Exploring personal trauma through poetry
Karenza Louis-Smith
Chief Executive, social entrepreneur and innovator in the not for profit sector, currently CEO at ermha Ltd
Emily Webb and I had an incredibly insightful and deeply moving conversation for our latest episode of Get Real: Talking Mental Health and Disability podcast with Melbourne poet Anders Villani .
Trigger warning this post and the episode of get real talks about childhood sexual abuse.
The opportunity to explore how creativity helps people living with mental ill-health health and trauma is so powerful.
Anders is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and lives with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and in our latest edition of Get Real he shares his very powerful and moving story with us. On discovering he had PTSD, Anders told us:
“If you'd told me two, even a year ago that I had PTSD, I would have fought you on that. I was so resistant for a long time to acknowledging that PTSD was a reality for me, in large part that resistance had to do with this unwillingness to kind of pathologise myself, to see myself as unwell or a victim”.
His new collection of poetry is called?Totality . In Anders own words, this collection is a creative inquiry into the childhood sexual abuse he experienced and its ramifications for his adult life. Anders is also doing a PhD in Creative Writing, exploring how poetry represents personal trauma – in particular the tension that exists for artists between the ‘tellable’ and ‘untellable’ aspects of traumatic experience.
In this podcast Anders shares his story and how art and creativity is a major part of his self-care, and how it has helped him so much in his life.
“Writing has really been so crucial to me, as a therapeutic tool…and really as a tool for survival,” he said.
He shares one of his poems from Totality during this conversation too which I found to be very powerful and moving. I think the big takeaway for me is that abuse thrives on a culture of fear and silence. This is something we all have responsibility to change. By talk about abuse, by sharing stories, journeys and self care strategies together we can shine a light on this issue.
You are never alone. The Australian bureau of statistics reports approximately 2.5 million Australian adults (13%) have experienced abuse during their childhood. This includes 1.6 million adults (8.5%) who experienced childhood physical abuse and 1.4 million adults (7.7%) who experienced childhood sexual abuse. The majority of persons who experienced childhood abuse knew the perpetrator and experienced multiple incidents of abuse.
If you or someone you know is experiencing or has experienced childhood sexual abuse there is help and support.
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Child sexual safety and sexual abuse: helplines and services
Child protection services
Australian Capital Territory: Contact?ACT Child and Youth Protection Services ?on?1300 556 729?– 24 hours, 7 days a week.
New South Wales: Call the Child Protection Helpline on?132 111?– 24 hours, 7 days a week.
Northern Territory: Call the Child Protection Hotline on?1800 700 250?– 24 hours, 7 days a week.
Queensland: During normal business hours, contact?Queensland Regional Intake Services . After hours and on weekends, contact the Child Safety After Hours Service Centre on?1800 177 135?or (07) 3235 9999.
South Australia: Call the?SA Child Abuse Report Line ?on?131 478?– 24 hours, 7 days a week.
Tasmania: Call the?Tasmanian Child Safety Service – Advice and referral line ?on?1300 737 639?– 24 hours, 7 days a week.
Victoria: During normal business hours, contact your nearest?child protection service in Victoria . After hours and on weekends, contact the After Hours Child Protection Emergency Service on?131 278.
Western Australia: Contact?WA?Central Intake Team ?on?1800 273 889?during normal business hours. Call the Crisis Care Unit on?(08) 9223 1111 or 1800 199 008?after hours and on weekends.