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Our work is integral to a broader movement aimed at creating social change, preventing abuse, and supporting healing.

Empowerment Self-Defense (ESD) teaches practical skills to those targeted for gender-based violence and individuals and groups at higher risk of violence. These skills help people avoid, interrupt, respond to, and heal from interpersonal violence.

We emphasize that the responsibility for violence lies with the aggressor, not the target, and that all self-defense and self-preservation strategies are valid options.

Yes. Traditional self-defense training often emphasizes physical skills, stranger danger, and victim-blaming, which can lead to an unrealistic and limiting approach to personal safety. In contrast, our classes are grounded in research showing that crime is predominantly committed by people we know, in familiar settings. We focus on equipping you with a variety of strategies, including avoidance, psychological preparedness, adrenaline management, and both verbal and physical resistance skills that are also relevant to situations with a dating partner, family member, coworker, friend, or other familiar person.

Our instructors undergo hundreds of hours of multi-disciplinary training and supervision to earn their certification from nationally recognized instructor trainers. They are professionals dedicated to violence prevention education.

Come as you are. This system of self-defense is appropriate for any levels of fitness and all body types. You will discover and learn to enhance your own body’s natural strengths. Limited class size ensures individual attention and personalized instruction, including accommodations and adaptations for pre-existing injuries and physical disabilities. Instructors are skilled at supporting students to get the most out of class.

Yes, but it is up to you to assess your readiness and whether the timing is right for you. Survivors are in every class we teach, and many find our programs healing, as confirmed by student feedback and research studies. However, we understand survivors’ concerns about being activated or re-traumatized.

Prepare uses trauma-informed approaches to create a safe(r) learning environment. We explain what to expect in each section and offer participation options, so students can choose what’s best for them. We emphasize that violence is never the victim’s fault, and challenging victim blaming is a central topic of our classes. Our instructors undergo hundreds of hours of training, including trauma-informed classroom practices. We have deep experience working with vulnerable groups, including survivors of trafficking and people with complex PTSD.

Even with these approaches in place, some survivors do get triggered by the material. In this case, scenarios can be paused, providing space for survivors to use re-grounding strategies and/or take breaks before deciding whether to continue. Our experience shows that participants generally benefit from action and movement after being activated, in the form of a rehearsal of self-protection strategies that can restore a sense of agency.  The decision is in the hands of the survivor.

Survivors are best positioned to assess their readiness. Those who are undecided can contact us for more information. Survivors may want to consult with their therapist or other trusted advisors to make the choice to enroll and to do some preparation in advance.

Research has shown that Prepare and Empowerment Self-Defense programs like it can reduce PTSD symptoms, reduce self-blame, improve mental health, enhance traditional therapeutic approaches, and prevent revictimization. There is also a body of research on the therapeutic benefits of movement, which aligns strongly with the physical scenarios that are a core component of our classes.

We are particularly proud of programs that have been directly integrated with group and individual counseling sessions, and our research has shown that combining Prepare with traditional therapy can be a powerful healing combination for survivors. In addition to the research data, students who are survivors have also shared positive stories throughout the years about how the program has helped them.

Prepare is committed to removing barriers to accessing our classes. We offer payment plans with no interest or additional fees. Emerging Strategies, our sister 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit organization, provides financial support for individuals of all ages and access for educators, individuals, and organizations that serve young people and adults in our community. Emerging Strategies will partner with your organization to assist with grant writing or fundraising efforts to reduce the cost of the programs.

Prepare uses the term personal safety and a broad context to talk about our classes for young people. In its simplest sense, it is the skills needed to set limits in situations that make us uncomfortable or are potentially dangerous. It includes how we feel about ourselves (self-esteem, self-efficacy, and confidence), how we relate to our bodies, and how to trust our instincts.

Most children find themselves alone for a short time (in another aisle in the grocery store, or out of direct contact with their caregiver at a park) at some point, have had a peer or adult touch them in a way that is annoying or unwelcome, or experience being treated unkindly or targeted with mean words.
Our classes help young people develop an external awareness of their environment, make safer choices about how to behave, advocate for themselves, and set boundaries when others speak to them, touch them, or treat them in a way they don’t like or that is unsafe. Being able to communicate boundaries and limits is a protective factor for people of all ages.

All of the teaching material is age-appropriate, so students can easily learn the information. Prepare emphasizes communication skills as the foundation for personal safety. Students learn how to recognize and protect their emotional and physical integrity by practicing communication skills to express difficult thoughts and feelings. Students learn through success and gain confidence in their ability to handle themselves in stressful situations.

All of the Prepare programs are designed to lower risk factors and raise protective factors. We teach using a variety of methods, including role-plays, real-life stories, small group exercises, and repetitive practice — with layers of progressive challenge. Prepare programs follow the recommendations and guidelines of the Center for Disease Control, SEICUS, Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and threat assessments experts such as Gavin de Becker.

Giving children safety information is part of our responsibility as adults. Education does not raise children’s anxiety; it actually can lower anxiety by providing them with a plan and teaching them self-reliance. Teaching self-defense is similar to teaching your children other safety skills, such as how to cross the street or how to use a kitchen knife. It is not necessary to discuss the details of being hit by a car or cut by a sharp knife to learn safe conduct, just as it is not necessary to discuss the details of child abuse or molestation to learn self-defense.

Martial arts training is a wonderful discipline that provides an opportunity for children to learn awareness of their bodies, to build strength, focus, and self-control.

Our program uses an expansive definition of personal safety and self-defense:
Personal safety is external awareness of our environment, choices about how we behave, how we speak to others, and how we let others speak to us or treat us. In its simplest sense, it is the skills needed to set limits in situations that make us uncomfortable or are potentially dangerous – sometimes referred to as social skills education. It includes how we feel about ourselves and how we relate to our bodies, and how to trust our instincts.

Self-defense includes all the things you do to protect your body, for example: how you use your voice, how you stand, how you breathe, how you move, walking away, and physical strikes for emergency situations when all other options are unavailable.

Prepare’s emphasis on communication skills, self-advocacy, and finding trusted adults to go to for help supplements martial arts programs. We teach awareness of many situations and a range of skills and options for response, including de-escalation. We look at what happens before one might choose to physically resist with strikes. We also look at how to take care of yourself after you’ve experienced a boundary violation, abuse, or violence. Prepare values and practices all responses from walking away to physical resistance. Class is role-play driven: for example, your child will be practicing in realistic settings how to verbally and non-verbally set limits with peers and adults.

Martial arts training is not a prerequisite for enrollment in our classes. Children only practice with instructors, and students are not ranked vis-à-vis each other.