FAQs
What is Empowered Self Defence (ESD)?
Empowered Self Defence (ESD) is an evidence-based approach to violence prevention, personal safety, and empowerment. It combines awareness, boundary-setting, assertive communication, consent education, bystander intervention, emotional regulation, and practical self-defence skills.
Unlike traditional self-defence programs that focus primarily on physical techniques, ESD equips participants with the knowledge, confidence, and skills to recognise, prevent, interrupt, and respond to boundary violations, harassment, coercion, abuse, and violence.
At Birchtree Foundation, our ESD programs are grounded in trauma-informed practice, gender-based violence prevention, and empowerment theory.
What makes Empowered Self Defence different from martial arts?
While both can build confidence and physical skills, ESD and traditional martial arts have different goals.
Many martial arts were developed for combat, competition, or military contexts. ESD was developed by women through feminist and anti-violence movements in response to the realities of violence experienced by women and girls.
Rather than focusing on how to win a fight, ESD focuses on how to stay safe. Participants learn how to recognise danger early, set boundaries, use their voice, trust their instincts, and respond effectively to coercion, harassment, abuse, and violence.
Physical self-defence is part of ESD, but it is only one tool among many.
Our goal is not to teach people to fight. Our goal is to help people avoid violence where possible, interrupt it early when they can, and respond effectively when they need to.
Shouldn't we be teaching men not to perpetrate violence rather than teaching women self-defence?
Absolutely.
At Birchtree Foundation, we believe the responsibility for violence lies with perpetrators, and preventing gender-based violence requires cultural change, perpetrator accountability, respectful relationships education, policy reform, and challenging the social norms that support violence and inequality.
At the same time, women are already doing enormous amounts of work to prevent violence every day. Many routinely assess risk, modify their behaviour, manage unwanted attention, avoid certain situations, and stay alert in ways that many men never have to consider.
The question is not whether women should be responsible for preventing violence. The reality is that women are already doing that work.
The question is whether women should have access to evidence-based tools, language, and skills that make that work more effective, more conscious, and less isolating.
ESD helps participants understand the social conditions that enable violence, recognise the work they are already doing, and develop practical tools for responding to it. It explicitly challenges victim-blaming and helps women understand violence as part of a broader continuum that includes harassment, coercion, controlling behaviour, intimate partner violence, and sexual assault.
Women shouldn’t need Empowered Self Defence. But while gender-based violence continues to exist, we believe women deserve access to evidence-based tools that can help them recognise it, resist it, and respond to it.
Who is ESD for?
Our programs are suitable for:
- Women and girls
- University students
- High school students
- Workplace teams
- Community organisations
- LGBTQIA+ communities
- Culturally diverse communities
- Survivors of violence who feel ready to participate
Programs are adapted to suit the age, needs, cultural context, and lived experiences of participants.
Why does ESD focus so much on communication, boundaries, and relationships?
Because most gender-based violence is perpetrated by people we know.
Many forms of violence occur within relationships, workplaces, social groups, educational settings, and families rather than through attacks by strangers. ESD was developed specifically to address these realities.
Participants learn how to:
- Recognise manipulation and coercion
- Identify warning signs
- Set and maintain boundaries
- Communicate non-consent clearly
- Respond to unwanted pressure
- Seek support and support others
These skills help people navigate the situations in which boundary violations and abuse most commonly occur.
Is ESD only about physical self-defence?
No.
Physical self-defence is only one part of ESD.
Participants also learn how to recognise risk, set boundaries, communicate assertively, seek support, intervene safely as a bystander, and make decisions under pressure. Physical skills are taught as one option within a broader range of responses.
ESD is designed to expand choices rather than prescribe a single response.
Is ESD evidence-based?
Yes.
Research has found that empowerment-based self-defence programs can:
- Reduce rates of sexual assault
- Increase confidence and self-efficacy
- Improve assertiveness
- Strengthen boundary-setting skills
- Improve recognition of warning signs
- Increase perceived control
- Reduce fear and anxiety
Studies have also found improvements in confidence, self-esteem, emotional wellbeing, and overall emotional quality following participation in ESD programs.
Isn't teaching self-defence victim-blaming?
No.
A core principle of Birchtree’s ESD program is that violence is never the victim’s fault.
ESD explicitly teaches that people do not cause, invite, deserve, or ask for violence. Responsibility always rests with the perpetrator.
Unlike approaches that restrict people’s freedom or place responsibility on them to avoid violence, ESD focuses on expanding options, strengthening agency, and increasing access to practical skills.
Research also suggests that women who receive self-defence training are not more likely to blame themselves if they experience violence and may, in some cases, blame themselves less.
