Local personal development center focuses on building self esteem in the community through the Powerful Words Character Development program and promotion with the assistance of Route 72 Systems.

Pleasantville, NY (PRWEB) October 21, 2012

Self Esteem Defined: What is it, what we say and think about ourselves.

Self Esteem & Our Abilities: Talent, effort and outcome.

Self Esteem and Comparisons: Body, mind, skills and strengths.

Self Esteem Friends & Family: The people who we want to surround us.

"People with strong self esteem regard themselves highly and feel good about who they are. In order for children, teens, and adults to thrive in school, business, and life, they must see themselves and their contributions as worthwhile." says Dr. Robyn Silverman, Kapatid Martial Arts child & adolescent expert, and creator of the Powerful Words Character Development system used at the facility.

Patrick Consing, owner of Kapatid Martial Arts says, "We all know that Self Esteem is crucial to the success and safety of our kids. With all of the negative attention that bullying is drawing, it's vital that our young people develop strong self esteem to be able to successfully navigate their school age years and beyond. We realize that this character trait will help them succeed in all areas of their lives and we're honored to help them hone it. I enjoy seeing our community recognized as a place with Powerful Character, and seeing our students lead the way! As this community's premier Powerful Personal Development Center, we take this responsibility very seriously. We're thrilled to help our students and our community to thrive and succeed, and Self Esteem month is going to help us to do just that."

Consing has helped thousands of kids, teens, and adults to embrace a positive and healthy lifestyle. With the assistance of Route 72 Systems, whose experience in email marketing and online marketing strategies spans over 15 years, Kapatid Martial Arts can capitalize on the online market. With the use of additional services such as Auto Appender (http://autoappender.com), the company has the ability to provide more value to the community as a whole.

Jim Alamia Route 72 Systems, Internet Marketing 877-726-8695 Email Information

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Pleasantville Personal Development Center Goal Is Building Self Esteem In The Community

THE FIRST TIME we see Freddie Quell, the dipsomaniac drifter sex-fiend cult-devotee hero of Paul Thomas Andersons new film The Master, hes peering out over the bow of a ship. All we see of him are his eyes and forehead, shadowed by the brim of a combat helmet. Its just a flash. We dont know what hes looking at or what hes about to face, whether hes about to land on an enemy shoreline or go off on leave, just that its wartime in the Pacific. But whatever happens to Freddie in the war certainly leaves a mark. The next time we see him hes on a beach and clearly strung out, chopping coconuts with a machete like he has a mind to lop off his own hand. He celebrates V-J day by drinking ethanol out of torpedo engines. While the other sailors wrestle, Freddie simulates sex with a woman sculpted out of sand and masturbates into the surf. Back home, he flunks out of an early version of PTSD screening by claiming every Rorschach blot hes shown is either a cock or a pussy or a cock going into a pussy. At this point we start to wonder, why are we following this creep around? Wasnt this supposed to be a movie about Scientology?

The Master is P.T. Andersons sixth film. Over the past 16 years, hes put together a body of work that has made him stand out as one of a handful of bona fide American auteurs directors with a discernible vision, a recognizable visual style, and a commitment to the medium as an art form. Beginning with Hard Eight in 1996, hes made a suite of films in an array of genres and moods: a perfectly executed noir short story, a sprawling Altmanesque group portrait, a haphazard (and to my mind, somewhat curdled) paean to chance, a slim, darkly funny novella, and a return to the DeMille-Griffith fire and brimstone epic. All of them are held together by a fascination with a place (Southern California) and certain types of character (obsessed loners, orphaned children, surrogate fathers). Of all of these, The Master is his strangest and most elusive work. Hard Eight and Punch Drunk Love were genre pieces, however off-kilter. Boogie Nights is an exquisite ensemble piece, but its hardly mysterious. Magnolia and There Will Be Blood were driven by clear, if sometimes overly schematic, clashes. The Master is harder to characterize. Its a play on film history, an unresolved love story, a statement about conformity and rebellion. Above all its a struggle between two characters and two epochs, a duet in which nothing resolves or comes to a conclusion. Its as wide-open and complex a masterpiece, and as ambiguous and puzzling a film as has appeared in America since David Lynchs Mulholland Drive or Todd Hayness Safe.

