RESTORE: Turn The Tide On Healing, From Isolation And Trauma To Connection, Growth And Empowerment
Tracks
Room 1: In-Person and Online
| Tuesday, November 25, 2025 |
| 11:50 AM - 12:10 PM |
Overview
Kate Crowley-Smith, Broken To Brilliant
Details
1. Reconnection Supports Recovery
Group-based sessions in nature, partnering with horses, help survivors reconnect with themselves, others, animals, and nature —laying the foundation for long-term healing.
2. Horses Offer a Unique Pathway to Heal Trauma
Equine Assisted Therapy provides a non-judgemental, trust-based relationship that supports emotional regulation and safe trauma recovery.
3. Healing Has a Ripple Effect
Speaker
Ms Kate Crowley-Smith
Founding Director
Broken To Brilliant
RESTORE: Turn the tide on healing, from isolation and trauma to connection, growth and empowerment
Presentation Overview
Introduction
Broken to Brilliant is a survivor-led charity supporting women beyond crisis to recover, heal and rebuild their lives. Our survivor-led programs help support survivors and shape change in recovery program options. The RESTORE program, Rebuild Empowerment Safely Through Outdoor Relational Equine, offers an innovative response to trauma recovery. This 6-week group program, delivered in nature, combines equine-assisted therapy, creative arts, and nature-based connection to help survivors reconnect with themselves and others.
Healing Trauma
Held in Tallebudgera Valley, RESTORE facilitates post-traumatic growth through experiential, somatic and relational healing. Weekly sessions include grounding practices, equine activities, creative arts and group check-ins, supported by a multidisciplinary trauma-informed team. Activities target rebuilding trust, setting boundaries, emotional regulation, and empowerment.
Session outcomes
Survey results from 2024 demonstrate that 100% of participants reported feeling safe, supported, and positively impacted in their wellbeing. Participants shared transformative outcomes, including: “I feel fully safe in my body… I know what a calm nervous system feels like.” Another shared, “A renewed sense of trust and hope in people and myself.”
RESTORE reduces isolation and inspires reconnection through peer-supported healing. Partnering with horses invites non-verbal communication, co-regulation, and a felt sense of embodied safety. The group format nurtures shared experience and long-term peer connection. This survivor-informed equine assisted and creative art model meets a need identified in the literature for alternatives to traditional counselling1
Conclusion: Inspiring Change in Service Delivery
RESTORE expands trauma recovery practice by embedding equine-assisted therapy, creative-arts, and nature-based interventions in domestic violence support services. Evaluation data and participant voice reveal gains in emotional wellbeing, empowerment, and connection. RESTORE offers a replicable, relational model that centres survivor voices and complements national recovery goals. RESTORE has reshaped the approach to healing, RESTORE helps turn the tide—moving survivors from isolation and trauma toward connection, growth, empowerment and long-term recovery.
Broken to Brilliant is a survivor-led charity supporting women beyond crisis to recover, heal and rebuild their lives. Our survivor-led programs help support survivors and shape change in recovery program options. The RESTORE program, Rebuild Empowerment Safely Through Outdoor Relational Equine, offers an innovative response to trauma recovery. This 6-week group program, delivered in nature, combines equine-assisted therapy, creative arts, and nature-based connection to help survivors reconnect with themselves and others.
Healing Trauma
Held in Tallebudgera Valley, RESTORE facilitates post-traumatic growth through experiential, somatic and relational healing. Weekly sessions include grounding practices, equine activities, creative arts and group check-ins, supported by a multidisciplinary trauma-informed team. Activities target rebuilding trust, setting boundaries, emotional regulation, and empowerment.
Session outcomes
Survey results from 2024 demonstrate that 100% of participants reported feeling safe, supported, and positively impacted in their wellbeing. Participants shared transformative outcomes, including: “I feel fully safe in my body… I know what a calm nervous system feels like.” Another shared, “A renewed sense of trust and hope in people and myself.”
RESTORE reduces isolation and inspires reconnection through peer-supported healing. Partnering with horses invites non-verbal communication, co-regulation, and a felt sense of embodied safety. The group format nurtures shared experience and long-term peer connection. This survivor-informed equine assisted and creative art model meets a need identified in the literature for alternatives to traditional counselling1
Conclusion: Inspiring Change in Service Delivery
RESTORE expands trauma recovery practice by embedding equine-assisted therapy, creative-arts, and nature-based interventions in domestic violence support services. Evaluation data and participant voice reveal gains in emotional wellbeing, empowerment, and connection. RESTORE offers a replicable, relational model that centres survivor voices and complements national recovery goals. RESTORE has reshaped the approach to healing, RESTORE helps turn the tide—moving survivors from isolation and trauma toward connection, growth, empowerment and long-term recovery.
Biography
Tracey has a Bachelor of Counselling and a Master in Gestalt Therapy, bringing over 20 years of experience to her practice. She specializes in Equine Assisted Therapy and Canine Assisted Therapy, incorporating trauma-informed approaches to support her clients effectively. Her holistic practice draws on various modalities, including art, nature, expressive, and somatic therapies. Additionally, her lived experience of domestic violence and lived connection with neurodivergence informs her empathetic and understanding approach to therapy.
