Conscious Combat Club

Daniela Welzel is a lifelong martial artist with a passion for embodiment. She is an Aikido Black Belt and Mindfulness teacher. She worked for 10 years as a police officer with the German Federal Police. She then went to Israel for 2 years to explore meditation, working as Dojo Manager of The Integral Dojo and teaching Aikido in Israel and Palestine. She is now in Holland working as a Freelancer for SeeTrue Mindfulness teaching Teacher Training around Mindfulness Based Interventions for therapists, HR and Health Professionals. She is now heavily involved with running the embodiment conference (https://theembodimentconference.org/) which is how we met! Catch me and another 1000 experts talking about embodiment in the biggest online trauma information event in history! Thank you so much to Nari for the beautiful song "Shape Me" heard at the beginning and end of this episode. Nari wrote this song about Shape Your Life, a boxing program for self-identified women survicors of violence in Canada. She wrote this song using the words and experiences shared by participants with Cathy Van Ingen. You can find out more about Shape Your Life in my interview with Cathy in Episode 8. You can hear more of Nari's work by going to her Instagram: @narithesaga

Somsurat (Som) Rangkla and Joanne (The Lioness) La are the founders of JS Muay Thai, a beginners Muay Thai program taught by women, for women. Som trains and fights out of 8 blades Muay Thai, she has been doing Muay Thai for 5.5 years, she has 10 pro fights with 7 wins. She is a PT at women's only gyms. Jo is a fighter, PT and business owner. She also fights out of 8 blades and has a record of 14 fights with 11 wins and 1 knockout. Jo, Som and Georgia chat about:

• JS Muay Thai
• Why Jo and Som started Muay Thai
• Becoming fighters
• Mental Health in Muay Thai
• How to cultivate a champion's mindset
• How Muay Thai builds self confidence
• Jo's least favourite weight cuts
• Som's message for everyone to stop cutting so much weight
• Taking action on dreams
• Believing in yourself
• Being Kind

To follow Jo and Som on instagram search @ssomsurat @joaneeela @jsmuaythai. On facebook visit: https://www.facebook.com/jsmuaythai Thank you so much to Nari for the beautiful song "Shape Me" heard at the beginning and end of this episode. Nari wrote this song about Shape Your Life, a boxing program for self-identified women survicors of violence in Canada. She wrote this song using the words and experiences shared by participants with Cathy Van Ingen. You can find out more about Shape Your Life in my interview with Cathy in Episode 8. You can hear more of Nari's work by going to her Instagram: @narithesaga

Dr Alex Channon is a Senior Lecturer at Brighton University's School of Sport and Service Management. His research has explored the relationship between gender, sexuality and participation; the value of martial arts within physical education curricula; media representations of professional fighters; the construction of meaning around notions of 'violence' among martial artists; the provision of medical support in combat sports; and the experiences of referees in mixed martial arts competitions as they pertain to risk management. Alex is one of the founders of Love Fighting Hate Violence http://lfhv.org/ which is a campaign aiming to raise awareness of the important moral difference between sport-based combat, and violence. Alex and Georgia discuss:

• The importance of explicit consent
• How martial arts can be used to teach kids about consent
• The impact of learning to fight on victimization
• Why men have trouble hitting girls in class
• Valerie Loureda: The sexualization of female mma athletes

Links to the papers Alex mentions: Jocelyn Hollander self-defence research review paper – https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/soc4.12597

Randall Collins violence and confrontational tension/fear – https://www.isegoria.net/2018/06/confrontational-tension-and-fear-make-most-violence-incompetent/

Helen Owton's reflective piece about her boxing career – https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137439369_14 Thank you so much to Nari for the beautiful song "Shape Me" heard at the beginning and end of this episode. Nari wrote this song about Shape Your Life, a boxing program for self-identified women survicors of violence in Canada. She wrote this song using the words and experiences shared by participants with Cathy Van Ingen. You can find out more about Shape Your Life in my interview with Cathy in Episode 8. You can hear more of Nari's work by going to her Instagram: @narithesaga