Freddie is what sticks with you as you leave the theater. Hes like Robert De Niros characters in Mean Streets and Raging Bull as long as hes on screen you cant relax because something might happen to him, or he might do something terrible to someone else. You feel like youve gotten too close to his mania and his tics and you want to push him out. If youve ever been crazy, or known someone who is, you also recognize the terrible energy, like black electricity, which threatens to consume him and which he works so hard to deaden and contain. But even as Freddie is the most surprising and indelible thing about the film, the question remains: What is he doing here?

The answer has something to do with Freddies deep unease, the way he seems at odds and out-of-joint with his surroundings and the times. With his painfully hunched shoulders and a battered, deeply-lined face, he looks like an evolutionary throwback, an australopithecine John Garfield dropped off on the savannahs of a new continent. As played by Joaquin Phoenix, Freddie has the demeanor of a wounded animal. Tight spaces make him uncomfortable. Time and again, Anderson frames him in enclosures a chicken wire shack, a ships hold that make him visibly unhinged. Behind bars in actual prison, Freddie is a complete maniac. When he speaks he keeps his lips pressed together, talking out of the corner of his mouth like a stroke victim. And the damage extends to what he says: hes barely able to articulate a thought or access a memory. Though a creature of appetite, with a constant need for sex and drink, he doesnt have much success with women. Hes a wizard with booze, however a moonshine alchemist who can synthesize rotgut out of whatever happens to be at hand, whether its paint thinner or Lysol. Its this talent that ultimately wins him a place in a provisional community aboard the Masters yacht.

Early in the movie theres a striking interlude when hes working as a department store photographer. His suit looks like it may, at any second, strangle him. His job is to take stiff, formal portraits of ordinary American families. Theyre the visual equivalent of the new Levittowns springing up all over the country. In a beautiful, fluid sequence, scored to Ella Fitzgeralds rendition of Get Thee Behind Me Satan, he seduces (or is he seduced by?) an in-store model, but he passes out when they go to dinner. The following day, he assaults a fat businessman whos come to have his picture taken. Next, he turns up in a California cabbage field, a migrant farm worker. Before long, he accidentally poisons the patriarch of a laborer family and has to take off, running through the plowed fields pursued by a vengeful mob. On the run, he ends up at the North Bay docks. An exquisite gliding shot captures Freddie shambling in the foreground while a group of well-dressed revelers dance on the deck in the background. He stows away, passes out, and has his flask stolen. The next morning begins his involvement with The Cause.

From this moment, The Master becomes the story of the relationship between these two vastly different men. Its a story of initiation and servitude, and its a strange kind of love story, a wary dance between two figures who clearly stand for more than themselves. Lancaster Dodd, the self-styled master of the title, is a pompous charmer in charge of his own religion, called, prosaically enough, The Cause. Its a small-time cult with big-money donors, which promises its adherents a cure for all mental handicaps and certain forms of leukemia, as well as an end to nuclear war. Dodd has an enormous sense of his own importance. In his own words, hes a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist, a theoretical philosopher but above all I am a man. Hes a genial charlatan and a barely restrained bully, but hes also an immensely charismatic, frivolous, joyful presence. Dodd is a drinker and a gadabout, a blowhard and a fraud, a giddy charlatan and a theater ham. More than once, he leads his disciples in a satyr dance, and he draws Freddie to him with a giddy wedding toast about taming dragons until they roll over.

