Question 1

How do I book Nicole Snell for a training, seminar, or workshop?

Accepted Answer

I'd love to speak and/or train at your event! Contact me with your potential dates and the training program you're considering and we can discuss pricing and work on making it happen. If you're not sure what program you want, contact me through my speaking agency and I can customize something especially for your group! Although most of my presentations are booked by organizations/companies/schools/military groups, I can work with individuals, families, groups of friends, etc. There is no audience too small or too large for me to empower!

Question 2

How do I book a violence prevention seminar/workshop/class?

Accepted Answer

Send me an email here because I'd love to work with you!The majority of my keynotes, seminars, workshops, classes  & trainings are booked by organizations, colleges, companies, military installations, private groups, etc. I'm based in the US and I travel to you wherever you are in the world to provide my services either in person or virtually. If you're interested in bringing me to your company or community, please contact me here. I also work with small groups or private classes including for families! I'm often hired by families to teach private women's self-defense classes to their daughters going off to college. If you want to schedule a private class, email me here.  I sometimes work with groups that arrange virtual sessions that are open to the public. Sign up to my newsletter and keep an eye on my IG and FB pages where I will announce those classes and how you can sign up!I also have an online self-defense for the outdoors course called, Yes I'm Hiking Solo! This course has lifetime access to essential personal safety skills for your solo hikes and beyond!I occasionally offer public classes in LA. Sign up for my newsletter to be the first to know when a class is open for registration.I offer One-on-One online sessions as well! Learn more here.Check my Link Tree for the most current offerings. If you would like to organize your own private event with me for you group, you can reach out to me on my contact page.

Question 3

Do you work with individuals?

Accepted Answer

Yes absolutely! Although most of my events are booked by groups, I can do one-on-one private sessions either virtually or in person. Contact me for pricing!

Question 4

Do you offer public women's self-defense classes?

Accepted Answer

Yes I do! I held my first in person public class in LA in Feb 2023 and received great feedback and interest for me to have more offerings. Stay tuned to my newsletter and social media for info on when my next public class offering will be! I look forward to seeing you in class.

Question 5

Where can I attend boundary-setting training sessions?

Accepted Answer

I teach boundary setting training sessions regularly for companies, organizations, colleges, conferences and military victim advocates around the world. My Boundaries for Personal Empowerment program is one of my most popular trainings!I work directly with businesses to bring my trainings directly to your location (in person or virtually) for audiences of any size or demographic. If you're looking to feel more confident setting boundaries, recognizing manipulation, using your voice, and respecting the boundaries of others in professional and personal contexts, I can help! Setting boundaries can increase confidence, boost morale, increase workplace safety, reduce workplace harassment, and increase employee wellness...including mental health!Contact me here to schedule a call to discuss your needs. Check out my testimonials.

Question 6

Do you offer personal safety training programs for schools in the US?

Accepted Answer

Yes I do! I offer personal safety training programs, empowerment focused self-defense, women's self-defense, and violence prevention training for schools in the US and around the world. My award winning programs have been seen by millions of people and have been highlighted in peer reviewed research on interpersonal violence prevention and sexual assault prevention. Girls Fight Back was named Best Online Women's Self-Defense for Groups & Organizations by VeryWell Fit. Students Fight Back received a 2023 NASPA Award for Outstanding Peer Education Program at Miami UniversityGirls Fight Back and Students Fight Back are my programs specifically for high school and college students. I also offer boundary setting training programs for students like my newest one, "Is It Rizz or Is It Real? Boundaries & Safety for Students".Ready to schedule a call to learn more? Contact me here.

Question 7

Do you only teach women or do you teach men, non-binary & trans individuals too?

Accepted Answer

I can and do teach people of all gender identities! Everyone is welcome!
 
Any of my programs can be customized to be gender inclusive or to address specific concerns related to how someone identifies including race, sexual orientation, etc. No matter how you or your group identifies, I would be delighted to teach you how to be your own best protector!
 
Most of what I teach is applicable to people of any gender and I address specific contexts when needed. I believe that we all can benefit from learning the basics of how to defend ourselves along with how we can be better allies to each other.

Question 8

Where are you located? Do you offer personal safety trainings around the US?

Accepted Answer

I'm based on the West Coast in the US, and I will travel to any location in the world where a client needs me to be for an in person personal safety training or women's self-defense workshop! I also offer virtual trainings in case an in person event isn't possible for your group.

Question 9

What type of self-defense do you teach?

Accepted Answer

This is often the first question I am asked when I say that I teach self-defense! I get it, though. Most people hear the term self-defense and they immediately think of punching, kicking,  martial arts...the physical strategies.  Although I do have martial arts experience, what I teach is not a martial art or sport combat. I teach for the real world using trauma-informed, evidence-based, and victim-centered training methods to address gender-based violence and personal safety. This is known as empowerment based self-defense. See this FAQ section for more on that! I teach simple, practical and empowerment based strategies for risk recognition, awareness, boundary setting, verbal de-escalation and physical defense. Self-defense is more than physical! My teachings are based on the methods of IMPACT Personal Safety, FAST Defense, and have been informed by violence prevention experts like Gavin de Becker and research studies (including psychology and neurobiology) spanning decades. I have years of  training in full force self-defense using realistic scenarios that are adrenaline based with equal focus on verbal and physical components. It's important to note that there are no guarantees. We can each only do the best we can to manage our safety and live our lives as confidently and freely as possible. Self-defense isn't about what you should do, it's about what you can do! I teach verbal and physical skills in an upbeat, positive and fun environment that can be executed by anyone of any gender, body size, height, athletic ability, etc. I will show you how to use your own body to help you get to safety as quickly as possible.There are no fancy moves or complicated steps to memorize in any of my programs. And it doesn't take years of training to be effective at protecting yourself. This means that after one of my 60-90min sessions you'll have a variety of practical skills you can start using immediately in your own life.

