The popularity of a grassroots boxing program and its evolution in under two years is underscoring the importance and need for clinical trauma recovery programs in the Northern Territory.
In late 2024, Charles Darwin University (CDU) Research Active Social Work Lecturer Ellen Gray began Resilience Boxing, Darwin's first and only non-contact boxing program for women and gender-diverse people who have experienced gendered violence, family violence, sexual violence or trauma (FDSV).
The program has helped more than 360 women and gender-diverse people in the Top End to build confidence and challenge harmful gender norms, and has evolved into a research-informed, community partnership model that has attracted the attention from leading social service providers in the NT.
Non-contact, trauma-informed programs across the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia are reporting benefits such as reduced anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, and improvements in emotional regulation, confidence, agency and social connection.
Resilience Boxing is a 12-week clinical recovery program, facilitated by experienced allied health practitioners, combines trauma-informed boxing, psychoeducation, regulation strategies and partnered activities to build confidence, body awareness, distress tolerance, communication and connection.
"These outcomes are particularly important in the Darwin region, where the FDSV service network is overstretched, many victim-survivors are unable to access timely support, and isolation is a common impact of gendered violence," Ms Gray said.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, one in four women have experienced violence from an intimate partner since the age of 15. Two in three First Nations people have also experienced violence from an intimate partner since the age of 15, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls are also 27 times more likely to be hospitalised due to family violence-related assaults.
"The Northern Territory has a unique and evolving landscape, and the social realities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls experiencing violence are complex," Ms Gray said.
"Violence recovery and prevention program design in the Northern Territory must therefore be place-based.
"Co-designing a culturally responsive model of practice with industry and community means responding to these realities by working with, and alongside, the people most impacted."
As the Resilience Boxing team prepares for its third intake in July and August, anecdotes from past participants speak to how the initiative has helped empower personally and professionally.
"The program challenged the way society conditioned women and young girls to make themselves small in the face of confrontation," one participant said.
Of the 53 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander touch points, two Aboriginal women have progressed into support coaching roles.
"I feel like I have built a great relationship with myself and others and I have recognised my confidence has really sparked," one participant said.
More than a year on and with a proof of concept under her boxing belt, Ms Gray is leading the grassroots initiative into a new phase of a CDU-linked research and community partnership model, focused on co-designing a trauma-informed program suited to the Northern Territory.
This involves research collaborations with local family and domestic violence services including Ruby Gaea Darwin Centre Against Sexual Violence, Dawn House, YWCA and the Amplifying Voices NT Lived Experience Network, to develop a place-based model responsive to the needs of women, services and communities in Darwin.
The research forms the basis of Ms Gray's PhD and will address an important gap in trauma-informed recovery interventions in the Northern Territory.
"A whole-of-community response is needed to address gendered violence and support victim-survivors beyond crisis intervention," Ms Gray said.
"Collaborating with industry will strengthen community capacity by building clearer pathways to recovery and fostering more connected, resilient communities that support healing, recovery, and prevention.
"Embodied approaches are an important part of this work. By creating opportunities for people to reconnect with their bodies, build a sense of safety, and develop self-regulation skills, these approaches can complement existing services and expand the range of recovery options available to victim-survivors.
"We have commenced relationship-building with industry partners. The next step is to leverage industry expertise, lived experience knowledge, and community wisdom to co-design a model of practice that responds to local needs and can be implemented across the Darwin region in 2027.
Resilience Boxing is a volunteer-run social enterprise with accessibility as a priority, with equipment supplied, sessions adaptable for people of different fitness and experience levels, fees at $8 to $10 per session and free places provided where cost is a barrier.
