A Queensland woman who was harassed and stalked during an early morning run south of Brisbane has channelled her traumatic experience into action, organising a personal safety workshop for women after withdrawing her complaint with police and finding a groundswell of community support online.
The woman, known only as Kate, was left deeply shaken by the incident, which occurred earlier this year. After initially reporting it to police, she ultimately decided to step back from the process.
"It was extremely traumatic," she said, explaining her decision to withdraw. "So I decided just to move forward and try and put it behind me and focus on the positives rather than trying to focus on the negative."
Community response drives Kate to act on women's safety
When Kate shared her experience online, the response was immediate and overwhelming. Harrowing statistics — including that one in five Australian women have experienced sexual violence — combined with messages of solidarity from other women prompted her to go further than simply reporting the incident.
"Women deserve to be able to run or just exist outside and feel safe," Kate said. "So, while the onus doesn't rest on women to make themselves safer, there are certain things they can do to learn techniques on how to be safer when they're out on their own."
Her experience also came against a broader backdrop of concern for women's safety in public spaces. Since the incident, a Brisbane woman was allegedly raped while out exercising, prompting widespread community solidarity across the city.
Kate said she remained "really cautious" in the wake of what happened to her and still tries to run with a friend whenever possible. She is hopeful the workshop will help rebuild her own confidence — and that of other women in her community.
A former police officer turned safety advocate steps in
To bring the workshop to life, Kate has partnered with Danielle Godfrey, a former police officer who now runs personal safety workshops across Australia. Ms Godfrey said more than a decade of investigating crimes — including sex crimes — drove her desire to empower women through practical knowledge and skills.
Her approach prioritises awareness and de-escalation before any physical response. "Before the self-defence moves, before any of the physical stuff, there's a lot of steps," she explained. "Hopefully by thinking — awareness — then yelling, using your voice. Then running — creating distance — you actually never have to get to that fight situation."
Ms Godfrey acknowledged the real limits of self-defence training, noting that the brain cannot always process traumatic situations quickly. Her workshops focus not on complicated physical techniques, but on practical strategies for recognising and escaping dangerous scenarios before they escalate.
"If they can be aware of dangers, then they can avoid those situations," she said.
Experts call for a whole-of-society approach
Public health researcher Tracy Kolbe-Alexander, based at the University of Southern Queensland, said self-defence workshops can help women feel as though they are reclaiming space and agency — but stressed that individual training is only one piece of a much larger puzzle.
She noted that women already shoulder an enormous burden of safety planning every time they go out to exercise — choosing not to run in the dark, driving to safer locations, or sharing their real-time location with friends and family.
"I think we need to be cautious [of making] women responsible for safety and their safety, so I would say it's a whole of society approach," she said. "We need our boys and men to become aware of the challenges we face when we're going to be physically active."
Queensland Police confirmed that all reported incidents are investigated using the available evidence. Kate's story, however, illustrates the gap many women feel between formal reporting processes and the practical confidence needed to reclaim their everyday lives — a gap she is now working hard to help close, one workshop at a time.