Question 10

What is Girls Fight Back?

Accepted Answer

Girls Fight Back is the world renowned personal safety and self-defense program that was founded in 2001 by Erin Weed in honor of her friend Shannon McNamara. We have reached and empowered over 1 million people around the world with our speaking events over the last 20+ years.

I took over the company as CEO/Owner in 2020 and I am dedicated to continuing the mission of empowering women, girls and people of all gender identities around the world to be their own badass!
 
I have developed other programs in addition to our original, Girls Fight Back seminar, to address the needs of diverse communities and people of all gender identities.
 
Check out our trailer here!

Question 11

Isn't teaching self-defense victim blaming?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely NOT. Victim blaming is WRONG.
 
Rape, violence, and sexual assault are NEVER the fault of the victim/survivor. And, if you’ve ever lived through violence I hope you know that it was not your fault and you didn't do anything wrong. Whatever you did to survive your situation was the right thing to do.

Research shows that women using physical and verbal resistance are more likely to avoid completed rape and are no more or less likely to be physically injured. In fact, learning self-defense has been shown to reduce the risk of experiencing violence by up to 50%.
 
I view (and teach) empowerment based self-defense as a way to give us all choices and options so that we can live our lives fully and freely and not have to limit our lives to feel safe. It is about empowerment and my perspective is that learning self-defense can open up access to the world in a way you may not have had before due to fear and societal myths. As a survivor myself, I know what self-defense has meant to me and my healing process and I have had many survivors share similar experiences with me about how it helped them as well.
 
To fight back or not is a very personal choice and if you are reading this now, you are a survivor. There are 3 main responses that our body has to danger/trauma/adrenaline: fight, flight and freeze. All three of these are normal reactions and none of them should be used to blame a survivor for how they responded to their unique situation.
 
I believe in knowledge and empowerment. I believe in giving my audience members the tools to fight back if they choose to do so if they are ever faced with a serious violent confrontation. Self-defense is about more than physical skills. Knowing how to recognize manipulative behavior, trust your intuition, set boundaries, and address someone who is being coercive can help us have healthier relationships and avoid situations that are uncomfortable or dangerous.
 
We don't want to avoid preparing for the possibility of violence by pretending it doesn’t exist. In an ideal world, no one would need the self-defense skills I teach; but until we live in that world, it is a gift to be as knowledgeable as possible on being your own best protector. Self-defense is about giving you options in how to respond to a situation. It's about developing confidence in our own ability to use the weapons on our body to protect ourselves in a dangerous encounter.
 
I believe everyone can benefit from knowing how to fight, but self-defense isn’t about what you SHOULD do it’s about what you CAN do. It’s up to the individual whether or not to bust out your moves but knowing HOW to fight at least gives you the choice – which is empowering.
 
It's important to remember that “fighting back” isn’t just about using physical force. Fighting back is also a mindset in which we refuse to ignore danger and we choose to actively protect ourselves by honoring our intuition, using strategies to be a bad target in all aspects of our lives, setting personal boundaries that work for us, and knowing how to use a verbal attack to try to ward off a physical confrontation. I believe that the best fight is the one never fought and physical self-defense is often a last resort option to protecting ourselves.

No one can ever tell someone what the right choice is for them in any given situation; and that is why I want each of my audience members to be empowered to be their own best protector in all aspects of their lives. The skills I teach can also be used daily in situations such as catcalling, bullying, negotiating with salespeople, setting boundaries in relationships, dealing with social situations when out on the town or on the trail, and much more.
 
You are worth fighting for!

I invite you to read this excerpt from a journal article that addresses this question specifically:
 
“Scholarly studies, reports, and best-practices on the prevention of sexual violence often omit a key component of the scholarly literature: that verbal and/or physical resistance (i.e., self-defense strategies) enable most women to stop most assailants in most sexual assault situations, and that training in self-defense prevents assault in a way that is empowering rather than restrictive or victim-blaming. Despite the numerous empirical studies that support the efficacy of women’s verbal and physical resistance against sexual assault, much of the literature on sexual assault prevention fails to include the scholarship on self-defense. In this article, we posit that the empirical work on self-defense is sometimes ignored naively, because of a misunderstanding of what self-defense is, and sometimes ignored willfully, due to an ideological conflict with it. Excluding work on self-defense in the sexual assault prevention literature omits relevant scholarship in a way that prioritizes ideology over evidence, ironically fueling benevolent sexism, and limits the effectiveness of policies and practices around sexual assault prevention that are translated from the literature. We underscore the importance of integrating the evidence for self-defense more prominently in the sexual assault prevention literature so that organizations, policy makers, activists, clinicians, students, and the public consider and implement self-defense is a viable strategy for women in preventing or thwarting sexual violence.”

-Self-Defense as an Effective and Neglected Form of Sexual Assault Prevention: A Commentary and Overdue Correction to the Literature 
Cermele, J., McCaughey, M. Self-Defense as an Effective and Neglected Form of Sexual Assault Prevention: A Commentary and Overdue Correction to the Literature. Sex Roles (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-022-01284-3

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