Our courses are geared to address the everyday safety, assertive communication, boundary setting and physical self defense issues people commonly experience.
We offer women’s, all-gender and LGBTQ+ specific workshops and wholeheartedly welcome trans and non-binary participants.
Intense and deeply empowering, our program is designed to help participants address long-held fears and concerns and gain useful and applicable skills and tools very quickly. The training method also offers a powerful opportunity for survivors to put a new ending on an old story in a visceral and transformational way.
Please feel free to contact us directly if you’d like to discuss your specific needs and goals. If you have a private group in need of training, please get in touch!
Unless otherwise indicated, participants in our classes must be 16 years or older and have parental consent due to the raw language and intense nature of the realistic scenarios. If you have a question about a younger teenager participating, please contact Meredith Gold
Verbal Boundary Setting and Assertive Communication
$95
In these increasingly stressful and unpredictable times, it is more necessary than ever to learn immediately useful and applicable everyday safety tools. In this 3-hour workshop workshop you will practice simple and effective skills, including how to use awareness, avoidance and target denial, as well as powerful verbal boundary setting, de-escalation and assertive communication skills to help you protect your space, avoid an assault and find safety quickly. We will also discuss vital targets on the human body and practice simple physical self defense skills if there is no choice but to fight.
There will be no physical contact, but you will have the invaluable opportunity to practice your verbal boundary and assertive communication skills in live, dynamic, realistic verbal scenarios against our highly trained instructors/mock-assailants.
This 3 hour workshop is an incredibly effective way to feel more prepared for the most common types of verbal harassment, threats or intimidation we are likely to encounter. Each scenario can be tailored to meet the specific needs/request of the participant.
Bystander Intervention
$95
This 3-hour workshop focuses on how to be a powerful and effective ally for those being taken advantage of, targeted, harassed, threatened and assaulted. It goes beyond just discussing how to respond and intervene effectively – we will use realistic scenarios to allow you to dynamically practice what to say and how to utilize strategies to safely and effectively intervene while you are experiencing the stress and adrenaline that will likely accompany that kind of encounter. Each scenario can be tailored to meet the specific needs/request of the participant.
Foundation
$150
The Foundation is our flagship workshop. It is a deeply empowering and highly applicable 4-hour workshop that offers and in-depth overview of effective everyday safety and self defense concepts, including: awareness, target denial and violence avoidance. We will also focus on verbal boundary setting and assertive communication techniques, as well as effective full force physical defenses against a front assault.
Our courses are practiced in a safe, supportive and trauma-informed environment using the ASST method. The material is presented in a methodical, layered manner that culminates with you participating in realistic scenarios with our fully armored mock assailants. You will have the opportunity to put all of you new skills together, using your voice and body powerfully and effectively to defend yourself while feeling the stress and chaos that accompany a real crisis.
Our women’s workshops focus on some of the most common types of verbal manipulation, threats and physical assaults. We explore the psychology and tactics used by those who target women so participants can learn how to be as effective as possible in a verbal altercation or assault situation. Trans and non-binary participants are very welcome. If you feel you will benefit from the material in this workshop, please join us.
We also offer all-gender & LGBTQ+ specific Foundation workshops that cover the same tools and concepts described above, but expand the application to explore and address the different and ways in which assailants choose and attack their intended victims and strategies people of all genders can employ to defend themselves most effectively.
Younger Teen Foundation (age 12-15)
$100
Our Young Teen Foundation uses the same framework as the adult version, but focuses on the needs of kids who are in-between childhood and adulthood. It is a 3-hour workshop open to people of all genders.
The Foundation is a prerequisite for those planning to attend any of the other courses we offer, but is also a powerful and effective stand-alone training.
Essential Tools 1 – Rear Attack Defense
$350
(Foundation is a prerequisite)
In this 8-hour/2-session course, we will build on the verbal and physical skills practiced in the Foundation (formerly “Intro”) Workshop. We will learn more physical tools for defending against a front attack, as well as address the challenges that come with setting verbal boundaries with people we do know and/or have an ongoing connection with.
We will move on to defense against a very common type of assault – the predatory rear attack/ambush assault. Physical skills will include: defending against standing/walking rear attacks, chokes and hair grabs. In addition, we will train for the possibility that we are either pushed or fall to the ground and must fight an assailant who is is still standing.
Essential Tools 2 – Ground Fighting and Rape Defense
$350
(Foundation and Essential Tools 1 are prerequisites)
This 8-hour/2-session course offers more tools and practice defending against standing front and surprise rear attacks and continues to build our verbal boundary setting and assertive communication skillset, but primarily focuses on physical defenses for scenarios in which both the assailant and target are on the ground. This includes rear takedown/tackles, sexual assaults and rape scenarios.