Women's Self Defense and Your Mental Well Being

An attack against your body can affect your mind. If you have been physically attacked and have resulted in injury or rape, the psychological affects can leave you more scared on the inside than you were scarred on the outside. Women's self defense advocacy groups monitor robberies, domestic abuse, rapes, and abductions so that they can get the women that were attacked the help that need both to mend their bodies and their minds. Even if you have had women's self defense training it does not mean that you will be able to defend yourself completely.

You may have save your life or your wallet, but the trauma of an attack is to much for some people to handle. Even friends and family may not enough to get that bad memory out of your head.

If a woman is hurt in an attack, the woman will feel that she is violated and cannot trust herself to be alone anymore. The support of the significant other, boy friend, or husband is really important at this moment. The male in the women's life should over dramatize the event, but start to make the woman realize that it was not her fault and that it is no reason to isolate from the world. The significant other can go with her to women's self defense classes to help bring back her self confidence and self esteem.

The classes will help build back the feelings that she can defend her and that she can go out alone with a toolbox of techniques and tactics that will keep her safe. The significant other can supply more emotional support in the way of letting the woman choose where and where she is not comfortable. Later in the healing process, you might want to escort the victim to the site of the attack. Here she can confront her fears and break down a barrier that is holding her back.

In addition of emotional support from the significant other, women's self defense advocates say that the victim may want to visit a professional counselor. In this professional setting, the woman can obtain expert guidance in recognizing the root of her fear and why she feels so used and worthless. The counselor can lead her through the events of the day that had leaded her to the point of the attack. The victim can then focus on the attack itself and what she could be in control of and what she could not be control of. This is a big break through when a woman realizes that she did the best that she could do and that none of the attack was her fault.

If possible and if advisable by the counselor, the victim may want to confront the attacker if the attacker has been incarcerated. Seeing the attacker helpless and behind bars sometimes makes the woman feel empowered and ready to take back her life back. In many cases the therapist will suggest the women's self defense course to top off a complete recovery.