What’s In A Name?

13 years ago, I decided to explore what it would feel like to wear a different name.

For 37 years I’d been known as Mel Bampton. In that suit, I was a national radio broadcaster, a renowned hedonist and the creator of Like A Version. I lived large and loud. But certain aspects of my life began to go pear-shaped. My ex-husband committed a crime that would explode the family and the effects of that would ripple through my daughter, with nightmarish outcomes that have us both continuously washing away the impacts of PTSD to this day.

Along with the name change to Lissie Turner, I became sober, a Yoga Teacher, then a Yoga Therapist, my partner Shane and I built our yoga school in the Byron Shire that we ran for 12 years and in amongst it all, this clumsy juxtaposition for both myself, and many others, around my name.

One thing I didn’t foresee was the awkwardness for others. I’m a Melissa and have been called Mel and Lissie by different factions of my life, since I was born. So for me it wasn’t dramatic. But for others, particularly those who had an attachment to the identity of Mel Bampton, triple j presenter, some would gag more easily than they could than call me Lissie. Even some of my closest friends resisted for many years. My Dad still calls me Mel.

It was a remarkable discovery as a Therapist how attached to our identities other people are. To the story others have in their heads, the us-shaped hole in their cognitive landscape they’ve determined that we live. And if their minds aren’t malleable, they are unable to fit the new-shaped us into their old-shaped hole. So to speak…

This rings true if we change hobbies, let go of old actions, find new interests, get a new job - the extent of the tension point is determined by how tight they are in their own relationship with change.

For me, Lissie gave me a place of much needed respite. A place to put my head down and rest from the exposure of a national profile and of behaviours I was leaving behind. And so, Mel Bampton was all packed up in a box, sticky taped closed and placed on a shelf where she’s been gathering dust for over a decade. But recently…

…with the funny turn of life’s comedic wheel, there’s been reason to unpack her. But of course I’ve really been unpacking her for a decade. As I chatted with the amazing Ryk Goddard on ABC Hobart last week about a spoken performance piece I was doing down there for the Huon Women’s Wellness Festival (pictured), he asked me - as Mel Bampton - what it was like to be a Senior Yoga Teacher, a Yoga Therapist, what tools did I use at my speaking gigs or on the radio, to regulate my nervous system. It was an extraordinary, full circle, bringing together of my lives, now life.

Last week, born from an executive meeting I had about a potential upcoming project, I determined to be Mel Bampton again on social media for 24 hours. It’s been a barrage of excellence and of grossness. It’s showed me what a Mel Bampton life comes with in 2025 and you know what I discovered? I’m ready for it.

So the question I’ve been getting for a week is - am I calling you Mel now? And my answer is - unless you are hiring me for a project, a speaking gig or to go on the radio, good lord, no. Lissie is still the name for my loved ones and my students but if you start to see Mel anywhere, say g’day.

For what’s in a name? All the energy that we imbibe wit. Whether it’s our name or someone else’s and I’d like my name/s and. yours, to be imbibed with love and kindness.

We are all always changing, some just a little more flambuoyantly than other :D

Lissie

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