If Phoenixs Freddie descends from the early performances of DeNiro and Brando, Philip Seymour Hoffmans Dodd is Orson Welles, especially the self-consciously theatrical show-off of the later years, the man behind the curtain from Mr. Arkadin and the bogus magician of F is for Fake. You get the sense that if he didnt hold the keys to the last 60 trillion years of human spiritual existence, Dodd would have been a brilliant magician, as Welles was during the war years, when he was staging magic shows for the troops with Marlene Dietrich for an assistant, sawing Rita Hayworth in half every night while dreaming of running for president. And remember that, with the radio broadcast The War of the Worlds, Welles created, however briefly, his own moment of extraterrestrial awe and terror. But Anderson doesnt just call up Welles the magician; The Master also draws on the noir Welles, the Welles of impossible and dangerous desires. Sly references to Lady From Shanghai tumble throughout the film. Theres the initial stowaway sequence and the voyage on the Alethea from San Francisco to New York, the exact reverse of the course taken by Welless Michael OHara in Lady. Then theres the backstory with Freddies would-be child bride, whom he leaves to be an oiler on a merchant marine cruise to Shanghai. And finally, theres the song. In their final meeting, just as he is about to banish Freddie for good, Dodd sings him, Id like to Get You on a Slow Boat to China, in a low, steady voice, as if it were a lullaby or a plea. Its a shocking moment, at once comic, absurd, and tragically sexy one of the sexiest things Ive seen on screen in years. For these two, Shanghai is a ways off from Welless wickedest city in the world. Its their territory ahead, the dream space of their imaginary, infinitely displaced union.

Of course, on a more direct level, Dodds character and appearance are clearly modeled on L. Ron Hubbard, down to the self-description as a theoretical physicist. His movement, The Cause, strongly resembles the early version of Scientology, the one that became an overnight sensation thanks to the success of Dianetics. With some scrambling and compression of chronology, many of the events of Hubbards life are in The Master as well the sojourn on the boat, the refuge with wealthy patrons, the embezzlement, the party congress in Phoenix, the retreat to England are all based on fact, with the exception that the real story of Hubbards rise was much weirder and more sordid, featuring multiple divorces, a kidnapping, fraud charges, conspiracy theories, and a cabal of well heeled Southern California necromancers.

So what draws Dodd to Freddie and Freddie to Dodd? They have a strange sort of partnership. Dodd has his processing techniques and Freddie has his secret varnish-cocktail recipe. Literally and figuratively, they spend the movie drinking each others moonshine. More than that, an obvious erotic current runs between the two, especially from Dodd to Freddie. They wrestle and lock eyes. In his own life, Dodd is clearly under the thumb (and sexually, the hand) of his wife Peggy, played by the superb if underused Amy Adams, a fanatical believer in the movement and a jealous guardian of her husbands prestige. Maybe as recompense, Dodd enjoys having someone to dominate on his own. At times Freddies his disciple, at others, something closer to a slave. Hes also a science project, a lump of proletarian clay on which to test Dodds theories. For much of the middle portion of the film, Dodd treats Freddie like a savage pet, and seems to relish having such an animal at his command. Hes the violent id to his silken superego. He calls him naughty boy and dog, but at the same time clearly relishes the violence Freddie is willing to do in his name.

But the attraction between Freddie and Dodd has less to do with violence and control than with therapy, and with secrets. In return for his devotion, Dodd is able to give Freddie some kind of relief, which isnt that far from pain. The armys psychotherapy bounces off Freddie completely, but Dodd manages to open him up. In the movies most powerful scene, Dodd casually offers him a session of informal processing below decks. He forces Freddie to keep his eyes open without blinking, while answering a series of questions that go to the root of his shame and fear, his history of incest, alcoholism, family insanity. As he answers, the veins pop out of his face, a scene accompanied by extreme, almost sexual exertion. His past flows out of him, like a boil thats been lanced. Its a scene of incredible intensity, like watching a real life exorcism or someone speaking in tongues. But however effective this treatment is in the short term, it doesnt last, and at a deeper level Freddie never really succumbs to the appeal of The Cause.

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Is “The Master” a retelling of “The Tempest”?

The US state of Minnesota has backed away from a policy that would have banned providers of free web-based higher education from offering courses to its residents.

Last week, El Reg reported that online education startup Coursera was forced to add a clause to its terms of service forbidding Minnesotans from taking its courses, after that state's Office of Higher Education warned it that Coursera's activities violated Minnesota's consumer protection laws.

