OUR APPROACH

HOW WE DO THINGS

Our Values

Trauma-Informed Principles

Everyone has the right to feel safe(r)

Connection Martial Arts uses a trauma-informed approach which takes into account the lasting effects trauma, stress, and adversity have in people’s lives and health. Connection integrates this knowledge into all aspects of our operations in ways that foster clients’ safety, trust, and empowerment. The guiding principles are:

  • Safety

  • Trust

  • Support

  • Collaboration

  • Empowerment

  • Respect

We acknowledge that safety is relative - not everyone feels safe under the same conditions and some folks have a hard time ever feeling safe. So, we aim to make our studio a safer place for everyone, and to support those who do not feel safe in their bodies.

We are an Affiliate of the Fight Back Project/Conscious Combat Club, a growing network of trauma-informed martial artists from a variety of professional disciplines. You can find more information about them here.

Neurodiversity-Affirming

There is strength in diversity

Not everyone’s brain works in the same way and we work to support martial artists find their strength in a way that makes sense for them.

Inclusivity

Everyone is welcome

We not only strive to be a place for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, ability, or other diversities, but we actively work to promote inclusion of those most marginalized by mainstream approaches.

Accountability

We are fallible, we will make mistakes, and once we know better, we will do better

We hold ourselves accountable to our members. If members give feedback or submit a complaint, we will act on it. We commit to ongoing self-reflexivity, learning, and cultural humility to ensure that we do the best that we can for our members. We are human and therefore we will make mistakes, but we will acknowledge when we make mistakes and work to ensure that they don’t happen again.

Accessibility

We work to reduce barriers

Everyone deserves to experience the benefits that a martial arts community has to offer, regardless of any diversity that society may not be built to accommodate.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy-Informed

Evidence-based ways to support emotion regulation on the mats

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) was created by Marsha Linehan in response to a lack of effective treatment being out there for folks who struggle with emotional dysregulation. DBT includes mindfulness skills, distress tolerance skills, interpersonal effectiveness skills, and emotion regulation skills. Our programs offer an opportunity to practice and embody these skills in a martial arts setting. Just like with DBT in clinical settings, we believe that we cannot teach the skills unless we use them ourselves.

Experts who inform our approach.

  • “Trust is earned in the smallest of moments. It is earned not through heroic deeds, or even highly visible actions, but through paying attention, listening, and gestures of genuine care and connection.”

    Brene Brown

  • “In order to change, people need to become aware of their sensations and the way that their bodies interact with the world around them. Physical self-awareness is the first step in releasing the tyranny of the past.”

    Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

  • “You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.”

    Brene Brown

  • “Mindfulness increases activation of the medial prefrontal cortex and decreases activation of structures like the amygdala that trigger our emotional responses. This increases our control over the emotional brain.”

    Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

  • “Safety is not the absence of threat. It is the presence of connection.”

    Gabor Mate

  • “The real treasure offered by mindfulness—its most amazing gift—is that mindfulness provides us with the opportunity to respond rather than simply react.”

    Kristin Neff, Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself