Writing + boxing = Left / Write // Hook

Abstract

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.