Self-Defense 101 for Women, Transgender, and Non-Binary Persons

Research shows that those who successfully defended themselves quickly recognized threatening situations and enforced their boundaries, if necessary by physical means. In this six-week course you will learn to recognize assailant ploys and manipulations and how to thwart them. Practice releases from common grabs and decisive strikes to vital targets. Use your voice and body language with impact. Recognize the signs that will let you defuse, de-escalate or evade before a physical assault ever happens. Assess your risks, and plan around them. Understand the connections between awareness, threats, and our media environment. The six sessions give you time between classes to practice your moves and become more comfortable with them.

This is a progressive skill-building course. Over six Thursday evenings you will learn the most basic elements early on, and practice them in later drills. The first sessions will focus more on physical skills: strikes to vulnerable targets, releases from grabs, body language, and using your voice. Later sessions will put your new skills in various contexts, look more at setting boundaries, and different verbal strategies to control uncomfortable situations. Finally, you will learn to recognize domestic violence, and how to get help if you (or someone you know) are in an abusive relationship.

There will be review in each class. There is also some extra enrichment activities (some call it “homework”). What you get out of your time in class will be greatly enhanced by just a small amount of time spent practicing between classes.

Participants must be fully vaccinated against COVID before class begins. Masks may still be required.