Empowering at Risk Youth: A Deep Dive into Self-Defense, Confidence-Building, and Youth Empowerment with Suzanne Jean

Heather Hester: 00:00:11

Welcome to Just Breathe: Parenting your LGBTQ Teen, the podcast, transforming the conversation around loving and raising an LGBTQ child. My name is Heather Hester and I am so grateful you are here, I want you to take a deep breath. And know that for the time we are together, you are in the safety of the just breed nets. Whether today's show is an amazing guest, or me sharing stories, resources, strategies or lessons I've learned along our journey, I want you to feel like we're just hanging out at a coffee shop having cosy chat. Most of all, I want you to remember that wherever you are on this journey, right now, in this moment in time, you are not alone.

Heather Hester: 00:01:13

Welcome to Just Breathe, everyone's so happy you are here. And I'm really, really excited to just jump right in with our guest for today. Suzanne Jean is here to talk about a really, really important topic that we all can relate to, that our kids can relate to. And I'm just really excited to learn about what she teaches what she's learned in her research and her studies. And so we're just going to jump right in and welcome so much to the show. I'm so really thrilled that you're here. And excited to hear your stories.

Suzanne Jean: 00:01:55

Wow, thank you, Heather, I'm really happy to be here. And I have a feel a very important message to get out around bullying, and violence in our communities. I started this work many, many years ago. So my path was in social services working with really at risk kids. And concurrently with that, I studied martial arts. And I began to see the synergy between working, building confidence through self defense. And it started working with very at risk kids, and realizing that we were criminalizing them, we were putting them in jail because we couldn't deal with their trauma and their behaviors that came with that trauma. And at that time, I'm going back to the early 70s, there was not a lot of understanding about what trauma was. So we pack them into, you know, the the jails and those systems, and it doesn't take very long for kids to really start to fall apart. Also, it was a time when there was a lot of street youth, kids living on the street. And I did a study at that time and realized within 24 hours, a kid would be involved in some type of criminal activity, if they were on the street, whether it was just stealing food, or, you know, selling drugs or whatever. And that we really needed to step up and intervene with these cats. So that's where the work began. And I began to teach women self defense and understand that, absolutely, we could, we could build self confidence through this process. And so the the actual program evolved over many years, but it has four pillars. And those are attention, awareness, avoidance and action. So though the program is I use it as a hook to get the self defense happening, and get people interested. The real heart and soul of it is around self awareness exercises. So I start with attention. And it's about like tuning into the here and now, which is very timely in terms of the interest in meditation and mindfulness. But if you think about it, kids nowadays, they're so hooked into the phones and computers and social media, and the gaming, and they are losing those, those skills to actually connect one to one with each other. And it's so we try to discussions in the groups they think it's like rocket science. Oh, wow, that was really cool. Can we do that again? And actually, yeah, and the older days we called it having a discussion, right? We added we can do lots more talking about these things. But if you think about it, if they're all in their own little silos, they're not really getting that experience that they get from, from that kind of attention as and as we know. where our attention goes, energy flows. Yep. So if it's gone in the tube, if it's going in to social media, it's really depleting. The next area is awareness. And this is the heart and soul is really just helping kids discover what they really truly believe what they need what they want, and then helping them get some skills to communicate that. And with Bill it bullying, it's about setting those boundaries. But to set the boundary, you have to know what the boundary is, right? You have to, you know, you need that self examination, to be able to understand that. So I do a whole bunch of exercises, around figuring those things out, like so we're talking about boundaries, talking about values, like what's important to me, and what isn't important to me. And then being able to communicate that in a way that is, you know, Enriching is very, very, very important, and getting them to love themselves and open their hearts. Because there's so much of that sense of unworthiness. And when you have bullying. I mean, it's a constant degradation of self. Right, right, thank you. Because it's about difference, if you're not good enough, or you're not the way you should be in the world. So when you take them to a place where they really begin to see themselves in a different light, they can start to, to really love themselves. And I do a lot of providing information around the brain and how the brain works, and how we, our thoughts affect our feelings. And we go into those areas. But I have to say, this program is fun. Like, when I'm talking to him, it says, like, how do you been getting kids to do that, right? It's really fun, like I have, I have all of these different ways. And then I'm always debriefing through the physical, we're always moving, doing the self defense, doing the breathing exercises, doing the movement. And that way, you know, when if I have to move something in a transition, I have all these different ways to do that.

