Personal Strength

What is abuse? How do we recognise abuse? If we recognise or suspect abuse, what can we do? How can we protect our children and teens from abuse? These are some of the questions we explore with expert Dr Deena Rosalky.

Episode 8- Recognising AbuseResourcesParents and young people:·      1800 respect (1800 737 732)·      E-safety commissioner·       Youth Law Australia website·      See What You Made Me Do – Jess Hill. ·      Why does he do that? Inside the mindsof anger and controlling men. – Bancroft·      Research and evidence:·      Personal Safety Survey – Rates of violence and abuse·      Child Abuse Royal Commission·      Disability Royal Commission·      Mission Australia Survey·      Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS)·      Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS)·      Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)@font-face

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People of all abilities have the right and need to learn to defend themselves. Self-defence isn’t about fighting, it is about dealing with conflict, verbal and physical. Everyone encounters some form of conflict in their life, and it is important that people of all abilities learn the skills needed to manage conflict and protect themselves. A guest interviewer, Grace, interviews Tactix founder Sean from Newcastle, and he talks about his approach to inclusive self-defence training.

Episode 7- Accessible Self DefenceSPEAKERSNicky Weeks, Sean Oultram, Grace PaineIntro 00:02Welcome to the Personal Strength Podcast: building confidence for life. Here's your host, Nicky Weeks.Nicky 00:14if you've been thinking about starting a martial art or self-defence, or introducing your child to one, are you concerned about the accessibility of training for you or your child? Hopefully this episode will provide some insight. Today we have a guest interviewer Grace Paine, who works with us at Personal Strength. Grace will be interviewing Sean Ultram from Tactix Training in Newcastle. Tactix Training provides mixed martial arts, Brazilian jujitsu, self-defence and bullying prevention training. Tactix prides themselves on being able to deliver training to everyone regardless of situation or disability. Here are Grace and Sean.Grace 00:51Well, I just wanted to thank you for being on the podcast Sean, very happy to have you here and learn about Tactix training. To get started, I would just like to know where were you before you started Tactix Training.Sean 01:04Okay, so thanks for having me on, by the way, I'm really excited. Looking forward to getting to it. So, before I started Tactix, I was – I've done I've done a number of jobs, probably most importantly for, you know, just moving forward in the interview is I was a security guard for a long time in nightclubs, and I was a doorman. So, I used to deal with people coming in and having a lot of confrontations. Yeah, which is, which was a great experience. And I learned a lot doing that. And I was also a youth worker for a long time. So, I worked for a company, who, when I worked for them, mostly dealt with behavioural kids with or without disability. So, I actually ran a house in, uh, with a couple of, well there was always two boys in the house with disabilities and they had behavioural issues. So yeah, that was a that was a fun one to learn a lot with those guys.Grace 01:53You would, definitely very experienced in like, the bodyguard, disability sector, it sounds like.Sean 02:00Yeah, yeah. So that was sort of my, my background for Tactix.Grace 02:04Awesome. And so, what motivated you then to start Tactix Training in the first place?Sean 02:11So, because I've been involved in martial arts for a long time, like I'm currently a brown belt in Brazilian Jujitsu, and I've done mixed martial arts and kickboxing and all that stuff. I sort of, actually getting back to [my previous workplace] I had a client who, he was pretty overweight, he didn't do really anything. And you know, we've I tried everything to get him moving and doing exercise and what have you. So, he came to me one day and said that he wanted to do karate. And I was like, oh mate, that's fantastic. Let's get right onto that. So y’know, I started looking around, and I’m like, surely someone's doing that for kids with disabilities. And there was no one, you know, not only in Newcastle, but like anywhere. Y’know. I couldn't find anyone really in Australia that was doing it. So, I was like, oh, man, well, you know, I'm not a karate guy. But I, you know,

Self defence. What is it? What are the principles of good self defence? What do you do when someone is walking behind you? What if someone approaches you at a train station? Tim Brown shows us how he applies the principles of good self defence to answer these questions and more.

