Empowerment Self-Defense 1-Day Immersion
Date: Sunday, June 15th, 2024
Time: 11:30am-7:30pm
Location: Motion Pacific, Santa Cruz
Cost: Sliding scale
Open to all genders, recommended age 16+
We are capping attendance at 24 humans
What is your path to freedom? Would you like to discover a new practice to complement your passion for movement, communication, wellness, or activism?
Do you crave safety in expression, a balance of boundaries and connection, and a full-bodied “yes” rooted in a fully expressed “no”?
Do you believe your body, mind, heart and spirit are all worthy of safety, care, and protection?
Join Toby of Women Empowered Self-Defense for a full-day immersion into healing and connection through holistic self-defense, hosted by Cocrea Mindful Partner Dance. empowerment and healing and the magic that happens when we use both as a pathway to deeper connection to self and others.
Empowerment Self-Defense is a holistic methodology offering participants a pathway to:
- Self-awareness
- Safety
- Nurturing relationships
- Self-regulation
- Embodied freedom
- Practical, everyday personal safety
This unique collaboration between Mujeres Fuertes and Cocréa offers a safe and supportive space for individuals to explore their boundaries, express themselves authentically, and cultivate greater freedom and empowerment in their lives.
This 1-day immersion includes:
- 5-6 hours of immersive learning
- Games and somatic activities to connect with your intuition
- Basic martial arts instruction for personal safety
- Exercises and activities for empowerment rooted in the freedom to choose
- Tools for self-regulation and healthy communication
- Boundary-setting and assertive communication skills
- Deep dive into Women Empowered’s evidence-based and trauma-informed methodology
- Space to share, listen, and integrate
We will close the immersion with a 1-hour ecstatic dance and mindful partner dance class guided by Wren!
Agenda:
11:30am: Opening Circle & Agreements
12,00am-1,30pm: Session 1
1,30pm-2,30pm: Lunch Break LATE LUNCH! MEAL PLAN AHEAD
2,30pm-4,30pm: Session 2
4,30pm-5,00pm: Break
5,00-6,45pm: Cocréa Dance with Guided Intro
6,45pm: Closing Circle
About Mujeres Fuertes Autodefensa (Women Empowered Self-Defense)
Mujeres Fuertes is a Costa Rican-based social business dedicated to supporting women, children, and all people to live lives free from fear and full of confidence. Our holistic self-defense methodology connects our participants with a sense of power, freedom and agency through physical skills, communication strategies, mindfulness practices, and healing arts and connection. We offer profoundly transformative experiences, with a unique perspective on self-defense, empowerment, and learning.
We work with various community, organizational and corporate allies to bring our holistic self-defense methodology to as many people as possible.
About the Methodology
Holistic self-defense is an evidence-based and trauma-informed violence prevention methodology that combines: physical (martial arts) and verbal strategies for setting and defending boundaries; role plays and simple tools for assertive communication; trauma-informed practices for healing and self-awareness; and guidance to define and communicate a clear “No” and “Yes” to move through the world with less fear and more freedom.)
Toby’s Bio
Toby Israel is the founder and facilitator of Mujeres Fuertes Autodefensa (Women Empowered Self-Defense), a Costa Rican born empowerment project dedicated to bringing tools for holistic self-defense to as many people as possible. She is passionate about the potential for Empowerment (or Holistic) Self-Defense to bring healing and freedom to both individuals and communities.
She is a Level 4 Instructor and trainer of trainers through ESD Global, holds the ESDP Credential from the Association of ESD Professionals, and an MA in Peace and Media Studies from the UN-mandated University for Peace, Costa Rica. Since 2018, she has reached thousands of people across Costa Rica, Central America, and North America with self-defense retreats and workshops, weaving somatics, mindfulness, conscious communication and healing modalities with empowerment self defense training. Toby is a passionate movement artist, writer, editor, and traveler. Her first book, Vagabondess: A Guide to Solo Female Travel, was published in 2020.
Wren LaFeet
Wren is an embodiment guide intent on learning how to be in right-relationship as a 21st century human so he can best serve life. A trained dancer and theater worker, Wren shares body-based practices synthesized from social partner dance, mindfulness, Taoism, the Gene Keys, waterways and relating with humans that support interpersonal connection and positive change. In 2013, Wren co-founded Cocréa with Antje Schaefer as a vehicle for exploring mindful, consent based relational practice through movement and dance. Channeling what he has come to acknowledge as an intelligence that wants the best for humanity, he creates brave spaces for humans struggling with disconnection and longing for a deeper sense of BElonging to come home to themselves through the body.
He is a TEDx speaker, featured author in “ReInhabiting the Village”, certified Attunement Therapy practitioner, HeartMath certified trauma sensitive educator and a Level 2 SunDo instructor. Wren abides on the unceded lands of the Amun Mutsen and Awaswas peoples, in the San Lorenzo river watershed, in the so-called region of Santa Cruz, California. He currently works as an addiction recovery counselor with Embodied Recovery in Los Gatos, CA.