Welcome to In Our Powers: The Holistic Self-defense Substack and Podcast
I’m Carolyn, a trauma-informed, holistic self-defense coach. If you've ever felt unsafe, struggled to trust your instincts, or wondered how to respond in a threatening situation, you're not alone.
My self-defense story
I spent decades feeling anxious. I searched for safety wherever I could. In emotionally abusive relationships, I sought safety in people-pleasing and overachieving. Training to be a professional ballerina, I sought safety in starvation and perfectionism. When I was sexually assaulted in high school, I sought safety by staying still, smiling, and silencing myself.
Ironically, my search for safety inflicted a lot of violence on myself, especially in the ways I talked to, shrank, overworked, and contorted my body. Though these strategies were the best tools I had at the time, they harmed me. They disconnected me from my intuition. They made me small and powerless. They led me to abandon myself.
In 2022, while I was working with a therapist to process my early experience of sexual assault, I decided to try something new. I signed up for my first self-defense class. Walking into a fighters’ gym filled with guys who pounded protein powder and pumped iron, I felt out of place in my petite frame. (I’m a mere five-feet-and-three-inches.)
But in that dank gym, I began a journey that led me unexpected places. Practicing self-defense, I learned how to transform my anxiety and anger into action. I re-established healthy boundaries around my body and in relationships. I reconnected with the volume of voice. I attuned to surroundings and my intuition with sharper awareness. I remembered the strength that had always been in my body.
Instead of feeling stuck in fear, I reclaimed my powers. In the process, I realized that true safety starts within.
Now, as a trauma-informed, holistic self-defense coach, I help you do the same.
My coaching philosophy
Through my self-defense training, I’ve learned that only 10% of self-defense is physical (things like strikes, kicks, and choke defenses).
The other 90% is things like situational awareness, listening to our intuition, recognizing unhealthy relationships, setting healthy boundaries, using our voice, reducing risks in our life, avoiding threats, and more.
The great news? This 90% is stuff we can practice every day. It doesn’t require a gym membership or new equipment. Just awareness, intention, and showing up for ourselves.
I created In Our Powers: The Holistic Self-defense Substack and Podcast to explore this 90% with you.
Through stories, conversations, and practical insights, I explore all the ways we honor, protect, and advocate for ourselves.
As a coach, I pull from my personal experience as a sexual assault survivor, my four years of teaching as trauma-informed Raja yoga instructor, my three years of practice as a Yellow Belt in Krav Maga, my training in Empowerment Self Defense, and my experience teaching holistic self-defense classes.
As a community, we practice moving through fear, building confidence in our powers, and strengthening safety with ourselves. Because self-defense isn’t just about throwing strikes and kicks in a moment of danger. It’s about building trust and safety from within.
Why subscribe?
When you subscribe to In Our Powers for free, you’ll receive posts directly in your inbox every 1-2 weeks on Tuesdays. These posts will include new podcast releases, stories of how I’m practicing self-defense in my everyday life, and prompts to build your own holistic self-defense practice.
When you upgrade to a paid In Our Powers subscription, you’ll receive all the benefits of a free subscription plus:
A monthly self-defense lesson
Access to the full archive of self-defense lessons
A private chat where you can share your experience & ask any questions
Self-defense lessons for paid subscribers will pick one dimension of holistic self-defense and dive deeper with an instructional video, journal prompts, guided meditations, suggested exercises, and/or accessible practices that are easy to incorporate into your daily life.
These lessons will be delivered directly to your inbox where you can explore them on your own time, at your own pace. Any clarifying questions about the content? Share your question in the private chat!
When you join the In Our Powers Circle as a founding member, you’ll receive all the benefits of a free and paid subscription plus:
A complimentary 30-minute virtual coaching session with me
The satisfaction of making holistic self-defense more accessible to others. Because we are all safer when we practice together
About the In Our Powers name
What was previously the Powers Substack is now In Our Powers: The Holistic Self-defense Substack and Podcast.
This new name honors the many holistic self-defense tools that are already “in our powers” and how it is “in our powers” to respond to the world around us.
This new name also references “our” collective powers because self-defense isn’t just about honoring, protecting, and advocating for ourselves as individuals. It’s also about using our collective powers to strengthen our collective safety. Because, when we are safer collectively, we are also safer individually.
About the In Our Powers logo
Instead of using AI to create the In Our Powers logo, I commissioned real artwork from a real artist who is special to me.
The In Our Powers logo is hand-painted by my mom, Julianne Fallert. (You can find her on Instagram:@greatday2paint.) Julianne specializes in watercolor images of gardens, both real and imagined. In helping create this logo, she has shared her creative powers with all of us.
For the In Our Powers logo, I invited Julianne to paint flowers whose colors and variations represent the beautiful diversity of my audience.
In the new logo, you’ll notice colors that honor people’s varied experiences with gender-based violence. Teal is a nationally recognized color that unites sexual assault survivors. Red, pink, and orange are used in advocacy movements for rape survivors. Green is used in advocacy efforts for child abuse survivors. Yellow represents justice movements for battery and assault survivors. And purple is a symbol of both domestic violence awareness and sovereignty.
This spectrum of colors also acknowledges the spectrum of people who experience violence: people across the gender spectrum, the sexual orientation spectrum, the spectrum of skin color and ethnicity, and other spectrum.
Beyond representing a diversity of experiences and identities, these colors also represent the spectrum of emotions each person may experience in their healing process.
The many colorful flowers in this image capture the diversity and beauty of our community, each person brilliant in their own way and splendid as a collective.
In Our Powers AI Policy
When navigating the world of AI, I turn to two holistic self-defense practices:
Listening to and honoring my intuition
Seeking support where I need it
I believe that my intuition, that source of wisdom that flows from deep within me, through my pen, and onto the page (yes, I write everything by hand) is far wiser than any computer-generated idea. And I am committed to sharing my authentic source of wisdom with you through my written, audio-recorded, and video-recorded content.
I also accept that I’m human and sometimes need support from AI tools to survive in these computerized times. I use AI for certain mindless and time-consuming tasks like: transcribing podcasts, drafting brief summaries of podcast episodes, etc.
Let’s ground in our powers together!
If In Our Powers resonates with you, consider sharing it with a friend, colleague, or family member. We are all safer when we practice together.
For inquires about coaching, workshops, podcast appearances, or being a guest on the In Our Powers podcast, please send a direct message through Substack.
For additional content, you can follow In Our Powers on Instagram (@in.our.powers) and YouTube (@inourpowers).
