Model Mugging Self-Defense Testimonials
ALEC (Los Angeles Self-defense Graduate) – “I’ve taken a number of different self-defense courses throughout the years. Model Mugging was the only course that stayed with me both in physical and emotional content. It was also the only course that I walked away feeling empowered and confident that I could trust myself during an assault. The difference probably lies with the course’s ability to stimulate the emotional response to an assault. I worked through the ‘freeze’ response, leaving me with a huge sense of accomplishment and strength. The course was the best therapy any survivor could ask for. If I could, I’d set up a fund so that every woman could have the opportunity to take the course.”
EMILY (Aspen, Colorado Self-defense Graduate) “Your program was one of the most life changing and positive things I have ever experienced and I thank you kindly for bringing it to this area. I think all men and women should have access to the knowledge you gave me in this class to help stop violence against all humans and make this world a safer, kinder place to live and love.”
NATHALIE (San Francisco Self-defense Graduate) “The Model Mugging Course is one of the most empowering experiences you will ever go through, and its effects will trickle down to every area of your life. The teachers are professional, knowledgeable and kind, and go out of their way to make sure you have an amazingly transformative experience. I came to the class because I was tired of walking the nighttime streets afraid. I left after a weekend, with not only much less fear about that, but also an increased confidence to do anything else I set my mind to. A couple of weeks after Model Mugging, I enrolled in school, overcame my fear of public speaking, and felt much calmer and at peace, knowing that I could deal with whatever came my way. Every woman should take this course, no matter what their age or life circumstances. It really is the best money you will ever spend!”
MARCELLINA (So Cal – Los Angeles Self-defense Graduate) “I took this class at age 13 in Southern California and am now 26 living alone in Manhattan, New York. Thanks to this class I’ve always been empowered, confident, aware of my surroundings and my fears of being attacked have never disabled me from living my life. I’ve never been assaulted or in situations I was not in control of and I continue to use the knowledge from this course every single day.”
RENEE SUNDARAM (Seattle Self-defense Graduate) “Before I took Model Mugging self-defense, I feared being alone at night. I felt vulnerable and always on guard. Afterwards I still feel vulnerable, but I have knowledge of how I can defend myself. This knowledge is not in my brain, it’s in my body. My body memorized the motions of how to react to an attack. Drilling these options many times during the course, they became automatic. No need to think, only react. I discovered I am not helpless or defenseless. I do not need my father or my brother to defend me; I do not need a weapon. I am capable of defending myself. My body is my weapon, and a powerful weapon at that.”
TINA FORBUS (Graduate who successfully defended herself against an emotionally disturbed, 6ft, 250 pounds, assailant armed with a knife, even though she had only taken the basics course. She is 5 ft 4 inches and weighs less than 115 pounds).
” I am thoroughly convinced that it was Matt Thomas’ Model Mugging training that saved my life.”
CLARE MONTEER (Executive Director, Monterey Rape Crisis Center)
“Model Mugging is not just a highly effective self-defense course, but it has also helped former victims to become strong and regain confidence in their ability to look after themselves.”
GENEEN ROTH (Author and Seminar Leader – Breaking Free, The Courage to Heal’)
“Most of the women I see professionally have spent years wanting their thighs to disappear, their hips to melt away. They feel nothing for their bodies but contempt and disgust. Model Mugging teaches us something we all need to learn: Women’s bodies are not decorations; they are strong, they are powerful and when they are violated, they can be deadly.”
SHARON RIPPNER, Ph.D. (Clinical Psychologist)
“The healing which Model Mugging provides involves a body healing, an ability to change the body memory to create a positive outcome by recreating an earlier outcome and winning. The release and healing that I see from this process cannot be duplicated in any amount of psychotherapy.”
DENNIS EVANS, MD (Psychiatrist)
“The course provides a very powerful psychodrama which, in a supportive environment, facilitates emergence of issues and then mastery of them. This takes therapy out of the oft times abstract armchair into a very real and practical experience.”
CAPTAIN DONALD FUSELIER (Carmel Police Department, Police Academy Instructor on Officer Response to Victims of Sexual Assaults)
“The sense of personal empowerment that this training brings to its graduates is beyond value. The program gives women a strong sense of their own power and the ability to protect themselves from harm. Model Mugging is the only self-defense course I would ever have my wife or daughter take.”