Links and further information* Personal Strength Self Defence Training* 5-8 yrs (Little Ninjas)* 8-12 yrs (Ninja kids)* Self defence for teens* Self defence workshops (women)* Self defence short course (women)* Tai Sabaki (mixed)* Personal Strength Self Defence for Women and for Teen Girls ebooks* Personal Defence Readiness System (TM) with Tony Blauer* Lifeline 13 11 14* Iain Abernethy and the Martial Map

TranscriptHello! Today we’re going to answer some common questions about Self Defence. Tim (Brown) is a 5th Dan black belt in Jujutsu. We were junior instructors together back in 2001, and Tim has been practicing and teaching since. We practiced Jujutsu in Sydney, Ninjutsu in Tokyo, and Aikido in Tokyo. In addition, Tim has done training in the Personal Defence Readiness system with Tony Blauer, attended various self-defence workshops over the years, read and critically evaluated multiple books on self-defence, and has published his own (self defence) e-books.Just before we start, I want to acknowledge that some people listening may have had a bad experience. In fact, that might be why you are looking into self-defence. It shows great courage and strength to face these topics and build the skills you need to protect yourself. As you listen to this, if anything triggers uncomfortable memories or feelings, please look after yourself. If you need to, press pause and reach out to a helpline or someone you trust, and only when you feel ready, continue listening. In Australia, you can call Lifeline: 13 11 14. Whether you did as we suggest here, or you didn't, regardless of the choices you made leading up to the incident, it is never your fault for being attacked. We all have the right to live safe and free from violence.Here’s the interview:Interviewer (Nicky Weeks): So, Tim, could you start by outlining the principles of effective Self Defence?Tim Brown: I will answer that, but first I think it’s important to outline what I consider self defence to be – and what it isn’t.

What can be done to prevent sexism and gendered violence? We ask three experts “What one thing would you like teenagers to learn that could help to prevent sexism and gendered violence?” Listen to this episode to hear responses from Katherine Bogen (Katherine worked in pediatric and adolescent violence prevention for 5 years as a program coordinator and intervention facilitator before pursuing her PhD, and is now affiliated with the violence prevention research team at the University of Nebraska), Angie Wan and Dr Joyce Yu (Cofounders of Australia’s Consent Labs), and Dr Christine Gidycz (licensed clinical psychologist who has been conducting research on gender-based violence for over 35 years including setting up the Ohio University Sexual Assault Risk Reduction program, co-editing a book “Sexual Assault Risk Reduction and Resistance:  Theory, Research, and Practice”, and publishing over 100 peer-reviewed articles).

ACT therapy, or Acceptance Commitment Therapy, provides valuable skills for everyone. Skills to help you to live a life of meaning despite emotional turmoil and hardship. Dr Louise Hayes has made these skills more widely accessible through her model: DNA-V (© DNA-V, L. Hayes & J. Ciarrochi, www.thrivingadolecent.com). This model is easy to understand, and relatable, for children, teenagers, and adults. In the previous episode Louise introduced the DNA-V model, and provided an overview of the four core skills. In this episode Louise discusses how self-view and social-view apply to each area of the model, and we explore the developmental context around the development of the DNA-V model.

Links and further information:

* Introduction to Acceptance Commitment Therapy (Episode 2)

* ACT Therapy for Teenagers (Part 1)

* Dr Louise Hayes' website

* The DNA-V model (© DNA-V, L. Hayes & J. Ciarrochi, www.thrivingadolescent.com)

* The main website for DNA is dnav.international

* ‘Your life, your way’ (book on the DNA-V model)

* Resilience courses based on the DNA V model

Transcript:

Introduction: Hello, welcome back! This is the second half of my interview with Dr Louise Hayes. If you missed the first interview, and are new to the DNA-V model, I would recommend you start there. In Episode 3 Louise outlines the DNA-V model, and we explored those four processes. Your Discoverer – which is your ability to learn through trial and error, to try things out and observe what happens. Your Noticer, the part of you that senses your internal and external world, and allows you to live in the moment. Your Advisor, the part that gives you advice, tells you what to do and how to act. And your Value or Vitality, what you need and care about, what energises you.

In this episode Louise helps us to put these processes in perspective by understanding the self-view and social-view, which provide context to all four processes. We also discusses the broader evolutionary, and developmental context to the DNA-V model.

Let’s get to the interview! 

Interviewer: You mentioned self and other approaches could you talk a bit more about those?

Louise Hayes: Sure, well so we consider DNA-V as four basic behaviours if you want. Ways that we can think and act and feel. And those ways are influenced by different perspectives such as our view of our self, self-as-context as it is sometimes called or self-view. And what we mean by that is that we are not a fixed thing, that our Self is created from all of our actions, and so by the time you become a teenager a very formative part of being a teenager is discovering this Self, who I am.

