“I’ve had post-traumatic growth." Brooke Satchwell shares how she recovered from domestic violence.

Actress Brooke Satchwell has opened up about recovering from her domestic violence experience, revealing that swimming every day was one of her healing methods.

Satchwell was in a relationship with Australian actor Matthew Newton for more than five years before the couple broke up in 2006.  Newton pleaded guilty to a charge of common assault against Satchwell in 2007, but the conviction was later quashed by a judge who deemed him a “gentleman”.

Newton was also charged with breaching an Apprehended Violence Order against then girlfriend Rachael Taylor in 2010.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Satchwell said the healing process from a domestic violence relationship takes time, and “doesn’t happen in a news cycle.”

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“There is a misinterpretation that there is a short cut because so much of the healing takes time until one day, you turn around, and you’re in a different place,” the 36-year-old said.

“When these things come into the public conversation, people look for black and white answers. I don’t believe that it works like that.”

Satchwell, who rose to fame as Anne Wilkinson on Neighbours, said her experience of domestic violence came when, as a society, we were in the “very early stages of that conversation.”

“It’s something that, over the last eight or so years, people have become more receptive to having the conversation.”

Satchwell said that while “awareness is slowly deepening,” there were still situations in the public eye that disappoint her, such as Rhianna’s with Chris Brown, who attacked his then-20-year-old girlfriend in 2009.

“I watched a young girl (Rhianna) have to present herself in a very short space of time and say she was working through this but it takes time, particular something of that significance," Satchwell said.

Satchwell said that in the years since ending her relationship with Newton, which has seen her land acting roles in TV shows such as Wonderland and ABC's Dirty Laundry, she had experienced "post-traumatic growth”.

She said gardening at her Sydney home and swimming every day had helped her to heal after her from the experience, adding that she aims to swim exactly 158 laps a day.

“The breathing and counting of swimming is like my meditation,” she said.

Satchwell, who is engaged to her long-term partner film editor David Gross, said she has also learned a lot about when to push and when to hold back with others.

“I’ve been navigating my way through my own truth and I’m learning more and more that I can’t tell anyone anything," she said.

"The more you push an agenda, the more you drive someone away. You just have to let things develop in their own time.”