: Donna Lyon
: Left / Write // Hook Survivor Stories from a Creative Arts Boxing and Writing Project
: Loving Healing Press
: 9781615995820
: 1
: CHF 6.00
:
: Ratgeber
: English
: 296
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

LEFT / WRITE // HOOK shows that sexual abuse survivors are everywhere, that trauma lives in the body, and it needs to be expressed.
'By no choice of their own, survivors of childhood sexual abuse spend the entirety of their lives 'in the ring', fighting.Left / Write // Hook offers visceral insight into survivors' fierce, compelling and ultimately triumphant stories.'
-- Dr Joy Townsend, Learning Consent
'Donna Lyon has the ability to get women to open up and reveal all, and in the process begin the journey to healing. Boxing is a violent sport, but projects likeLeft / Write // Hook take the violence out of it, so that it becomes therapeutic and gives you power'.
-- Tommy Hopkins, Fitlife Boxing Club, Melbourne Australia.
'In 25+ years of working with people who have experienced childhood sexual abuse, I have come to understand the need to assist people to physically move through, as well as speak about, the trauma in order to lessen the hold that the impacts that the abuse can have on one's life -Left / Write // Hook does both with powerful effectiveness.'
-- Maria Vucko, (BA BSW MSW AMHSW)
Fueled with the voices and lived experiences of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, whose lives and work have been positively impacted by the combination of writing and boxing, readers will experience:



  • a profound understanding of the complexity and depth of trauma through the lived experiences of survivors
  • insights into the tenacious long-term impacts of abuse and trauma on the mind, body, and spirit
  • personalised and collective accounts of how trauma manifests in the experiences of survivors and their sense of self
  • hope and courage as to the resilience and strength of survivors who live with the daily effects of their trauma
  • new insight into how the combination of physical, mental, and creative programs of expression are vital to healing
  • dozens of powerful writing prompts that unearth hidden feelings, thoughts, and beliefs to recover your true self.

During

Julie speaks…

During Left / Write // Hook I wanted to give up so many times, but we had started the process of filming for a documentary. I didn’t think twice about doing it as I wanted my story to be heard and to help other women out there who had also been silenced for so long. During this whole process with some help and support from my partner, my counsellor and LWH, I decided to report the crimes and finally let someone in authority know. This didn’t happen overnight; it was something that had churned me up for such a long time. Once again, I was at PARC and with support, I made that phone call. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do. Anyway, I did it. I really believe I could not have done this if it wasn’t for LWH. It gave me some power back. When Covid hit, we had just started filming and then it all stopped. We did our sessions via zoom and that felt totally weird. I felt disconnected from the group but still turned up each week. Finally, we went back at the end of the year. The other women are so supportive and kind. And without this process I don’t think I would have achieved what I have today.

Claire speaks…

I felt held in the workshop space. I felt a sense of community and safety. I felt encouraged and supported emotionally, physically, mentally, and psychologically. This was because I knew I would not be judged or belittled. I felt safe to speak and write freely.

As I pushed myself physically, I felt strong, I sweated freely and felt free to go hard and exhaust myself. I vocalised as I hit the bag and accessed deep buried anger and felt safe to do so.

I had body memories and although it was terrible it also felt good to be real and be unmasking what had been hidden by decades of repression and societal silencing.

When I became emotional it increasingly felt more like release than overwhelm, it felt more manageable and real. When I had insights and realisations it felt strengthening and clarifying and less confusing or shameful. My mental and emotional state became one of focus and intention to be more truthful. I felt the environment of the workshop instigated and supported a strong sense of purpose and conviction. This sense of purpose and conviction has solidified in me to take into the rest of my life, the determination to support and encourage real and lasting change.

Lauren speaks…

In the first workshop, I felt very nervous and a deep sense of imposter syndrome, like I wasn’t areal trauma survivor. I was overcome with emotion. It felt as if the extent of my suffering was recognised for the first time; a powerful affirmation that it wasn’t all in my head. The weekly workshops became a container where I could exhale completely. If I felt shame, I said it. If I felt everyone in the group hated me, I said it. I challenged these feelings. The group held each other in a radical space of acceptance, love and understanding. We reminded each other of our resilience. We made space for each other. We wrote to prompts and learnt to trust the process. Hearing everyone’s writing each week often triggered feelings of rage, disgust, hopelessness, hopefulness, shame, and sadness. These feelings rested in a powerful context of solidarity. This felt, and continues to feel, deeply political to me.

The physical practice that followed our writing challenged me every week. Boxing is hard. Every time I felt my body being pushed to its limit, I felt the bubbling up of shame and panic, the traumatised parts of me coming out to remind me I was weak, pathetic, that I didn’t belong in the group, that my abuse wasn’t bad enough to ‘count.’ But I kept going. Emerging from the other side of the boxing practice, I always experienced a shift. My experience varied from week to week, but through movement something always happened. It grounded me, and in a profound way it showed me that I can influence my experience by connecting with my body.

Dove speaks…

My experience of the workshops depended on what I was working through and what was happening in my life at the time. It was often an emotional rollercoaster; I was often surprised by what came up. At other times I was too shut down to