Beyond Self-Defense

How to Say No, Set Boundaries, and Reclaim Your Agency--An empowering guide to safety, risk assessment, and personal protection

by Shihan Michelle, CMA

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Pub Date Mar 26 2024 | Archive Date Mar 01 2024

North Atlantic Books

Health, Mind & Body | Self-Help | Sports

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Description

A feminist-forward guide to setting boundaries, assessing safety, and defusing violence by a six-time karate world champion—tools and skills to build confidence, fight back, and live life on your own terms.

Disclaimer: this is not your average self-defense book. As educator, martial artist, movement analyst, somatic therapist, and rape crisis advocate Shihan Michelle explains, “Self-defense doesn’t work to prevent assault; it’s too late, you’re in a fight.” Instead, Michelle champions self-offense, a preventative personal protection strategy invested in defusing trouble before violence becomes necessary.

Beyond Self-Defense empowers you to prevent and de-escalate violence without resorting to physical contact. Including personal stories, interactive practices, and reflective prompts, this practical, accessible, and timely handbook teaches you how to craft your own unique protection protocols. Topics include how to:

Use your body weight to fend off attacks
Recognize the emotional triggers of others before they escalate
Unlearn common biases about safety and vulnerability
Use space and time to get the upper hand and control situations before they become unsafe
Challenge patriarchal social standards and claim your voice—and your space

The founder and lead instructor of Self Offense Services, Michelle is a sixth degree black belt in Full Contact karate who gives workshops in assault prevention, boundaries, listening, de-escalation, and bullying prevention.

A Note From the Publisher

For more information or for a physical copy, email publicity@northatlanticbooks.com.

Advance Praise

“Shihan Michelle has a passion for helping people make positive changes. . . . She is offering suggestions about how to be safe in interactions with others, through embracing one’s own power and controlling one’s own awareness and actions, and that is the basis for freedom. And she offers these suggestions from a position of compassion because she understands well how difficult it can be to change.

So read her words and understand that the practical and effective steps she describes are not only solid self-defense advice, but also a way to change yourself for the better, offered with love and compassion.”

—SHIHAN MARIA VAN DESSEL, 6th Dan/Chief Instructor Eizan Ryu Jiu Jitsu 4th Dan, Kanreikai Karate

“Shihan Michelle enlists her unique experience, knowledge, and insights to offer simple and practical tools to navigate this complicated modern world. Beyond Self Defense is a must read for anyone who has ever felt that twinge of fear and uncertainty while riding a subway car late at night, or trying to size up a stranger, or even a would-be friend.”

—GREG KOTIS, Tony Award–winning author, play-wright, and lyricist