Left Write Hook in the media
Radio New Zealand:
How a boxing and writing programme helps
A trauma-informed boxing course in Melbourne is helping women who've survived sexual abuse reclaim their bodies and rewrite their stories. Left Write Hook was founded by Donna Lyon - who was herself a survivor of abuse. She'd turned to boxing as a way to channel her anger - but instead discovered its power as a mindfulness practice.
Left Write Hook; a case study of producing a feature length documentary across and within the marketplace and the academy
Shannon Owen, Donna Lyon
Published in Media Practice and Education, 11 February 2025, 26(3), 283–301.
Reflect Reclaim & Liberate
Storytelling, Movement & Healing with Donna Lyon of Left Write Hook
In this special bonus episode of Reflect, Reclaim & Liberate, I share an incredibly powerful and important conversation with Dr Donna Lyon—a producer, associate professor at the University of Melbourne, and survivor-advocate who is reshaping the conversation around trauma recovery.
The Indomitable Spirit
Dr. Donna Lyon of Left Write Hook
In this podcast, I sat down with Dr Donna Lyon, the Founder of the Left Write Hook. Left Write Hook is the name of her charity, book series and now an award-winning documentary that Donna produced. It is a 8-week boxing and creative writing program for victims of child sexual abuse and complex trauma with the goal of empowering its participants.
Marie Claire Australia
Survivor Circles. Amid Australia’s epidemic of sexual violence, a new wave of peer-led support groups is changing the way victim-survivors heal.
In a small gym in inner-city Melbourne, eight women are pounding punching bags. Every hook is charged with emotion, every jab a reclamation of control.
Minderoo Foundation
The individual and collective: co-creating social impact to transform trauma
“Over the past five years, I’ve used my lived experience as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, my stint in amateur boxing, and my professional identity as an academic and filmmaker to turn a grassroots project into a research initiative, a documentary, a book, and now a survivor-led charity.”
Roll with the punches
Left, Write, Hook…Boxing, Writing, Healing
Dr. Donna Lyon chats to Tiffanee Cook on the Roll With The Punches Podcast, about survivor experiences, recovery, the Left Write Hook Program and the Left Write Hook Film.
ABC Radio National
Life Matters: Releasing trauma from the body through words and punches
An experimental recovery program that uses a unique combination of boxing and creative writing to process childhood trauma is the subject of a new documentary, Left Write Hook.
The film follows the harrowing stories of seven survivors of childhood sexual abuse as they move through the eight-week program.
Voices to be Heard: An Arts, Health and Justice Perspective on Healing and Recovery from Child Sexual Abuse.
Donna Lyon, Shannon Owen, Ella Dumaresq, David McDonald
University of Melbourne, Published 2024
The 286 Project
Donna Lyon - 'People's lives have been changed'
Dr Donna Lyon runs a support group in Melbourne to help women who suffered from abuse when they were a child. The support group is called Left Write Hook and uses boxing and writing as a way to help women overcome the complex trauma they are going through.
The Medical Republic
Boxing, writing can help survivors of trauma and abuse
After years of battling with the list of symptoms linked to her abuse, Dr Lyon undertook a journey that resulted in the development of Left Write Hook, a research-informed eight-week boxing and writing workshop for adult survivors of child sexual abuse and other complex trauma.
ABC Melbourne
New boxing program helps sexual assault survivors process trauma
A ground-breaking new support group is combining boxing and writing to help victims of childhood sexual assault.
The founder of Left Write Hook, Donna Lyon, developed the project as mixed-method pilot, but was so successful she expanded into a full-fledged program.
ABC Radio Melbourne
A ground-breaking new support group is combining boxing and writing to help victims of childhood sexual assault.
The founder of Left Write Hook, Donna Lyon, developed the project as mixed-method pilot, but was so successful she expanded into a full-fledged program.
The Age
A child abuser taught Nikki to not resist. Boxing helped her confront her trauma.
“My paternal grandfather had a minimum of 10 other victims, over multiple generations; he was very good at manipulating people into silence and inaction,” she says. “I could not talk about things, or fight back, or take action. You had to sort of freeze, and that was where a lot of the trauma flowed from.”
The Guardian
‘People’s lives have been changed’: could boxing help child abuse survivors deal with trauma?
Left Write Hook, a unique support group in Melbourne, combines boxing and writing to help survivors feel empowered – and is the subject of a punchy new documentary.