Heather Hester: 00:07:13

That is so cool.

Suzanne Jean: 00:07:15

Then we go to avoidance, how do you stay safe? How do you you know, what steps do you take and not and I don't just deal in the, again, in the physical realm. I start in a physical realm, and then I talk about the emotional, how do we hold ourselves back? Right. But then how do we really clearly enable ourselves to to stay safe? So then there's the action. So it's the last resort is if in the event that you had to defend yourself, I teach them the skills to do that. So that they can I teach them defense position, I teach blocking. So in an event that they were bullied, they could actually defend themselves. But the avoidance moving into action. The action part, to me, too, is it's all about making good choices and decisions. Oh, yeah. But again, you need that reflection to say, Hmm, you know, what is what is a good choice? And the more at risk the kids that I work with, the more difficult it is for them to understand. Risk. They know for sure, they don't understand this. So we really kind of talked about that. I mean, an example I was in I had a group of girls who are sitting there and we were talking about this area, you know, of risk. And one girl looked at them and said, Oh, my goodness, I think I'm at risk. I sleep in the backseat of my mom's car while she's turning tricks. And, you know, I've been doing this a long time, but my jaw dropped. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to say. And the but the girls picked it up. They said yeah, that's not okay. You alright. Yes. You know, and maybe Suzanne can find help you find our house, a house. Nice that they're in my jaw dropped.

Heather Hester: 00:09:17

I am sure. I mean.

Suzanne Jean: 00:09:21

I mean, that's just made out of the realm. Oh, my goodness. So I started working with really at risk. Kids with a lot of people who suffered trauma mental health because I have worked in social services, community based social services for 50 years. But as I progressed in, in building the curriculum, this is all written curriculum. I have it for children. I have it for youth. I have it for seniors. But as I began to develop it, you know, mainstream like schools said, we have a problem here with bullying. We need this program in the school. Yes. So I started to teach more mainstream groups. And, yeah, it's been a great journey

Heather Hester: 00:10:08

that is really extraordinary. So and hear you talk about how this program can be used for both? One who is being bullied, as well as for one who bullies? Correct? Can you talk about that a

Suzanne Jean: 00:10:28

little bit? Well, it's called Power Ed, because bullying is about control and power anyway, you cut it. Yeah, and the way to avoid bullying is to create healthy, confident kids. And one of the first exercises I do is I divide the group into three and I have three questions. What is bullying? Why do people bully? And what can you do about it? And they have all three groups, write out the answers to this on these big sheets of paper, and then they pass the sheets. So what happens if you understand that one in four kids is being bullied in a classroom, when they present back the information to the larger group, the kids that bully for the first time in their lives, see how other people perceive them? As Wow, as having problems of needing help? You know, of not feeling feeling good about themselves. Right? So it's it, I as an instructor can see the little bald score, I can see it in their faces, I can pick them out. But nobody knows. Like, it's an anonymous process, right? It's the beginning of self awareness for them. Sure. And in my book, I have this in my book, I have this story. My daughter is an instructor and I went and she had a tough class in the inner city. And she said, Mom, come and teach it with me. So I went and there was this kid that was he was singled out as the big problem. And it was a problem, you know. But we were doing the exercise. And this, this exercise is in the first class. And we were I was in his group because I wanted to manage him. And his friends said to him, Johnny, you know, you're a bully, don't you? And he looked at him. And I thought, here we go, he's going to escalate, he's going to get angry, I'm going to have a scene. And he looked at me and he said, but I don't want to be where my heart is when? Oh, again, self awareness, that