And our task with young people is to help them know that your Self is actually constantly changing, and your Self is not a thing, it's a product of what you do, it's an outcome of your memories and your history and your thinking and your feeling and everything, and that that is no not a thing, but a behaviour. So when I say to myself ‘I am stupid’, I am Selfing I'm doing Selfing behaviour,

ACT therapy, or Acceptance Commitment Therapy, provides valuable skills for everyone. Skills to help you to live a life of meaning despite emotional turmoil and hardship. Dr Louise Hayes has made these skills more widely accessible through her model: DNA-V (© DNA-V, L. Hayes & J. Ciarrochi, www.thrivingadolescent.com). This model is easy to understand, and relatable, for children, teenagers, and adults. In this episode Louise introduces the DNA-V model, and provides an overview of the four core skills.

 

Links and further information:

* Introduction to Acceptance Commitment Therapy (Episode 2)

* Dr Louise Hayes' website

* The DNA-V model (© DNA-V, L. Hayes & J. Ciarrochi, www.thrivingadolescent.com)

* The main website for DNA is dnav.international

* ‘Your life, your way’ (book on the DNA-V model)

* A resilience course based on the DNA V model

Transcript:

Hello, we want to help people to thrive. One of the best tools I have found to do that, which can be practiced and applied in our daily life, is ACT, Acceptance Commitment Therapy. I detailed how the various aspects of ACT have helped me in the last episode. If you missed that, it’s at www.personalstrength.com.au/P2. This month, I am very excited to welcome Dr Louise Hayes to explore a developmental model of ACT, the DNA-V model (© DNA-V, L. Hayes & J. Ciarrochi, www.thrivingadolescent.com), in more depth. In this episode, we explore the main components of the DNA-V model, and in the next episode, we will delve deeper into the developmental, social, and evolutionary context around the DNA-V model.

I really love Louise’s work because she takes complex psychological theories, distils them into practical therapeutic approaches and makes them accessible, understandable and relatable. She's a PhD qualified clinical psychologist a senior fellow with the University of Melbourne a peer reviewed ACT trainer and an author. I love learning from Louise because she's fun. Her clinical experience means that she's seen these techniques in action and can provide relatable examples. Her research experience means she can explain what works and why it works. She also has really helpful books for professionals, teens, as well as videos and resources on her website. I’ll ask Louise to give you all the relevant links at the end of this episode. So let's get to the interview.

Interviewer (Nicky Weeks): OK so could you tell us a bit about the DNA-V model?

Louise Hayes: Sure, so DNA is a developmental model of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and even more deeply underneath that, evolutionary science. So it's a way of looking at the way in which humans grow and develop. That's part of our evolutionary adaptation in terms of how we grow and develop and looking at that alongside acceptance and commitment practises.

Interviewer: So, before we go too much further, what does DNA V stand for?

Louise Hayes: DNA-V each of the letters represents a different behaviour that a human can have and so D stands for Discoverer which is just a word we used to describe the behaviours of trial and error.

Resilience – what it means, why you need it, and how to develop it. Nicky provides a brief introduction to resilience, and the theory and empirical research that underpin the Personal Strength Resilience Workshops.

 

Further information and links

* Online and in person resilience courses

* DNA-V model (DNA-v (c) L. Hayes & J. Ciarrochi, www.thrivingadolescent.com

* Dr Louise Hayes

* Acceptance and Committment Therapy (ACT) model

* Resilience Research and Training Systems, Macquarie University

* Resilience Podcast – Parramatta City Council

Transcript

Hello! Welcome to Episode 2! Today is a quick primer on resilience. I have done a lot of work in positive psychology and resilience. Apart from the tutoring work I have done at university, I also spent two years researching family resilience during parental cancer, and have taught resilience workshops for a range of corporate, government, and community groups with Resilience Research and Training Systems at Macquarie University. I’ll include a link to their website in the show notes.

Through my work with Personal Strength, I have developed an online course in resilience. Today I’d like to explain the psychological models and empirical evidence behind the course.

