Fighting Trauma with Self-Defense

At EMDR Trauma Therapy Center, we treat all types of trauma. Our clients are as diverse as their stories, and many present to therapy desperate to find relief from the symptoms of PTSD and depression that plague their daily lives. Trauma survivors often endure intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, night terrors, dissociation, hypervigilance, and intense feelings of shame or self-loathing. Above all, many describe the devastating realization that they no longer feel safe—or confident—moving through the world.

Trauma, Fear, and the Loss of Voice

Fear impacts us all differently, but for trauma survivors, it can strip away the very anger needed to resist and fight back. “Fear does not help us fight…fear dispels our ability to think clearly and can cause us to resort to unhelpful reactions” (Hecht, 2025). The key is anger. Anger, when accessed in a healthy way, signals that our values or boundaries are being violated.

Losing one’s voice and determination to defend your boundaries is one of trauma’s most dangerous consequences. Survivors may be left vulnerable to re-victimization, stuck in cycles of silence and feelings of helplessness. This highlights the need for body-focused healing—an important complement to traditional trauma therapy.

Rewiring Through Self-Defense

In their new book, Rewired – Transforming Trauma Through Self-Defense Training (2025), Ashley M. Hecht and Chris E. Oklevitch of The Women’s Defense Company in Jacksonville, Florida, describe how empowering survivors through self-defense restores voice, anger, and confidence. Their program has trained hundreds of trauma survivors to confront fear, reclaim their strength, and rewrite the narrative of their past experiences.

Self-defense training begins with something deceptively simple: commanding your space and shouting “NO!” with conviction that displays strength and a willingness to fight back. From there, students learn practical techniques to evade or fight back against attackers, regardless of their own size or strength. As small-statured people, I can attest to the power of these tools— my 11-year-old daughter and I walked away from Chris’s training with the unshakable belief that we could protect ourselves. And not just that we could protect ourselves, but that we would if we had to.

As Hecht notes, “Self-defense training can help alleviate students from the prison of learned helplessness by showing them they are capable of doing things they were cautious or unsure of…ultimately giving them mastery” (p.157).

Where Self-Defense Meets EMDR

In my work with trauma survivors, I see firsthand how EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) helps clients release stored pain and reprocess difficult memories. Often, clients visualize new endings to old traumas such as: towering over an attacker or outrunning them, or using their voice when they had previously felt silenced. These corrective experiences help rewrite destructive beliefs such as “I’m not safe” or “I can’t protect myself” into empowering truths: “I am safe,” “I can protect myself,” or “I am good enough.”

The emotional turmoil that can linger for months, years, and sometimes even decades after their trauma experiences highlight the need for body-focused healing. We do this through EMDR as we work to align body sensations to your emotional responses. We also do this through teaching ways to communicate your feelings, needs, fears, and emotions with conviction and clarity – something many survivors have lost the ability to do in the aftermath of their trauma.

Self-defense training offers a similar reprogramming at the physical level. It provides a way for the body to release trauma and for the survivor to practice, in real time, what it means to stand tall, speak clearly, and fight back if necessary. Together, EMDR and self-defense create a powerful synergy—healing the mind and body while restoring safety, confidence, and control.

Reclaiming Power

As Erin Van Vuren reminds us, “You are worn and cracked and dented. And that is okay because I have never seen a clean and shiny sword that won a war” (Hecht, p.7). Survivors of trauma are not broken—they are warriors in the making.

Wherever you are in your healing journey, integrating body movement such as self-defense training may unlock new pathways toward reclaiming your mental health, your confidence, and your power. A favorite quote that hangs in my office says, “Like a lotus flower we too have the ability to rise from the mud, bloom out of the darkness, and radiate into the world” (Unknown). I am reminded daily that this ability to emerge from your darkest hour and retake unrealized strengths is possible. I see this happen in front of me all the time and it is always amazing.

Reference

Hecht, A., & Oklevitch, C. (2025). Rewired – Transforming Trauma Through Self-Defense Training. The Women’s Defense Company. www.womensdefensecompany.com