Heather Hester: 00:12:37

understanding, right,

Suzanne Jean: 00:12:39

that needs, and that kid did a 360. Like, I've never seen a child change so quickly. Sure. And one of the amazing things is like followed up and it's that behavior sustained. He decided at that moment. And he The nice thing was, he was really good at the techniques. And he was really proud of himself, right. And I always do demos on his like demo demo. And he would do his demo. And other kids would say you're really good at that. And probably the first time in his life that he had had gotten Positive Risk, you know, feedback years after they're saying, and that is like a little seed that just blossomed so quickly. Yeah, I am good at something. I'm worth something. I'm important. These are the messages that I am working at getting out there. And yeah, and Bullying Hurts. Right? And Bullying Hurts and whatnot. Because I deal with physical, they can kind of feel that pain. So I'm pinch,

Heather Hester: 00:13:52

it hurts, right? So when you

Suzanne Jean: 00:13:54

and the passive aggressive bullying that that's happening on the internet is so godless? Because the kids don't take responsibility for it, but they hurt. So they need to understand. It's not okay. It's not okay to hurt people. No, it's not for their differences. And I know, you know,

Heather Hester: 00:14:18

right. Yeah. Right. So I love that story

Suzanne Jean: 00:14:20

from the book. So the book is about transformational stories. Like I tell stories where, where people really grow and learn through this process this program. And

Heather Hester: 00:14:36

yeah, I'd love to would you share one of the stories?

Suzanne Jean: 00:14:39

Well, the first story is pretty interesting, because it's a it. I was teaching women's self defense, and I got a call. And this woman said, uses and I said, Yeah, and she says, Oh, the word on the street is your okay. And I said, Oh, well, who are you? And she said, well, one, my name is Ron. On, she said, I'm a sex trade worker. She said, we're having trouble. Like there's a serial killer. And he's, he's, he's killed some of my friends with piano wire. And we need self defense. And we heard that you do that. So I said, Well, I'm not sure I can help you, but I'd be willing to talk about it. And she said, I'll set up a meeting to 8am at frescoes on gamey Street in Vancouver. The meeting was at two in the morning. So I thought, What have I gotten into? So I told a story, I ended up showing up, and she had reserved the back of the restaurant, and 50 women came, oh, my goodness. And we had a beating. And we talked about what self defense is about. And, you know, my conditions. And I was raised, I didn't know what I was doing not understand. I mean, this was unbelievable, but I was willing to give it a go, of course, but the conditions were they showed up. They weren't wasted on drugs or alcohol. But the big one was that they gave 100%. They gave me 100% of what they could do. And I worked with I worked with their guests when they had class was 7am when they got off work. Because Rhonda said if they went home, they'd all be getting up at different times, and it wouldn't work. Right. So they came at seven in the morning. And I saw what resilience is about i i saw what community is about how they began, they began to look after each other say no to getting in cars when they knew that it was dangerous, watching each other's backs. Understanding their defense. I knew in the background, I worked with my martial arts friends to to hone techniques that would be helpful to them. How do you do self defense in stilettos?

Heather Hester: 00:16:56

Imagine a stiletto, could be

Suzanne Jean: 00:16:59

like a stabbing. But anyway, this, this was an amazing experience. But I saw how they looked after each other the sense of community and how you know we marginalize people. So easily. Put them in those little boxes, but I'm telling you, those women taught me more.

Heather Hester: 00:17:21

While they're human those months, right? I mean, they're human beings just Yeah, everyone else. And I love that. I love thank you for sharing that story. Because I think that it's really important to humanize people. salutely And I mean, that is definitely a piece of bullying, right? But it dehumanizes

Suzanne Jean: 00:17:41

they develop the confidence in themselves that they could take care of themselves. Right.

