Defend Yourself

More safety, more confidence, more freedom, more fun!

Based in Washington, DC, serving the entire U.S.

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Find a class

Upcoming classes

Active Bystander Skills for Interrupting Hate ONLINE
Active Bystander Skills for Interrupting Racism ONLINE
Get Empowered! A Self-Defense Happy Hour ONLINE

About our classes

Defend Yourself has classes for everyone, no matter what your age or ability. Whether you’re dealing with street harassment, going off to college, healing from abuse, or meeting any other challenge, we offer skills you can use. DURING THE PANDEMIC, ALL OF OUR WORKSHOPS ARE ONLINE.

Live life with more confidence, more safety, more freedom, + more fun!

Join us to learn how to prevent and avoid harassment, attack, and abuse; how to stop a threatening situation with words; and physical strikes to use against common attacks.

  • All of our classes are tailored to the life situations and experiences of the students.
  • All of our classes are open to people of all abilities: You don’t have to be an athlete or a martial artist to help yourself be safer. All of our classes are held in wheelchair-accessible spaces. If there’s something else that would help you be able to participate, please let us know.
  • All of our classes have limited sliding-scale spaces for those who can’t afford the full fee.
  • And all of our classes are fun!

If you sign up for a class and are unable to make it, we’ll give you a partial credit toward another class. We’re unable to make refunds.

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Get Empowered! A Self-Defense Happy Hour (online)

Have you been harassed at work (virtually or in person), on the street, or on public transit? Is a family member intrusive, either with words or physically? Is there anyone you want to set a limit with, but aren’t quite sure how to say it? We cover these and other situations.

You’ll find the power in your body and mind to practice boundary-setting as the foundation of self-defense, and effective strikes for a last resort.

We’ll cover:

  • The 5 basic elements of boundary-setting
  • How to bring the temperature down when someone is escalated
  • 2 simple physical strikes for the worst-case situation

and more!

Who: Open to women, trans men, and nonbinary/gender nonconforming people, age 16 and up. Maximum enrollment is 35.

When: Pick a session below; the workshop is 1.5 hours long.

How: Fee is $20, $35, or $50. Please contact us if you can’t afford $20 or if you can give more than $50.

Please let us know when you register what accommodations you may need (such as ASL or Spanish interpretation) or email us.

By registering, you agree to hold confidential other peoples’ experiences and stories shared in the session. For safety reasons, no recording is allowed, and the session will be closed to entry 10 minutes after it starts.

Class Dates

Saturday, January 9
1:00pm-2:30pm EST
$20 minimum fee
Wednesday, March 10
6:30pm-8:00pm EST
$20 minimum fee

 


Don’t see what you want?

Please sign up for our newsletter, and we’ll let you know when workshops are scheduled.

In the meantime, if you’d like some training in personal safety and self-protection skills, you can bring us to you! If you have any group (friends, neighborhood, workplace, faith group, club/team, etc.), we’ll customize a workshop to your needs – and we can do it online.

Get our newsletter!

Sign up now for the monthly newsletter and you’ll also get our e-book with stories of real-life people standing up to harassment, abuse, and assault!

Read our latest newsletter here

Help support Defend Yourself!

Join us on social media!

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Meet Lauren

Teacher, resister, advocate, warrior princess. Passionate about a world free of gender-based violence and people becoming their full selves. Loves chocolate, justice, and cats (not necessarily in that order).

Click here to find out more!

Classes for everyone

Defend Yourself has classes for everyone, no matter what your age or ability. Whether you're dealing with street harassment, going off to college, healing from abuse, or any other challenge, we offer skills you can use.

Click here to see some of what we offer!

National Street Harassment Hotline

Call toll-free: 855-897-5910
(English + Spanish. 24-7)
Find out more!

More safety, more confidence, more freedom, more fun!

Get our newsletter!

Sign up now for our monthly newsletter and you’ll also get our e-book with stories of real-life people standing up to harassment, abuse, and assault!

Read our latest newsletter here
 

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Learn something now

  • Run,Yell,Tell, Hit, + Go Along
  • My journey to assertiveness
  • Strategies for safety
  • Should I yell FIRE!?!?
  • #9 Making self-defense a part of your life
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What people say

This class has given me a powerful toolkit and the confidence to yell “NO” and know I have every right to say it. It’s helped me rethink my personal boundaries and feel good about maintaining them.
Thank you for a wonderful class. I will spread the word around my high school and to every interested girl/woman I know!
What an empowering, enlightening class! You gave me a wonderfully empowering gift – the ability to speak! You helped take away some of the fear that I had by having me realize that I have some power within.
Her calm, steady energy felt reassuring.
Bothering leads to dangerous things and situations if we aren’t careful. We want to try to stop the situation before it gets really dangerous+ACE There are bullies that can start at just being annoying by talking and saying those mean things but it can turn into something very dangerous if you are not careful. So the key is to be very smart and think before you ac– from the book by our students at Jump Start Girls/Adelante Nias
Inspiring, caring, understanding, strong, and self-assured.
Thank you for such an empowering, confidence-inspiring class. When you first announced that the class would teach both verbal and physical defense, I was a bit hesitant – I presumed I already knew how to verbally defend myself, and thought I was ready to get down to more hard core self-defense moves.
When I took my [previous self-defense] class, I learned how to fend off physical attacks, but it took me much, much longer to learn how to develop and maintain healthy relationships. I spent too many years in an abusive relationship . . . Now I’m a lot more careful about defending myself – which is why your class was so important to me.
The teachers role-modeled being strong women.
Lauren is very encouraging and patient. An excellent teacher, she makes everyone feel comfortable.
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Based in Washington, D.C., serving the world

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