Trauma-informed self defence

If you want to get comfortable with asserting your needs, taking up space, upholding your boundaries, and practise some power moves, we’re here for you.

We coach in Empowerment Self Defence, a holistic approach to personal safety and violence prevention that addresses the whole spectrum of violence, from micro-aggression to unwanted contact, to physical assault.

If you’re keen to tap into your power, we’ve got you. Our workshops invite you to feel and channel your strength through movement. We also hold space for you to reflect and digest what you’re learning, so it stays in your mind and muscles.

If you’d like to learn in a compassionate, trauma-informed setting, we’re here for you. Our instructors are trained to work with trauma in the body and to meet you where you are.

We see you as the authority on what’s right for your body. We don’t do commands or instructions, we offer invitations and options.

The course is open to women, people living in women’s bodies, and people who identify as women.

If you’d like to talk more about whether this programme is right for you, reach out.

Your instructor is Maya D'Amour.

Maya’s style is thoughtful, creative, and collaborative and her workshops are full of compassion and empowerment.

She believes that safety starts with recognising that you deserve to be safe and holds space for you to validate your instincts, feel your boundaries, and build verbal and physical skills to uphold them.

Maya is a certified Empowerment Self Defence (ESD) instructor, trained in trauma informed martial arts programme design with Conscious Combat Club, completed foundational training in Trauma Centre Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY), holds a 1st Kyu in Shotokan karate, and continually explores ways of drawing on the traditions and techniques of kickboxing, Krav Maga, and Jiu Jitsu.

They’re a mix of movement, games, and reflection.

You’ll have options to discharge energy, and options to ground and regulate your nervous system.

Exercises cover a range of physical and verbal boundary setting techniques, focussing on the specific safety challenges that women face.

You’ll come away with a few fast and furious power moves to defuse a situation, and create space for yourself to think and act.

You’ll truly be at the centre of your own experience, as we offer you options and invite you to choose what feels right.

This is a great question and important to ask.

• For starters, we acknowledge that trauma affects individuals, groups and communities

• We ask practitioners about their known triggers and support systems so that we can incorporate accommodations and supports into the design of our activities and group agreement

• The first thing we practise, before stances, strikes or releases, is saying 'no' to activities that don't feel right to us. We invite participants to practice saying no in sessions and celebrate when they do

• We consider participants to be the authorities on their own experience. The activities we do are invitations not instructions. We invite participants to choose —from a range of variations on each exercise, and to take a pause, practise a grounding technique, or to simply say ‘no’ whenever it feels right to.

• We practise nervous system regulation techniques, and invite participants to choose ones that work well for them

• We practise interoception and making choices in line with our instincts, energy levels, and body cues