All of our Women’s Empowerment Self-Defense Workshops teach simple, powerful, and effective personal protection strategies that are easy to understand and remember. Participants learn how to recognize predatory behavior before it becomes a threat, diffuse it verbally, if possible, and to apply effective physical self-defense techniques, if necessary.

What makes The Safety Team’s self-defense trainings different?
The “for women by women” aspect is a powerful asset in our classes. The Safety Team’s all-female team of instructors helps women feel more comfortable during the interactive presentation and more hands-on physical components of the classes. As women, our team knows first-hand the safety concerns facing women. All of our instructors are highly skilled martial artists whose diverse professional backgrounds include expertise in the field of violence against women (See our team page for more information). This means that we are aware of and sensitive to situations that may trigger women and are careful to ensure that participants feel empowered and supported. Our philosophy is for participants to be comfortably challenged!

Level I Workshop: The 2.5-Hour Introductory Women’s Empowerment Self-Defense Program
This beginner workshop utilizes both large and small group instruction. By adhering to a 5:1 student-to-instructor ratio, The Safety Team’s trauma-informed trainings focus on boundary setting, affirmative consent, and relevant sexual assault information, as well as the mental and physical skills of Empowerment Self-Defense. The overarching goal of these large-group sessions is to help women discover their collective voice, address victim-blaming by redirecting the responsibility for all assaults on to the perpetrators, improve women’s sense of power and control, and, as a result, reduce the likelihood of sexual assault and violence.

Level II Workshop: The 2.5-Hour Intermediate Women’s Empowerment Self-Defense Program
This intermediate workshop takes Level I another step further, allowing for a brief review of knowledge, practice of acquired strikes, and instruction of additional basic self-defense techniques that deal with a variety of common situations and potential attacks.  The focus is on “hands-on” verbal and physical self-defense skills, techniques and strategies, which are presented to the group as a whole, but practiced in small groups of no more than four participants for each instructor. This format facilitates the learning of physical skills and allows for women to connect with one another. Throughout this class, important concepts are reinforced (affirmative consent, boundary setting, each person’s right to be safe). Level I is a prerequisite for Level II.

Level III Workshop: The 2.5-Hour Advanced Women’s Empowerment Self-Defense Program
Level III reviews the strikes learned in Level I and Level II, as well as the self-defense skills, techniques and strategies. In addition, students are given the opportunity to practice scenarios against members of The Safety Team and/or a padded male attacker, whichever may be more comfortable. All activities are at the discretion of the participant. Level I and II are prerequisites for this class. Women who participate in one or all three workshops report feeling more confident and ready to take on positive challenges, as they have discovered the power of their voice and the strength from within their bodies.

Custom Empowerment Self-Defense Workshops
We will design a program to meet your individual or group self-defense and personal safety goals. Our formats include:

• Personalized Workshops
  Corporate classes, courses for college, high school and middle school-aged girls and women, and mother-daughter workshops
• Workshops for Realtor/Home Visit Workers
  Individuals whose occupation requires home visits or attendance at open house events face different challenges. We teach classes dealing with these unique situations to help keep employees safe.
• Private and Individualized Sessions
  Specifically tailored to your needs and offered on a one-to-one basis. Individual self-defense lessons can be especially beneficial, if you have specific self-defense needs. They can also be particularly helpful as part of the healing and recovery process following a trauma (pre-assessment required).

Please contact us for more information. Growing stronger…Together!