Because you might need to know what other people are saying. There are many of these and please be patient while we put them up here, along with videos.
Michelle Scott, mom and graduate with her two teen daughters: ” I love you guys! Thank you for the level of service and commitement I felt from you! You are the BEST!”
J. Keller: “VERY important for me to experience this and make a shift energetically, physically, empowerment-wise and emotionally …”
S. Bull: “Loved it! Seemed scary at first but I felt very supported to suceed! Thank you!”
Jessie B, high school senior: “I loved this and I feel much safer going to college now and I would recommend this to anyone!”
Maci O, mom and participant: “This was such a great experience! I feel so empowered and I trust that I will know what to do if I’m ever in a compromising situation!
2/22/17 “This was my first self defense class and I really enjoyed it. It empowered me and made me more self aware.”
2/25/17 “I appreciate the passion Theresa and Chris bring to the class. I feel safe and open to explore my inner warrior.”
Chloe M, high school senior: “Thanks! This was great and I feel much more comfortable with going to college next year!”
Vanessa M. “I was able to tap into feelings and strength I didn’t know I had! Very empowering. I will definitely take level 2 & 3!! Thank YOU!”
Kate C, high school senior: “Thank you so much! I feel like a tigress!”
Participant 2/25/17: “The instructors made the concepts very simple and easy to access when the adrenaline is flowing. I appreciate making some great friends who now feel like a family to me. I will carry all of this with me as I go back out into the world. THANK YOU!”
Izzy S, high school senior: “Thank you so so so much!”
Katie V, high school senior: “I felt safe and comfortable and this allowed me to really learn the skills taught!”
Katie T. mother: “This class shows the kids the strength within them. It gives them the confidence to meet confrontation with power!”
Brian V: “Thank you both for the efforts, really well done. This is important training … I’m going to have my daughter and wife take it!”
Julie K: “Thank you for offering your expertise and sharing your strength with all of us. I am empowered! And I’ll send you updates should something show up.”
Doug C. “The skills taught are simple and very effective. The “real world” experiences were enlightening. I’m much more confident and the strengths I gained were priceless.”
Theresa and Chris,
I wanted to take the time to write a personal note after Saturday’s self defense workshop. First and foremost, thank you! I can’t find the words to adequately express the impact your workshop had on me. When I arrived on Saturday I had no idea what to expect. In my mind’s eye, I thought maybe you were just going to show us a couple of defense moves and give a talk about being aware of our surroundings and make eye contact. Your workshop was so much more than that and touched each one of us on a personal level.
I loved that you brought up about boundaries and the statistics — it made it a little more real to hear that most women are attacked/hurt by people that they know and not always by some random stranger. As young girls and women (and especially those of us that have been in abusive relationships, raped or abused as children) we are taught not to make eye contact with other men. “Wives do as their husbands tell them”; “no means yes”; “if you had only done what I told you, I wouldn’t have had to hit you”; “I’m sorry I will never do that again”; “this is how Daddy’s love their little girls”; and on and on.
Some of us have been in the adrenaline zone for so long that we don’t know how to listen to our gut instinct, let alone act on it. Our boundaries have been crushed and violated so many times we don’t know how to build them back up again or we begin to believe that we aren’t allowed to have boundaries. Listening to you talk about these things gave me the validation that I needed.
As women we are taught that when we are scared or we listen to our gut instinct that we are overreacting (i.e. our gut instinct is wrong). I actually had a counselor tell me about a month ago that I was overreacting when I got upset when my ex-boyfriend got into my secured building and accosted me at the door of my apartment and tried to get in my apartment by putting his foot in the door. She tried to tell me that I was making more out of it than I should and that I was projecting my abusive marriage (which by the way ended 26 years ago) into my current situation. My ex-boyfriend just sat there insisting that he was sorry he scared me and that he only wanted to talk to me. This isn’t the first time he has done this to me and his behavior every time I’ve tried to end it has turned into stalking. I told both of them that what he did was abusive, against the law and that I wasn’t going to sit there and listen to them try and blame me for his behavior. Most men who hurt or kill their ex, aren’t necessarily wife/girlfriend beaters, some of them just snap.
Being validated in your workshop meant so much to me.
Chris made the verbal scenarios (as well as the physical) very real. Listening to him with some of the other participants brought me back to different times in my life when I have been talked to liked that, there were a couple of verbal scenario roleplays that Chris did at the workshop that were so close to home (he sounded just like my ex-husband) and then in the verbal he did with me, he sounded just like the man I’ve been trying to cut ties with. Chris is very perceptive and I was amazed how he could listen.
Again, thank you to you both for the lessons you taught me and especially for helping me find the power within myself to not be afraid and validating everything that I have been feeling these past 6 months. C.W.
Self Defense Oct. 2016 video
Fast Defense Oct. 29th, 2016 (mom and college-aged daughter)- video
High school senior going off to college: *(We couldn’t have said it better!)
I went into the class with a general, but fairly decent, idea of what to do in the case that I should ever need to defend myself. I think most girls my age know what to theoretically do in a precarious situation, including (but not limited to) the concepts of yelling for help, kneeing an aggressor in the groin, and running away if possible instead of engaging in a potentially costly and draining fight. That being said, “theoretical” is the key word there and while it’s important that males and females alike know the steps to defending themselves should they need to, the adrenal class really brought these steps to life, for lack of better words.
For example, I had known that my voice would be a strong defense mechanism even before the class, but I suspect that if I had to spike my voice in a situation without practicing it in the Higher Self Defense class, I would hear it in my own ears as nervousness and likely panic internally. Instead, through your class, I now acknowledge that the voice spike is indicative of my own control of the situation and has become an empowering tool. I think this is one of the most important things that I learned from the class: foreign and unexpected changes may seem like another obstacle and another reason to panic in a stressful situation, but now knowing what to expect– the spike in my voice, the adrenaline in my bloodstream, and the tenseness in my shoulders– all the little factors that I would once consider completely foreign now feel like safety alarms within my own body. The understanding that these alarms are an instinctual indicator of a potentially dangerous situation is so important to me, because now I know how to handle and address them.
Defending against an actual assailant was another drill that completely heightened my confidence in my abilities to deal with a physical aggressor. Prior to class, I think that had I been attacked by someone, I would attack weak spots as per accordance to what I had been taught regarding theoretical safety, but my defensive actions would be hesitant, tentative, and lacking the confidence that I now feel. Of course, in such a situation, even a few moments of hesitation and a few ounces of confident energy can make a huge difference. Again, actually putting theoretical concepts into physical practice allowed me to recognize what I should do with my adrenaline and awareness.
I truly and honestly believe that a basic summary of the class does not do it justice.
Perhaps the reason why not as many people take a class like this is because they believe that they already know everything that will be taught in a self defense class; after all, I was doubtful when I was asked to participate. After all, I already knew about not getting into meddlesome situations, yelling for help, and attacking weak spots. What more could I possibly learn? What I didn’t realize was that there is such a massive and phenomenal difference between knowing how to defend myself theoretically and actually putting the steps into physical action while dealing with stress and adrenaline. After taking this class, I feel so much stronger and more confident mentally and I know that I’ll be able to interpret and address the signals that my own body gives me in a precarious situation.
Thank you so much for holding this class. I hope this email wasn’t too long-winded, but I really, really do appreciate your effort to keep us safe and protected. It’s so incredibly important. Thanks again!
Sincerely,
Z.