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Left Write Hook is not a crisis or support service. For more services, visit our Get support page.
How Left Write Hook supports recovery
Content note: This page talks about childhood sexual abuse and its impacts. It is not graphic, but it may be distressing. Please take care of yourself while reading, and step away whenever you need to. The Quick Exit bar at the bottom of this site will close this page at any time.
Left Write Hook is a world-first, research-informed program combining trauma-aware writing with non-contact boxing. Led by lived and living experience, our 8 week program supports survivors of childhood sexual abuse and gendered violence to use both body and voice to rebuild strength and purpose.
Where it began
Left Write Hook began in 2019, when our founder Dr Donna Lyon started a small grassroots program at her local boxing gym in Ferntree Gully, Victoria. Donna did not remember her own abuse until her mid-20s, and in that rock bottom found healing in two unexpected places: boxing and writing. What started as survival grew into a book of participant writing, a multi-award-winning documentary now streaming on Netflix, a formal research partnership with the University of Melbourne, a registered charity, and a national survivor-led movement.
Why writing and boxing?
Trauma lives in both the mind and the body, so our program works with both. Writing gives survivors a safe way to find words for their experience, reclaim their stories and be witnessed. Non-contact boxing, delivered in a trauma-informed way, helps survivors reconnect with their bodies, release what they have been carrying, and build strength and confidence.
Each week, for eight weeks, survivors come together in a private space to write, share and box. Sessions are run by facilitators with lived or living experience, many of whom are past program participants. The model is grounded in narrative therapy techniques and embodied creative practice, offering a structured yet flexible complement to traditional clinical approaches that supports emotional regulation, physical reconnection and empowerment.
“Burning off the excess emotion and using it constructively, shifting our focus to our bodies, changing up our energy and having fun with boxing is healing and powerful.”
What the research shows
Left Write Hook began as a research project at the University of Melbourne, and evidence has been at the centre of our work ever since. Early research demonstrated that participating in the program results in a decrease in depression, anxiety, stress and other symptoms of complex PTSD, and an increase in social, emotional and psychological wellbeing. Our work has been published in peer-reviewed academic journals, and in 2026 we completed a large-scale Randomised Controlled Trial in partnership with the University of Melbourne, one of the first of its kind for a survivor-led creative and physical recovery program, with the trial protocol published in BMJ Open and results to be shared in the coming months. You can explore our findings on the Research page.
Your journey through the program
Here is what taking part actually looks like:
Register your interest. You can self-refer through our expression of interest form. No medical referral is needed.
Peer intake call. When a program is coming up in your area, one of our team will have a friendly chat with you about the program and answer your questions.
Psychological intake. Every participant then has a one-on-one conversation with a qualified mental health professional, to make sure the program is a safe fit for where you are right now.
Eight weekly sessions. Writing, sharing and boxing in a private space with your group, led by lived-experience facilitators and a trauma-informed boxing coach. Everything is opt-in. You always choose what you share and how you take part.
Support between sessions. Weekly peer-written check-in emails, grounding tools, and self-care and support resources to use in your own time.
Finishing together. At the end of the program, each cohort receives a co-created group narrative statement that honours the shared journey, and there are pathways to stay connected through community events and, for those who want it, facilitator training.
Accessible by design
We work hard to keep barriers low. Programs are low cost, with a pay what you can approach on a sliding scale, and no one is turned away because of cost. No referral or diagnosis is required. Our boxing is strictly non-contact, no experience is needed, and activities are adapted for a range of physical and emotional needs and abilities. Left Write Hook is not a substitute for therapy, and many participants do both.
Who the program is for
Our programs are predominantly designed for female and gender diverse adult survivors aged 18 and over, and we are now piloting programs for men. Programs run across metropolitan and regional locations, and hundreds of survivors around Australia have registered their interest in a program near them. Interest in an area helps us bring a program there, so registering matters even if nothing is scheduled near you yet.
More than a program
Left Write Hook is a community. Past participants stay connected through events and shared resources, contribute to published anthologies of participant writing, and many go on to train as facilitators, turning lived experience into leadership. Our participants also shape the organisation itself: regular feedback informs how programs evolve, and lived experience is represented from our facilitation teams through to our board.
Take the next step
Join the waitlist to hear when a program is coming to your area, or read more about the program. If you are not ready, that is okay too. This page will be here when you are.
Sources: leftwritehook.org (Our story, Our program, Research); LWH FY25/26 annual report and July 2026 snapshot; LWH Case for Support, Welcome and Trainer packs (program delivery map, intake model, wrap-around support).