Conscious Self Defense

About this event

This is a self defense workshop that teaches psychological tools to manage your body's natural fight or flight response as well as physical techniques to protect yourself against a threat.

If a person has experienced domestic violence or other forms of abuse and trauma, it is common for the body & mind to have an overactive sympathetic nervous system response (fight or flight) when there is a conflict. This response can cause a wide array of symptoms, including panic attacks, shutting down (freezing), and loss of concentration. It can be difficult to move through life with a high sensitivity to triggers.

The first half of the workshop will focus on what to do when you are triggered in daily life. In the second half, we will practice physical self defense techniques including balance, escapes, and efficient striking.

This is a beginner class open to adults of any physical fitness level. One does not need years of martial arts training to learn self defense!

Led by Carrie

This workshop is facilitated by Carrie Padgett (She/They). Carrie is a medical massage therapist with 15 years experience and a 20-year professional artist with a degree in painting from SCAD. They started training in martial arts as a hobby in 2013 and it quickly became a path to self confidence and healing from domestic violence experiences.

Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gave them hundreds of hours of real hands-on combat experience while their massage therapy background gave them trauma-informed techniques to calm the nervous system and regain control when triggered. They now run their own practice, Blank Canvas Massage, out of their home in Kirkwood.