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.

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

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.