Self-defense instructors offer free classes for women facing abusive situations, history

Defensive Empowerment for Women first began in 2016. Marylen Schultz and Rannsom Carey had both been studying Jiu-Jitsu at Conquer BJJ and realized the great need for this resource within the community. Both of them had been affected by domestic violence and had known women who had lost their lives to this epidemic. They realized that it was within their own power to do something about it, so they founded DEW.

Since its foundation, though, Carey has moved to Arkansas, and Ashley Keenan – another student at Conquer BJJ – took her place. Keenan and Schultz work together to make their classes a safe and empowering space for women to learn tools to both defend themselves and recognize potentially dangerous situations. They are passionate about their work and take every care to be sensitive to the needs of the women coming to them. While some of the women are simply wanting to know how to best keep themselves safe, others are coming with a history of trauma, which Keenan and Schultz both understand and want to make their classes as welcoming and productive as possible.

“We are there for them and take a trauma-informed position,” Keenan said. “If someone is triggered during a session, then we will stop and help them work through it.”

While they also co-teach a women-only Jiu-Jitsu class at Conquer BJJ, DEW is a non-profit organization that is completely free to its participants. This is seperate from the other fee-based seminars or classes they may offer. All of the DEW seminars are completely private and confidential. They will do groups or private individual sessions.

While their other seminars are advertised on Facebook and Instagram, these are driven by the participants contacting them either through Facebook, Instagram @we_dewjitsu or by email we.dewjitsu1@ gmail.com.

It can be a single person, an organization or even a group of friends interested By Sunnie Dawn Smith

Marylen Schultz and Ashley Keenan lead private, confidential lessons for women wanting to learn self defense from a trauma-informed position that is sensitive toward those who have faced or are facing abusive situations in their lives. PHOTO BY NICHOLAS GEISLER

in learning more about self-defense. They do it this way because, in some cases, these women have been abused. They don’t want to advertise the time or place because they don’t want an abuser to show up for the safety and security of all involved. Also, because it can be such an emotional experience, they want to make sure that everyone is comfortable with everyone else in the session. The best way to do this is by making it completely private and confidential. If someone signs up for a session, they don’t have to worry about anyone else getting word about it. One of the things that they focus on is being proactive rather than reactive. This is why they start off their sessions by focusing on different situations rather than just jumping into self-defense. Keenan begins every session teaching grounding techniques to help all participants center themselves and focus on feeling the environment around them, acutely engaging all five senses. Then they move to a discussion about setting boundaries with both strangers and friends as well as recognizing potentially dangerous red flags in various situations. Finally, they go into techniques about how to escape a situation. They focus on escaping and not fighting because some men could be much stronger physically than the women, and it could be disastrous for a woman to try to fight a man that means her harm, especially when she has just escaped him. In addition to helping members of the Ada community, Keenan and Schultz have also done seminars outside of Ada, always making sure to take an informed position regarding their participants. They will collect the information on local resources so women can have all the tools they may need to escape an unhealthy situation and live a healthy life. One of the most eyeopening trips they took was to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Rainee Easley – a local advocate for MMIW (missing and murdered indigenous women) – connected them with the organization in New Mexico.

As of now, DEW has no external funding, and they operate exclusively on donations and their own bank accounts. Their mission is truly a labor of love, helping women to empower themselves and break generational cycles of abuse. Some women do it for their own safety and well-being, but others do it to provide an example to their daughters and their sons. To donate or to inquire about their services, contact DEW through Facebook, Instagram or email.