Tag: #life-writing #mentoring #life stories #narrative healing

advocacy Gifts of human kindness on a Christmas Day train ride

Gifts of human kindness on a Christmas Day train ride

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I travelled by train instead of car on Christmas Day 2024. Instead of the usual two-and-a-half hour drive to the home of my children’s dad, George, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, I took the country train. On Christmas Eve, in a burst of planning, my Melbourne-based daughter and her family collected...

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advocacy Tug of war with an eating disorder

Tug of war with an eating disorder

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Family Based Treatment is the best, evidence-based approach for most children and adolescents to get their life back on track when they develop an eating disorder – particularly anorexia nervosa. But what about those of us whose eating disorders developed before Family Based Treatment (FBT) became an option? Or those...

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advocacy Straddling the literature and eating disorder divide

Straddling the literature and eating disorder divide

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It’s funny when we realise that we have feet in two worlds that barely speak to each other. I have one foot in the world of eating disorder (ED) research and treatment and the other in the world of literary studies. The literary people tend to assume that books must...

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advocacy Leaving home to discover one’s own identity

Leaving home to discover one’s own identity

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My name is Tiacoh Hyacinthe-Arnaud Yao Kpri Junior II. I know, it’s long … very long, actually. But it’s necessary for the rest of my story. I was born into a family with two children, and I was the eldest. Then, miraculously, my mother gave birth to twins at age...

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Anorexia Writing your life story with a memoir mentor

Writing your life story with a memoir mentor

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As a life-writing mentor, I offer guidance in transforming your life experiences into a tangible memoir. You write your truth, crafting your story in your unique voice. This form of self-expression is a precious gift to yourself and your loved ones. Writing a memoir is not just a healing and...

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advocacy ‘I have so much shame, they labelled me insane’

‘I have so much shame, they labelled me insane’

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I sat on the dense wooden palings that ran along the front of the beach. I sat without a care in the world. Just me and the universe and the video camera, a truly perfect combination. It was 1999. I was rocking a bowl-cut, baggy track pants, an oversized hoodie...

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June's Writing Clan Turning 80 can mark exciting opportunities for fresh starts

Turning 80 can mark exciting opportunities for fresh starts

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When I turned 80, I felt that my life was almost over. Deciding I needed some social connection and a new challenge, I joined June’s local community writing group. A year later, I have published my first book. Rather than stay at home and feel sorry for myself, I went...

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advocacy Take a self-discovery tour – write your story

Take a self-discovery tour – write your story

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So, you want to write your memoir? A memoir is a story about part of your life. What part do you most want to write about? Why? My memoir, A Girl Called Tim, is about my life with an eating disorder from age 11 to age 55. As I entered...

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advocacy The enigma called ‘High-Functioning Anorexia’

The enigma called ‘High-Functioning Anorexia’

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In the late summer of 2017, when I unknowingly plunged back into anorexia, I was trying to live as a freelance translator. I’d just left the publishing company where I’d worked as an editor for a year and a half. In other words, I had stopped the office worker’s routine...

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Life Stories Diary Why I write

Why I write

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The point about writing is the belief that I have something to say that might help others see an issue more clearly, understand something in greater depth, and bring comfort to the broken and bereft. In my years of journalism, a cynical way of looking at what writing does is...

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