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About Marianne…
Marianne Olk was born in Auburn, New South Wales, Australia, to an Australian mother and a German migrant father. She grew up in the Western Suburbs of Sydney as the middle child among three daughters, with one sister three years older and the other seven years younger. Marianne enjoyed a happy, carefree childhood, ingrained with strong work ethics and values by her parents. She attended an all-female Catholic high school until age 16, when she left to complete a four-year Commercial Cookery apprenticeship, which began in a restaurant in Blacktown, Sydney, and concluded on the Gold Coast of Queensland.
Marianne’s career in the hospitality industry shaped her relationship with alcohol. She cannot recall a time when her drinking habits were ‘normal.’ She often drank more than her peers and eventually began to hide her consumption. Despite being a ‘functioning alcoholic’ for many years—raising three children, holding a full-time job, and managing a five-acre hobby farm with her then-husband—everything changed after a car accident in 2007. This incident did not immediately curb her drinking; she continued to drink to unsafe levels and went through multiple withdrawal and rehabilitation programs, repeatedly relapsing. The turning point came in June 2009 when she attended the Northside Clinic in St Leonards, after which she has remained sober.
Since achieving sobriety, Marianne has dedicated herself to helping others in similar situations. She worked as the Food Services Manager at a drug and alcohol detox/rehab unit for seven and a half years, eventually transitioning to a role as a drug and alcohol worker. Realising she could offer valuable insights from her perspective as a recovering alcoholic, Marianne pursued further education. She attended TAFE and then university, becoming a Registered Nurse. For over five years, she has worked for NSW Health at the Orange Health Service and the Mental Health Drug and Alcohol Bloomfield Campus in Orange, regional New South Wales. Marianne completed a Diploma in Counselling in 2016 and volunteered for numerous years at Lifeline as a Crisis Support team member, also assisting the Euchareena flood victims on site. She has also recently become qualified as an EMDR therapist.
Marianne is passionate about helping people change habits through holistic approaches, aiming to empower individuals to build resilience, manage crises, and live fulfilling lives. She emphasises experiencing joy and gratitude and facing each day with enthusiasm.
In addition to her professional work, Marianne is committed to her personal well-being. She played roller derby for over six years, cycles to work, walks her dogs daily, practices yoga, meditation and mindfulness, eats a healthy diet, and enjoys spending time in nature.
Marianne is also an author. Her book, “Me, My Drunk and I,” published on Amazon and available at her local bookstore, shares her personal journey with substance use disorders to help others facing similar challenges.
Marianne’s children are now adults aged 33, 29, and 27, and she maintains a close relationship with them. Her partner of almost 15 years, Kurt, is her greatest supporter. They live together in Orange with their two dogs, Savannah and Devo, and their cat, Morty. The couple plans to move to Coffs Harbour in the coming months to be closer to Marianne’s parents and continue her mission of helping people from all walks of life.
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READ MARIANNE'S STORY
This book will help you acknowledge, come to terms with and deal with your alcohol use disorder. We don’t wake up one morning and decide that we are going to develop an alcohol use disorder. It creeps up on you over months, years and sometimes decades. Anyone can develop an alcohol use disorder. It doesn’t discriminate between social classes, where you’re from or your background. You could be a functioning alcoholic for a long time before your life comes tumbling down. This book will take you on a journey of what the author’s life became, as a raging alcoholic, to what it is now – a life of health, happiness and a continuing journey of what is important in life and learning how to love yourself.