capacity. Since 2016, she has been in private practice, providing psychotherapy to adolescents and adults, spcialising in neurodiversity.
Penny has presented research at national and international conferences, including award-winning work on underage sexual offending presented at the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy Conference in Sicily. She has served on forensic and child justice forums at a provincial and national level and has facilitated professional workshops on the practical and therapeutic aspects of financial matters in psychotherapy. From 2020 to 2023, she hosted the CPDPOD podcast series, contributing to ongoing professional development within the mental health field.
Structure as a Pathway to Connection: The Imago Dialogue as Relational Practice