Empower your group

If you’re a community organiser or professional supporting women survivors, partner with us to hold an 8 week Empowerment Self Defence programme for your group

Partner with us

The Power Project is a London-based charity delivering self defence workshops that empower women living with trauma from violence to connect to their bodies, set boundaries, de-escalate conflict, and thrive.

Bring the benefits

  • Empowerment through choice and validating instincts

  • Nervous system regulation through movement and interoception

  • Resilience through building skills to assert needs, uphold boundaries, and stop violence

Meet needs

We’ll work together to understand group-wide and individual needs. Sessions accommodate injuries and sensitivities and offer pathways to leverage personal motivations.

Empowering, evidence-based, and trauma informed self defence programme

Empowering, evidence-based, and trauma informed

Empowerment Self Defence is a set of methods and mindsets addressing the patterns of violence which particularly affect women.

Coupling these methods with well-researched techniques for working with trauma in movement, the programme creates a supportive space where women can connect to their bodies and build skills to thrive.

“Women's self defence training is the only prevention strategy with solid evidence of effectiveness at reducing rates of victimisation.”

Hollander, Jocelyn. (2018). Women's self‐defense and sexual assault resistance: The state of the field. Sociology Compass. 12. 10.1111/soc4.12597.

From participants

Sessions like the one we had today are really important because it’s a chance for women to realise they’re not alone with what they’re experiencing.

— December 2024

I found the holding provided by Maya and Adrian made all the difference. I could see and sense the huge amount of care and consideration that had been put into creating the day we had together and I'm very thankful, to you both and the whole team. 

— March 2024

A very important moment for me in this session was when I learned how to say ‘no.’

— December 2024

Programme overview

Fundamentals

Use stance, posture, voice, and situational awareness to navigate

Boundaries

Sensing, setting, and upholding boundaries. Say no

Communication

Communication formula to meet needs and de-escalate conflict

Movement

Preemptive strikes, releases, and manoeuvres.

Nervous system awareness

Nervous system awareness and grounding strategies

Thriving, safety

safety reflect and integrate the resources. Recognising your own resources and believing you’re skilled is in itself a protective factor

 FAQs

  • Together, we’ll decide on an 8 week block when availability lines up. We love working in spaces where clients already feel comfortable familiar. If So if you have one in mind, we’ll check a few things out to make sure everyone can move safely in it or else propose an alternative.

  • As a member of a survivor support charity or community group, the subsidised cost to you is £300.

  • If your organisation supports women survivors, and a member of your team is consistently available to coordinate logistics, client care, and impact analysis with us, then it’s eligible.

  • we’ll book a discovery call to learn about you, your group, share an overview of the trauma-informed empowerment self defence programme, answer your questions.

  • Great question and important to ask.

    • For starters, we acknowledging that trauma affects individuals, groups and communities, and research and observe to understand how

    • 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 work with participants as the authorities on their own experience. All the activities we do come with an invitation to choose —from a range of variations, to take a pause, practise a grounding technique, or to simply say no

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

    • We acknowledge that power dynamics can thwart the inclination to choose

    • We practise nervous system regulation techniques, and invite practitioners to bring in their own