Stephanie Rae is a Breathwork and Somatic Experiencing for Trauma Release Practitioner. She has been teaching Yoga and Breathwork for 11 years and has been a Reiki Master Teacher for 6 years She is a survivor of sexual trauma and has recently added Krav Maga into her healing practices. Steph and Georgia discuss:

• The different ways Steph's trauma has manifested in her body
• When Steph first realized she was traumatized
• Steph's journey to recovery
• What is krav maga
• Why she started krav maga
• Why she quit krav maga
• Why she went back
• What happened when she defined her boundaries to the class
• Steph's advice for women who have experienced trauma

Follow Steph on instagram: @breathe.burn.rise

Solin Piearcy is 4x All American Wrestler and 2x National Wrestler. She has been wrestling for 11 years and is a strong advocate for body image issues. Solin and Georgia discuss:

• What is wrestling
• Being a girl in a male dominated sport
• Why Sol loves wrestling
• Sol's journey with eating disorders
• The relationship between wrestling and eating disorders
• Sol's research looking at eating disorders at her university campus
• Why we turn to food for comfort
• Eating disorders and COVID-19
• Women trying wrestling for the first time

On Instagram, Sol is @sosolsolin Sol also recommends following @meandmyed.art and @xandriaooi

Jasmine is an emergency room doctor and lifelong martial artist. Georgia and Jas discuss:

• Growing up training Shotokan karate
• Using kicking, punching, sparring and training to channel anxiety
• Overcoming traumatic experiences
• Balancing being a doctor with training
• Mental health for doctors during the COVID pandemic

Georgia interviews trauma survivor Shantelle Thompson. Shantelle is a mum, storyteller, athlete, speaker, educator, role model, mentor, facilitator and business owner. She is an activist and social entrepreneur who believes that actions speaks louder than words and strives to be the change she wants to see in the world. She is a x3 world champion in Jiu Jitsu, former National wrestling Australia Athlete, Oceania wrestling champion, survivor of sexual abuse, lateral violence, racism, a challenging childhood, suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety and post-natal depression. In this episode Georgia and Shantelle discuss:

• Shantelle's amazing story
• Why Shantelle started Martial Arts
• Why Shantelle kept training
• How it felt to train despite experiencing so much trauma
• Emotional overload during training
• Freezing during training
• Being pinned down in training
• Shantelle's advice for women

Georgia interviews Cathy Van Ingen from Brock University in Toronto, Canada. Cathy is a researcher looking at gender-based violence, boxing, trauma-informed physical activity, geographies of sport and physical activity, sport media, youth culture and sport for development. Cathy founded Shape Your Life, a free, non-contact boxing program for female-identified people who have experienced violence. In this episode we discuss:

• The history of women in boxing
• The difference between trauma-informed boxing and regular boxing (Choice and invitation, a safe environment, taking care of food, transport and other need, no obligation to tell your story, giving women the space to experience their emotions)
• The outcomes of shape your life
• Stories of amazing women that have participated in Shape Your Life
• How Cathy got government funding
• Advice for female trauma survivors

In this episode Georgia interviews Shawn Desjardins from Mindful Martial Arts in Toronto, Canada. Shawn and Georgia discuss:

• The history of Brazilian jiu jitsu
• The origins of mindful martial arts
• Shawn's experiences as a childhood trauma-survivor training at big MMA gyms like Tristar
• Trauma-informed martial arts
• Guidelines to have a mindful martial arts club:

- Respect yourself. Respect your training partners. - Do your best - Enjoy the process

• The window of tolerance in martial arts and how your nervous system can be working against you.
• The importance of breathing
• Women's only classes

You can find Shawn online at: https://www.mindfulmartialarts.ca/ https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=shawn%20desjardins https://www.instagram.com/mindful_martial_arts/

Anne Mathison is a somatic experiencing psychotherapist. She helps trauma survivors understand how their biology, sympathetic nervous system and vagus nerve have been impacted by their response to the trauma and works with them to develop strategies to feel safe once more. In this episode Anne explains:

• Somatic experiencing (SE)
• How animals respond to trauma
• An example of the SE approach to healing trauma
• The Window of Tolerance
• Mirror Neurons
• How trauma survivors should approach martial arts
• How martial arts instructors should teach to protect survivors from being retraumatized