Boxing, creative writing and storytelling has proven to be a successful mix for women traumatised by domestic violence or childhood sexual abuse. The Left Write Hook program has been shown to reduce depression, stress, and post-traumatic stress disorder and leave participants feeling strong with a sense of agency and belonging, says the charity founder, University of Melbourne filmmaker Donna Lyon.
Lyon says Left Write Hook began with a small grassroots program she started in 2019 at her local boxing gym.
“It came out of my lived experience as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, and I used boxing as a way to release anger and find a bit of strength,” she says. “I felt very disconnected from my body and boxing became this kind of mindful tool.”
She boxed, she says, not because she wanted to be a competitive fighter but because “I wanted to find a way back into my body”.
Lyon made a documentary about the boxing-writing-sharing initiative, which premiered at the 2024 Melbourne Film Festival, won an award, and has now screened on Netflix. With a lot of attention generated by the film, Lyon set up a charity and named it Left Write Hook.
“I wanted to meet other women, other survivors like me, but I didn’t feel like this champion fighter,” she says. “I didn’t just want to teach people boxing. I actually wanted to hear people and their stories, and I wanted to share my story.”
Women and gender-diverse people participating in Left Write Hook meet in a boxing gym, write down their thoughts about the abuse they have endured and its aftermath, and share their experience with the group. They then box as a way of releasing aggression and anger. By the end of 2025, more than 250 people had taken part in the program.
Groups meet for a couple of hours a week for eight weeks in locations across Melbourne.
Donna Lyon (centre) with Left Write Hook participants.
Dr Lyon has also travelled to different regions such as Ballarat and Mildura to pilot and test the program in rural areas. She also plans to take Left Write Hook to Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in 2026.
Working with the University of Melbourne, Lyon is examining the clinical benefits of Left Write Hook in a two-year, large-scale, randomised and controlled trial, scheduled to finish in mid-2026.
She says the program is run by survivors, and there are now 700 people on the waiting list wanting to take part.
“They want to do the program because they’ve seen the film, and they recognise that this is a really integrated solution to healing from trauma, which is often stored in the body,” she says.
More recently she has been working on a pilot men’s program.
While mental health clinicians have provided advice, Lyon emphasises that the programs are led by people who have personally experienced abuse. The boxing element of the program, she adds, does not promote violence.
“We teach trauma-informed boxing. It’s very different. It’s non-contact, meaning you don’t get hit,” she says, adding that boxing can be a brutal sport but it’s also high-level cardio exercise and “an incredibly empowered way to come back into the body and locate healthy aggression”.