Heather Hester: 00:17:48

Right. Right. So these four pillars really transcend. I mean, this works for anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Suzanne Jean: 00:17:59

Pillars are interrelated. And as I said, but the actual curriculum is there's a, it's a lot of fun. I build in so much play. And I have been adding a lot more mindfulness and the kids love it. Like with my grid. Today, I'll do a lot of mindfulness with them. Because they need they they need the tools to self regulate. The fastest way to self regulate is through breath. Right? And if we can, and that's your program. That's right. And it's the exhalation. And so I'm doing a lot more of that with them and building that into the curriculum in different places.

Heather Hester: 00:18:44

That's fantastic. That's fantastic. Why imagine new with any of you know, any of the people that you work with? I guess an element. Let me pose this as a question. Which of your four pillars is the most surprising to people that you work with? Where you get the most like, you know, light bulb moments or highs or connection of the letter? No.

Suzanne Jean: 00:19:06

Yeah. Absolutely the self awareness. And, you know, through the self defense, they can deal with fear, though, in a really good way. We have focused on so they can hit us focus path, they can feel physical strength, they can dissipate fear, right, they can dissipate anger, and those those those scary emotions. So that's also really, really helpful and working in working with the, the stories in my book are very extreme trauma. And I use a lot of that technique of just being able to smack something smack something hard, you know, right. You just have that. It's that feeling of strength and power,

Heather Hester: 00:19:57

right and release I imagine is Wow, absolutely.

Suzanne Jean: 00:20:01

And guess what happens when you snack something you exhale, you do. And then guess what happens, then you have to take a full breath in. Yeah, then you feed all that all those systems. So, yeah, that is what I loved when I saw you the name of your podcast, I loved it, I loved it, to

Heather Hester: 00:20:27

me are very simpatico and it is definitely the, you know, the breath is a huge thing that really helped me early on, because it helps me reconnect, it helped me, you know, get

Suzanne Jean: 00:20:41

you into a whole different nervous system, you know, you're in a different place, completely your level, you know, fight or flight, right. And this is something else to teach kids, they need to learn about the brain, what's going on in our brain and the connection to our body and our spirit.

Heather Hester: 00:21:02

That is so into how everything really is connected, right, and how they can care for it. I think that so many of these pieces are left out of education for our adolescents and for our children and adolescents even that everything for them seems so like this is over here. And that's over here and nothing is they don't see the connection. So I'm I really love that you're teaching them how everything is interconnected, and how to be aware. And how I mean, this is really just such a wonderful lesson. And not only self awareness, but empowerment,

Suzanne Jean: 00:21:44

well, and you can be in control of yourself. And it's such a scary thing not to you know, to experience, anxiety and all of those heart hardened emotions like anger and anxiety, and not be in control and just to be able to be in control yourself. And like face those fears. It's just such a positive thing. A lot of conversations in the school like they they're not happening, and they're the ones that need to be happening. And I and I taken them on we talk about suicide. We talk about self harm. We talked about sexual abuse, they won't talk about sexual abuse. Yeah, I know. Right. So those tough subjects. And again, I am doing it in a really careful way and unable to always debrief and always move things through physically. So they're not It's not left hanging, right, or stuck. Yeah. And I also connect when I'm doing a program anywhere I connect to resources. If I have to refer kids, I often get you know, a kid coming up after and saying, Oh, my friend has a drinking problem. Can you you know, or my friend? This is happening to my friend. And I always know that it's them. Right? Right. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my goodness, I just realized, you know, I just realized I need help with this, you know, my boyfriend is hurting me. Right, right. I mean, these things, they come forth with that. And I'm not all things to all people. So I connect with resources, like all connect with the counselor. Sure. I have. And I have my instructors do that in any area. The other place that they do a resource list is sports, martial arts, because often once kids start to move again, they say, Oh, I used to do this, I feel good. You know, I'd like to, I'd like to dance. Again. I would like to, I'd like to study martial arts. Right. So it's really great to have those resources and be able to refer them. Absolutely. When it's happening. I absolutely. And I wanted to, I was trying to get a grant, I'd like to develop a youth navigator program. Well, to train kids, as leaders to take kids to introduce kids to those things are nice, because it you know, walking through those doors was really hard. But if you have a kid that can be a peer navigator and go to a martial arts class with a kid, go to a sports thing. It would be great. So that's something I'm working on. But the last thing I want to talk about is, you know, the book is bullying stops here. And I think that as communities, we need to get programs in our schools and community centers. So the last chapter talks about that. And it is not difficult. It just takes coordination. And my, my, my company is called fit for defense. And I'm really happy to work with groups to figure out how they can get a program going in their organization and help them through the steps. So there's basically the steps are laid out in the last chapter and how to do it. But it has to be everyone Yeah, It can't just, you know, you can't just have the teachers and not the parents, right? You need the whole community. This is also happening in offices, right, like workplace is bullying is huge because little bullies grew up to be big bully.