ROBERT BISHOP, Ph.D. (Program Director of Executive Security International, the world’s top private body-guarding academy)
“Model Mugging should be mandatory training for any martial artist or law enforcement officer who would benefit from facing their own fears. More than any other training, it gives one a realistic sense, emotionally, mentally and physically, as to what it is like to engage in mortal combat. It is taught with compassion, humor and skill. I am extremely grateful to Matt for teaching my daughter to protect herself.”
LT. COLONEL JACK CHUE
(Helped design new physical, mental and hand-to-hand combat courses for the U.S. Army Special Forces-Green Berets) “Transformation at the deepest level requires at least these events:
- An experience of safety so as to allow great risking,
- An experience of success so as to encourage more risking,
- Acknowledgment that the success comes from one’s own power and nowhere else.
The Model Mugging program achieves these extraordinary events over and over again.”
JERRY ROBINSON (President of Health for Life)
” One hears that developing the Warrior Spirit requires years of martial arts training or at the very least, a pilgrimage to the Far East. Not so. Matt Thomas has found a way to develop it in a weekend. Poignant, uplifting, primal and above all empowering. Model Mugging confronts you with the reality of mortal combat and teaches you to survive.”
THERESA SALDANA (Actress, Founder of Victims for Victims)
“After my attack, I lived with so much fear. Model Mugging gave me a tremendous feeling of self-confidence and healing.”
PENELOPE SALINGER (Graduate)
“Model Mugging has been one of the most challenging and powerfully transformative experiences I have every voluntary undertaken. It taught me more than techniques. It reminded me that I am always capable of more than I had thought. It held up a mirror before me, gently forcing me to acknowledge my own courage.”
JESSICA (Los Angeles Women Self Defense Graduate) described several experiences while working in Philadelphia where Model Mugging Self Defense impacted her personal safety)
Prior to Model Mugging, my fear of being out in a big city at night would have me look down and look meek. After taking the course, I gained a confidence that translated into a real strength. The lessons in boundaries helped me better spot trouble situations that I would have naively tolerated in the past. A year after taking the course, I moved to a very rough neighborhood in Philadelphia. With no car, and a low paying job working for a non-profit group, that had me out some nights, I was regularly traveling public transportation in sketchy areas. Based on what I’d learned, I held my head high, walked with confidence, and would meet the eyes of anyone around me.
When I’d encounter a shady character, I’d look him straight in the eye and greet him confidently with a nod and move on. I’d learned in the class that criminals target specific kinds of people who present themselves as weak and unaware. It was obvious to me that this new level of strength I put out changed the dynamic. Far fewer creepy characters came up to me after the course, whereas I’d been a kind of a magnet for creeps prior to the course.
While moving about throughout Philadelphia I’d learned to survey my surroundings, and made it clear I was paying attention. Two separate occasions, I’d noticed someone casing me or a friend for a possible mugging. The individuals paced by us several times, eyeing our stuff. And both times I looked that person in the eye and greeted them with a stern but respectful and confident nod of my head to communicate, “I see you.” In both situations, the suspicious person wandered off after that look.
The Model Mugging class helped me find my voice. Prior to the course, I hated being loud and was terrible at speaking up for myself. And when I was scared, I’d get really quiet. After the course, that changed. One late night when walking with a couple girlfriends, we came upon some young drunk men. One of them came straight at me with his hands out as if to reach for my waist. With the knowledge that I could protect myself, I very loudly and firmly began yelling at him, “Don’t touch me I don’t know you!” He immediately backed away with his hands in the air.
Learning to survey my surroundings and pay attention to criminal behavior was so helpful. Another day stands out when I was headed to the corner market. I noticed a man also walking toward the market from the opposite direction on the street. He was walking very fast and had what appeared to be an empty backpack on and an intense angry look on his face. He was heading to my market. I decided to skip going to the market and sure enough, that guy held up the market at gun point.
Model Mugging Women’s Self Defense allowed me to apply crime prevention and personal safety skills where I would not have been able to before the training.
