5 CEs. $100
Sunday, February 26
9:30 AM – 3:30 PM
Weather date, if needed: March 5
Mala Room, Bath, Maine
with Rob Morrison and Jessica Dafni
If you are difficult to hold on to, hard to knock down, good at getting up, brave enough to know when you need to leave, understand how to get help and clear in your communication, you don’t need to be afraid.
This is true for everyone, but as healthcare providers we have the added opportunity and challenge of working with people who in some way are unable to help themselves. This changes the problem that we face.
…as healthcare providers we have the added opportunity and challenge of working with people who in some way are unable to help themselves.
Working in home health, the thing that I hear most consistently is difficult situations aren’t scary because physical assault is likely (it isn’t), but because it is possible and that means fear has to be managed again and again. This is emotional work added to all the other emotional work that healthcare providers have to do and it is tiring.
The real benefit to understanding how to ensure your physical safety isn’t that you’ll be able to when you need to. If it was, the benefits would almost never pay off. The real benefit is that because you know what it takes to be safe you’ll know when you’re not and you’ll know what to do. This means your fear becomes a source of information, not a toll that you have to pay in order to help people in need.
Empathy is the single most important self defense skill.
We also have a powerful weapon at our disposal we’ve spent our careers honing. Empathy is the single most important self defense skill. Empathy sucks the fight out of people like nothing else. It is extremely unlikely that we will be attacked at random by a faceless predator immune to social pressure. If we are attacked, it’s more likely a weak person attempting to exploit us or someone we know will failing us and themselves. We will be assaulted by another human being with a life as real and complex as our own. We should not excuse a moral lapse by this person any more than we would in ourselves, but we can and should understand this person.
Clear and rigorous professional boundaries, active listening, a solid understanding of our patients strengths and limitations and a predetermined escape method are our first and best protection. I bet you’re pretty solid on these already but hopefully the perspective we share in class will be useful to you.
In terms of physical skills we will cover the fundamentals of standing grappling:
- How to remove someone’s hands from your body and clothing
- Moving someone from between you and the door
- Protecting yourself from being bitten/hit/kicked
- Keeping your feet when someone is trying to knock you down
- Falling safely
- Getting up when someone is trying to hold you down
There will be no punching or kicking of our attackers. We will go over why in detail but in brief using pain or physical harm to get compliance is difficult, dangerous and ineffective without a lot of practice. Anyone who tells you differently has no idea what they are talking about and/or just wants your money.
Instead we will use cooperative partner drills to understand basic principles of safe movement. We will also go over how to scale up the resistance appropriate to each persons comfort level.
No four-hour class could possibly teach you to win a fight by beating someone into submission. But real self defense isn’t about winning fights anyway, its about keeping fights from happening. Our goal is maintain professionalism while we take care of people. In the extreme case of someone crossing a physical line with us that goal continues to be protecting ourselves and others while we get them the help they need.
Thanks for reading, looking forward to seeing you in class.
Rob
Guest instructor, Rob Morrison, is a physical therapist and advanced practitioner of Jiu Jitsu and Aikido.
Please use the links above to register and be sure to review class policies and information.
The Iron Bird Way 