Heather Hester: 00:25:17

Exactly right. I was just gonna say, you know, it transcends age. So, yes,

Suzanne Jean: 00:25:24

yeah. So my message is that we begin to get that message out everywhere, that it's not okay. It's just not acceptable. Now, we have gangs murdering each other incidences daily, and as you know, in your area, just so much discrimination and hurt, right? Yes. That's all okay. Okay, that's what I'm working on.

Heather Hester: 00:25:55

I love that. So do you have um, do you work virtually with people? Or do you own I can,

Suzanne Jean: 00:26:00

yeah, I can work virtually. Okay.

Heather Hester: 00:26:03

Okay. And I had mentioned that your dad,

Suzanne Jean: 00:26:06

I have a train the trainer program. So I trained instructors in different areas. Okay. That's what I was gonna do. I do have instructors in other places that are very, very good and can go in and work with communities as well, to do that kind of work or get a class going.

Heather Hester: 00:26:22

Wonderful. Right, right.

Suzanne Jean: 00:26:24

And we have classes we work with, you know, we work with sports groups, we work in community centers, we work in jails, we work in alternate schools, we work in mainstream schools. It's

Heather Hester: 00:26:36

incredible, incredible mission, the curriculum

Suzanne Jean: 00:26:38

is this. Well, the the full youth curriculum is 10 weeks, but it can be delivered in a lot of different ways. Because if it's in a PE class, it might be twice a week, you know, splitting the classes. Right? Yeah. So it's very flexible.

Heather Hester: 00:26:57

That is fantastic. Really, Grant. Oh, my goodness. Well, I am so thrilled. So tell everyone the name of your book,

Suzanne Jean: 00:27:06

Bullying Stops Here.

Heather Hester: 00:27:07

And can they get on

Suzanne Jean: 00:27:10

they can get the book on Amazon.

Heather Hester: 00:27:12

Wonderful. Well, I will have links in the show notes. So that you know, obviously you guys you can jump on right now everybody and jump on to Amazon and grab it. Otherwise, there will be a release for your anti bullying program.

Suzanne Jean: 00:27:25

That's right, exactly.

Heather Hester: 00:27:26

Well, all of the information is in there as well. But I will also give some links to to you so so people can reach out directly if they would like if they're like, I don't need to read the book. I just want to do this. I'll they can reach out to you right away. So I am just so grateful that you came onto the show, and that we were connected by a very dear mutual acquaintance. And that this is just such important work that you're doing. And I know I am grateful whether your

Suzanne Jean: 00:28:01

work is important, too. Thank you, and just providing that support for families and kids. Really great.

Heather Hester: 00:28:11

Thank you. Well, we definitely, like you said earlier we're simpatico and we're simpatico, right. So we're just gonna breed that's exactly. I mean, you know, if nothing else, we have that that's always with us. Right? We always have the breath. So anyway, thank you. Thank you so much for being here today.

Suzanne Jean: 00:28:34

bye Heather.

Heather Hester: 00:28:36

Thanks so much for joining me today. If you enjoyed today's episode, I could be so grateful for a rating or review, click on the link in the show notes or go to my website, chrysalismama.com To stay up to date on my latest resources as well as to learn how you can work with me. Please share this podcast with anyone who needs to know that they are not alone. And remember to just breathe. Until next time