Book A Free
Women's Self Defense Seminar

Free "Taking Control" Women's Self-Defense Seminar
Sunday December 28th, 2025, 10:00 - 11:30 AM

Self-defense is often seen as being reactive rather than proactive i.e., something you do when attacked, rather than something you do to prevent yourself from being targeted in the first place. Much of that proactive piece is about taking control of yourself and your environment e.g., understanding when you need to control the conversation with somebody who you believe may have harmful intent towards you, knowing how to control the distance between you and them whilst not indicating to them that you believe they are a threat/danger to your safety etc.

By taking control of such interactions and demonstrating to others that you aren’t an easy target you can a) discourage them from selecting you as a potential victim and b) better prepare yourself if it turns out that a physical solution to the situation/interaction is required. Much of the “messaging” that you are in control is subtle and works at the subconscious rather than the conscious level i.e., it is implicit rather than explicit. Whilst there may be occasions to explicitly enforce a boundary such as telling somebody to “back off!” there are steps beforehand that can be taken to avoid having to do this.

In this 90-minute seminar criminologist and security specialist, Gershon Ben Keren, will take participants through a number of ways that they can demonstrate and take control of the situations they find themselves in e.g., taking control of the way they move through public spaces, taking control of social interactions, taking control of aggressive altercations, as well as learning how to “take control” of physically violent attacks etc. When talking about taking control of physically violent incidents this doesn’t mean how to literally control an assailant but rather how to physically engage with an aggressor and create an opportunity to disengage etc.

Learning to take control is about recognizing/understanding who you are and projecting that to others in a way that is naturally respected, and enforcing boundaries to those who aren’t able to, or deliberately don’t want to, understand the message that you are communicating. This doesn’t involve being angry, aggressive or disrespectful to others but rather involves controlling how others see you. Taking control means being safe rather than “right”. The goal of this 90-minute seminar is not to make participants just feel “safe” but to make them “be” safe.

This seminar is primarily intended for young women and looks at the social situations that they may find themselves in, however we welcome all women to attend. This seminar is free, however pre-registration is required. Participants should wear loose fitting gym/workout style clothing and will need to train barefoot (shoes aren’t allowed on our matted training surfaces and neither are socks as they create a slip hazard). There are two forms for sign up: one for those ages 18 plus and another for those aged 15 but are under 18 (a parent/guardian is needed to sign/co-sign this form. The 18+ form is at the bottom the page, whilst the 15+ form that a parent/guardian will need to fill out can be accessed by clicking here

Whilst This seminar is completely free, pre-booking for this Seminar is required. Each attendee will need to book with their own email address, so please do not try and book for yourself and a friend using the same email address etc.

Unfortunately, we cannot offer child care, and neither can children be left in our space unattended or brought along to watch. It should also be noted that these classes are preventative in nature, and should not be looked on as a therapeutic service, that is part of a person's recovery process after having experienced a violent event. If you are a therapist working with a client who is overcoming a traumatic experience, involving violence, our program is very unlikely to be appropriate for them until they have made a complete recovery, and we would ask that before you recommend it to them, you attend yourself, so that you fully understand how we conduct our training.

Please note that this is a free program that operates with very limited resources, so if you have any questions that you wish to contact us with, we may not be able to get back to you immediately. Email rather than phone is the preferred method of communication, and you can contact us by clicking here.

Our free women's self-defense program is intended to serve individual members of the larger Boston and Massachusetts communities, and does not exist for companies, clubs and organizations to use as a means to providing training for their employees and members – if such organizations and enterprises are interested in such self-protection and/or self-defense training, please click here.

This seminar will take place at:

Krav Maga Yashir
165 (Unit E) New Boston Street
Woburn, MA 01801

(There is free on-site parking at our studio)

Women's Self-Defense Class Booking Form (18+)

To access the registration form for women who are under 18 but are 15+ CLICK HERE