Donna Lyon Donna Lyon i(25081025 works by)
Gender: Female
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Works By

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1 Boxing Empowered Me to Express My Trauma – Now, I Help Other Abuse Survivors Do the Same, Combining It with Creative Writing Donna Lyon , 2022 extract essay (Left/Write//Hook : Survivor Stories)
— Appears in: The Conversation , 12 December 2022;
1 Writing + Boxing = Left / Write // Hook Donna Lyon , Claire Gaskin , Gabrielle Everall , 2022 single work criticism
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue , no. 67 2022;
'This paper will focus on the (dis)embodied experiences of three rape and incest survivors who were part of the creative arts and sports intervention program, Left / Write // Hook. It suggests their understanding of self is a lived and (dis)embodied space in which they can creatively and reflexively re-tell, re-claim, and re-story their experiences of disconnection and shame associated with their trauma. Left / Write // Hook combines two acts; writing to a prompt, followed by non-contact boxing. The program ran in 2020 as part of a University of Melbourne creativity and wellbeing research initiative, targeting female survivors of childhood sexual abuse and trauma. About the program, founder Donna Lyon says: “The attempt to give expression to hidden and silenced thoughts and memories came through the act of writing, then boxing, to embody and release the emotion”. This paper observes the way that the process of writing informs trauma, trauma informs writing, and the embodied act of boxing informs the movement of stored trauma in the body. This article incorporates personal writing which recounts the experiences of these participants.' 

(Publication abstract)

1 y separately published work icon Left/Write//Hook : Survivor Stories Donna Lyon (editor), Ann Arbor : Loving Healing Press , 2021 25535939 2021 anthology autobiography

'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 like Left / Write // Hook take the violence out of it, so that it becomes therapeutic and gives you power". --Tommy Hopkins, Fitlife Boxing Club, Melbourne Australia.

'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.' (Publication summary) 

 

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