When a champion gymnast’s world changed forever in an instant, a family’s journey through brain injury, domestic abuse, and silent suffering led them to discover that healing requires more than traditional approaches. They need hope, understanding, and the right support at the right time.
Seven-year-old Bailey was unstoppable. A gymnast and cheerleader, she moved through the world with the confidence that only comes from a body that knows exactly what it can do. Her balance was perfect, her spirit bright, and her future seemed limitless.
She lived in what seemed like a protective bubble,a beautiful home with a nanny who helped educate her, parents who provided everything she needed, and a routine that gave her security. Until it all fell apart.
In 2017, everything flipped in a single afternoon. Bailey fell at a playground. When four-year-old Bailey’s sister couldn’t wake her up, she had to run to get help.
The injury didn’t look serious – just a typical childhood bump on the forehead. No split skin, no obvious trauma. But when Bailey’s mother arrived home from work, she found her daughter unconscious on the sofa. When she tried to wake her, Bailey didn’t recognise her own mother and was screaming for her while looking directly at her.
The vomiting started. Then came the emergency dash to the hospital, the blue lights, the transfer to James Cook Hospital.
Doctors were puzzled. Bailey’s symptoms were consistent with being ejected through a car windscreen, but the visible injury was just a regular childhood bump. The mystery has remained.
Bailey was in and out of the hospital with episodes of screaming, vision loss, and vomiting.
Then, like a switch being flipped, she’d be fine again. Back to being the chatty, playful, joyful child she had been before the fall. The mysterious lump on her forehead would reappear with each episode, baffling doctors.
Having been a naturally gifted gymnast, she became frustrated with re-learning how to walk, hold a pencil, even to feed herself.
These episodes continued for a year and still happen now when Bailey is overtired, stressed, or unwell. The brain injury left deeper scars than a bump. The confident little girl became anxious and socially awkward. Simple communication tasks, like asking for help in a shop, became overwhelming. Vacant seizures are still a part of life, even years later.
While Bailey was struggling with her brain injury, her family faced significant upheaval and stress. Her parents’ marriage ended in 2022, creating a period of intense instability and stress. The structured world that had helped Bailey cope after her injury completely collapsed, and the family experienced a traumatic separation that transformed their life overnight.
For Bailey, this family breakdown forced her into a position of emotional self-protection. She started distancing herself from friends and family, even refusing physical contact. Her brain was trying to protect her from further hurt.
Coping mechanisms are often unconscious. At age 11, Bailey’s unconscious mind created some very dangerous coping mechanism. She started self-harming. Her mum could see her “screaming in her head”, but Bailey couldn’t get the words out.
Bailey had also begun rebelling in more dangerous way, leaving her mother terrified that something terrible might happen.
Bailey would never think of herself as a victim. She has a strong sense of justice and fairness. She follows rules and accepts consequences without argument when she breaks them. She is extremely protective of vulnerable people and sees herself as their protector.
This sense of right and wrong leans heavily into her desire for a strict routine. She created routines for herself after her TBI, needing structure to help her make sense and order of the world. The distress she feels difficulty expressing is consistent with traits of autism. Bailey is like a boiling kettle with no steam valve.
Bailey’s mum is doing all that she can for Bailey. While battling Lyme disease and experiencing stroke-like attacks, it’s difficult to maintain the “Mum’s in charge” stability they once had. She relies on Bailey and her younger sister for assistance with medication and support. All of this is going on while she goes through therapy to heal from her own trauma.
When offered traditional counselling, Bailey has been unable to speak about her feelings despite desperately wanting to. It’s about finding the right key to unlock the door to Bailey’s trapped feelings.
Changing Minds with Pick Up a Penny’s integrative approach offers a new way to unlock Bailey’s brain. If she’s going to heal, we need to find ways to help her without forcing her to communicate first.
Brain Mapping and Neurofeedback
Brain mapping and training will allow us to identify specific areas affected by her TBI and provide her with brain training to help her process her emotions and communicate without feeling trapped.
Trauma-Informed Psychotherapy
Beyond counselling, trauma-informed psychotherapy can help her discover alternative ways to process her experiences without verbal expression.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Known to promote neuroplasticity and increase connectivity between neurons, some of the damage caused by her TBI could be ‘re-routed’, creating new pathways to support emotional regulation and cognitive function.
Biofeedback and Breathing Techniques
We can teach Bailey practical tools to use when her anxiety and emotions trigger a ‘fight or flight’ response to a challenging situation, giving her back control.
Family Support
Whilst we are providing therapies to Bailey, we need to support her whole family to help her truly heal. We‘ll help Bailey’s mum continue her own healing journey as well as provide her with support and treatment for her own autoimmune condition, Lyme disease. With access to international labs for testing, we will be able to tailor her therapeutic needs to support her remission, so she has the energy to support her young family.
Bailey’s mother is committed to attending all appointments, following recommendations, and actively participating in Bailey’s healing journey.
For families experiencing complex trauma and neurological challenges, Changing Minds with Pick Up a Penny is one of the only resources available that looks to treat both the environmental, social, and physical causes of neurological disorders.
Children who are suffering in silence, muffled by their trauma, need innovative and comprehensive support to find their voice again.
Bailey is still that joyful girl inside. She needs the right support to help her find her balance. Not just physically, but emotionally as well. She can learn to express her feelings and develop healthy coping mechanisms. She has a bright future ahead of her. We can help her move towards it.
