What is Self Defense for Women?
What is the value of therapeutic workshops in self-defense for battered women and young girls, and women in general?
Self defense is first and foremost an inner acknowledgement that every woman is important enough to do what is needed to protect herself, her rights, and her opinions.
Self-defense can develop decisiveness and self-confidence in that it enables a person to demonstrate their capabilities and assert themselves.
Self-defense is the ability to learn how to appraise dangerous situations and act accordingly.
Self-defense means recognizing how a person can effectively use their natural instincts.
The therapeutic workshop is both educational and curative. Its purpose is to minimize the physical and spiritual limitations caused by the existence of violence in the life of girls and women. This workshop offers them the necessary skills to develop new directions and opportunities in their lives.
How and why?
Most martial art forms that exist today were developed by men and for men. Men and women differ both in their physical abilities and in their approach to self-protection. This self-defense workshop for battered women and girls was developed and created by a woman--especially for women.
The workshop is concise and builds on simple instinctive techniques that are easy to learn and geared for the physical capabilities of women and girls. This workshop does not focus solely on the physical aspects of self-defense, rather it incorporates an approach to the physical, spiritual, and emotional issues involved. We believe that only by using a balanced approach to these three areas of body, spirit, and emotion, can women truly achieve a lifestyle that includes respect and security.
Every meeting brings up a different issue related to the central theme that every person deserves a life with respect and security.
The therapeutic self-defense workshop uses the Dennis Survival techniques to develop and focus on the following elements:
Recognizing physical capabilities – meeting with the body’s natural intelligence
Enhancing self confidence
Improving self image
Improving body language
Learning to respect yourself
Learning to respect others
Learning self control
Developing self-defense skills
The workshop is efficient and practical, as it provides an answer for the difficult challenges faced by our society in the battle against violence. The workshop framework is very flexible and can be customized to meet the needs of various groups.
The workshop has been given successfully in 18 centers for treatment in the prevention of family violence and in more than 30 clubs for young girls in distress. The workshop was also customized and given to workers at 18 branches of the National Insurance bureau across the country. These staff were trained in techniques for emergency care of children at risk, survivors of sexual abuse, groups of rehabilitated drug addicts, women of single-parent families, and for social workers. Lectures on the topic are given to WIZO women and at Israeli Army bases across the country.
The workshop uses techniques developed by Dr. Dennis Hanover in his Dennis Survival Jiu-Jitsu style. Dr. Hanover has the rank of Grand Master, Soke, 10th Dan. The teaching methods for this workshop were developed by Daniella Ganapol, senior instructor, 7th Dan, and head of the women’s training for Dennis Survival and for the European Jiu-Jitsu Union. Daniella is a specialist in treatment for prevention of violence and runs the workshops for young women at risk and for battered women. She is a volunteer officer for the Israeli police and holds the rank of commander, where she runs the special unit for the prevention and treatment of violence in the family. This special unit developed by Daniella has been used as a model framework for similar units throughout the country.
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