Resilience – definition and clarification

Firstly, I feel it is important to define resilience. Something I feel most definitions don’t do well is to distinguish between a resilient outcome, and resilient capacities. A resilient outcome is when we maintain a relatively stable and healthy level of psychological and physical functioning after a potentially traumatic event. Depending on the type and severity of the event, we would often expect a small decrease in healthy functioning, but then people bounce back. That sailing through, or bouncing back, is a resilient outcome which can only be observed by looking at functioning before, during, and after stressful events.

In contrast, resilient capacities are beliefs, skills, and assets that may help us to achieve resilient outcomes. Resilient outcomes and resilient capacities are often bundled up together, but there isn’t a one to one correlation. Someone with great resilient capacities could still be faced with an event that is too much for their resources, and not achieve a resilient outcome in that instance. On the flip side, someone could have few resilient capacities, but what they have could be perfectly suited to the challenge they face, and therefore help them achieve a resilient outcome.

Resilient capacities

We may not always achieve a resilient outcome, but we all have resilient capacities. Let’s talk more about the capacities. There has been a lot of research into how people go after major potentially traumatic events like natural disaster, terrorism, job loss, divorce, bereavement, and serious injury. A review of this research revealed a number of factors that contribute to resilience[1]. Some of these we can’t change very easily, for example characteristics like demographics and personality, circumstances like exposure,

This is the first Personal Strength podcast episode where we introduce the podcast, Personal Strength and us.

Welcome to the Personal Strength Podcast. Where we help you, your children, and your students to grow and thrive, through discussions around fitness, self defence, mental strength, well-being and positive psychology.

Transcript

Nicky:

Hello! Welcome to the Personal Strength podcast! This podcast will be a series of interesting discussions on everything Personal Strength. That includes physical strength and fitness, mental strength, resilience and confidence, and also physical safety and self-defence. We hope that listening to this podcast will be engaging, and each time, you’ll learn something new, and leave with a practical tip to help you to thrive. This episode is just a short one. To introduce the podcast, Personal Strength, and us. Tim, as founder of Personal Strength, why don’t you start…

Tim:

Thanks Nicky, more than 10 years ago I started Personal Strength. But it’s never just been about fitness for me. In those 10 years there have been maybe two days when I haven’t wanted to go to work. I love it because I get to spend my days hanging out with awesome people who want to improve themselves. The before and afters I see can’t be captured in a photo. I get to see my 50 year old client continue surfing. I get to see parents fit enough to play sports with their children. I get to hear about the kid from my ninja classes who was getting picked on. Who escaped a wrist grab and told them firmly to stop, and felt stronger and more confident at school. I get to see timid kids, teens and adults realise their own strength and find their voices.

Initially we mainly did fitness and strength training, and were called FunFit, short for functional fitness. But as we grew, and incorporated more and more self defence, and then mental strength programs too, we became Personal Strength. Now we provide age appropriate self-defence, strength and fitness training for kids from 4 (Mini ninjas) through teens, up to adults, and provide a series of mental strength workshops.

While it seems like a diverse range of programs, they are really all building towards the same thing. Confidence for life. The confidence to take on physical challenges, confidence to defend yourself and your loved ones if you need to, the confidence to stand up for what is important to you, and the confidence that you can get through hardships. In short, the confidence you need to thrive. Personal Strength isn’t just a service, it’s a community. An important part of that community are our clients, our students, and our staff. Nicky has been with me throughout this journey as my wife, and now I’m very happy to have her expertise as my co-worker. Nicky is a registered psychologist who has her Masters and PhD in Psychology. Nicky can tell you the rest.

Nicky:

Thanks Tim, I’ve always been fascinated by what motivates people, how people are affected by their environment, and how and why different people can react very differently to similar experiences. And I’ve always wanted to help people, not just to be, to survive, but to thrive. So naturally, I studied Psychology. I’ve been working in Psychology since 2008, first as a research assistant and tutor, and more recently as a Senior Research and Evaluation Officer, and for Personal Strength as a mental strength coach, including researching, designing, conducting, and evaluating workshops.

Throughout my career in Psychology I’ve been involved in research projects on topics including motivation, national defence intelligence analysis, confirmation bias (that was my PhD topic), parenting, sleep, psycho-oncology, childcare, and resilience, and I’ve tutored in statistics and positive psychology.

I’m very excited to have the opportunity to work with Tim at Personal Strength. We have been discussing our vision for Personal Strength for a long time,