Does ESD address the root causes of violence?
Yes.
ESD is not simply about responding to violence after it occurs.
Birchtree’s programs explore gender norms, power, consent, socialisation, structural inequality, and the cultural beliefs that support violence. By helping participants understand how violence is connected to broader systems and social expectations, ESD supports both personal empowerment and social change.
Is ESD a feminist approach?
Yes.
ESD emerged from feminist and anti-violence movements and is grounded in the understanding that violence does not occur in a vacuum but is influenced by social, cultural, and structural inequalities.
Feminist ESD seeks to:
- Challenge victim-blaming
- Promote bodily autonomy
- Support consent and equality
- Increase access to power and choice
- Recognise structural oppression
- Strengthen agency and self-determination
Rather than positioning women as vulnerable and in need of protection, ESD helps participants recognise and strengthen their own capacities while working toward broader social change.
What does "embodied empowerment" mean?
Embodied empowerment means experiencing confidence, agency, and personal power through the body, not just understanding these concepts intellectually.
Through movement, voice work, boundary-setting exercises, and realistic scenarios, participants have opportunities to practise using their voice, trust their instincts, strengthen their sense of agency, and experience themselves as capable and effective.
Research suggests these embodied experiences can support lasting shifts in confidence, self-worth, self-efficacy, and personal power.
Can ESD support healing and recovery after violence?
Many participants report that ESD supports healing and recovery.
Research suggests that empowerment-based and body-centred self-defence programs can help participants rebuild confidence, strengthen self-efficacy, reconnect with their bodies, reduce fear and anxiety, and improve emotional wellbeing.
For some survivors, ESD can be a powerful complement to broader recovery and therapeutic work.
Is ESD a form of therapy?
No.
ESD is not psychotherapy and does not replace counselling or mental health treatment.
However, trauma-informed ESD can complement therapeutic work by helping participants strengthen confidence, embodiment, self-efficacy, boundary-setting, and personal agency. For some survivors, these experiences can support broader recovery when combined with appropriate clinical care.
How is Birchtree's ESD program trauma-informed?
Trauma-informed practice sits at the heart of everything we do at Birchtree.
Unlike many self-defence providers, Birchtree Foundation is part of a broader organisation that specialises in trauma recovery and mental health. Our team includes psychologists, social workers, counsellors, and trauma practitioners with extensive experience supporting people affected by sexual violence, domestic and family violence, complex trauma, and other forms of adversity.
This experience shapes every aspect of our ESD programs.
We understand that participants may arrive with very different experiences, histories, levels of confidence, and relationships with their bodies. We also understand that discussions about violence, boundaries, and safety can affect people in different ways.
Our programs are guided by trauma-informed principles including:
- Safety
- Choice
- Collaboration
- Trustworthiness
- Empowerment
- Cultural responsiveness
Participants are encouraged to engage at a pace that feels right for them, and no one is required to participate in any activity they do not wish to do.
Importantly, our goal is not to recreate fear or distress. Our goal is to help participants build confidence, strengthen boundaries, increase self-trust, and develop practical skills within a supportive learning environment.
We don’t simply teach self-defence skills. We understand the realities of trauma, recovery, and healing, and we design our programs accordingly.
What outcomes do participants commonly report?
Participants frequently report:
- Increased confidence
- Stronger boundaries
- Greater self-trust
- Improved assertiveness
- Better communication skills
- Greater ability to recognise warning signs
- Feeling safer and more prepared
- Feeling more connected to their bodies
- A stronger sense of personal agency
Many participants also describe applying these skills in relationships, workplaces, study settings, leadership roles, and everyday life.
Why does Birchtree Foundation deliver ESD?
At Birchtree Foundation, we believe everyone deserves to feel safe, respected, and empowered.
Our ESD programs are designed not only to reduce violence and increase safety, but also to strengthen confidence, agency, dignity, and connection. We see ESD as part of a broader movement to prevent gender-based violence, support recovery, and create communities where people are able to live, learn, work, and participate free from fear, coercion, and abuse.
Traditional self-defence asks, “How do I win a fight?”
Empowered Self Defence asks, “How do I stay safe?”
We teach practical skills for recognising risk, setting boundaries, using your voice, responding to coercion and abuse, supporting others, and, when necessary, physically defending yourself.
How can people be referred to ESD?
Birchtree Foundation delivers ESD programs through organisations, including schools, universities, workplaces, community services, and other group settings. Organisations can contact us to discuss delivering a tailored ESD workshop or program for their students, staff, clients, or community members.
We do not currently offer one-on-one ESD sessions for individuals. However, we run bi-annual ESD community events that individuals can register for directly via our website.