The only way to continue to offer its courses to Minnesota residents, Coursera was reportedly told, was for each of its 33 university partners to register to offer educational services within the state, at a cost of $1,200 per year plus an initial fee.

On Monday, however, Larry Pogemiller, director of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, was in full spin-control mode.

"Obviously, our office encourages lifelong learning and wants Minnesotans to take advantage of educational materials available on the Internet, particularly if they're free," Pogemiller said in a statement emailed to The Register.

Previously, Minnesota officials had made the case that the state's registration law applied equally to online and brick-and-mortar institutions, regardless of whether they charged for their courses.

The idea of the law is to protect Minnesotans from wasting their money or even their time on low-quality degree programs. But although Coursera offers high-quality course materials developed by top universities worldwide, it neither charges for its courses nor offers credits toward degrees.

In his statement, Pogemiller acknowledged that the company's innovative model made it a new kind of educational resource not envisioned by Minnesota's decades-old law. As such, he said, the Office of Higher Education had no plans to take action against either Coursera or its users.

"No Minnesotan should hesitate to take advantage of free, online offerings from Coursera," Pogemiller wrote.

As far as we know, only Coursera has butted heads with Minnesota over its registration law thus far. Other online-learning startups, such as edX and Udacity, have not reported similar troubles. But the issue may soon be moot, as Pogemiller says the law is due for a refresh.

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Minnesota backpedals from online education ban

The Global Autism Project offers convenient continuing education online lessons to behavior analysts in the U.S. and abroad. Access them at globalautismproject.org.

New York, NY (PRWEB) October 24, 2012

ABA remains the only evidence-based treatment for autism spectrum disorder. It is often recommended that these services be delivered by professionals with board certification in behavior analysis. This certification requires coursework and supervision, along with continuing education after certification is given.

Given these factors, the demand for behavior analysis is increasing. With the rise in the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder, along with changes in insurance law, finding the time to attend conferences can be a challenge. "I know that as a working mom, it was nearly impossible for me," says Global Autism Project Clinical Director Ann Beirne, "Even when we do find the time, finding new and exciting continuing education courses can be difficult."

The Global Autism Project would like to announce that the benefit of their experience is now available to anyone seeking to maintain board certification in behavior analysis as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) or Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst (BCaBA). These courses are available completely online and can be taken anytime after purchase, allowing professionals the flexibility to fulfill their continuing education requirements without taking time from their work. The first of their course offerings, Cultural Sensitivity and Evidence Based Practice has been well received and is now required of our global volunteer program (SkillCorps) team members.

Whether you are seeking to maintain certification, expand your skills, or simply learn more about services for individuals with autism spectrum disorder around the world, these courses offer a unique perspective. To access them, simply go to the courses page.

Molly Pinney Molly Ola Pinney (718) 764-8226 Email Information

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Global Autism Projects Announces Online Continuing Education Units

While Minnesota Office of Higher Education banned its residents from using Coursera, a free online college course provider, Boston University students said online education adds a new dimension to learning that is possible with current technology.

The online environment can be very good for more thoughtful communications, more reflecting and interactive communications, said School of Education professor David Whittier.

Coursera offers about 200 courses in topics including business, humanities, medicine, biology and computer science, all online and free of charge. However, taking these online courses does not result in a degree from a university.

Coursera was banned in Minnesota because it never had permission to operate there from the state government, according to Courseras website.

Although online learning adds to the educational experience, Whittier said it is no replacement for classroom learning.

When you meet together in a classroom with people, there is an exchange of energy between people, he said. By having a hybrid learning experience, you can try to capture the advantages of both forms.

Online forums provide information exchange and document repository for reflective discussions, Whittier said. The classroom allows students and teachers to build social intelligence and interpersonal interactions.

Some students said they support online courses and learning for its valuable flexibility and accessibility.

A lot of adults in higher education, if they work, need some alternate to day classes in classrooms, said Erin Robinson, a School of Social Work graduate student.

Some members of the BU community also said taking online courses, such as those offered by Coursera, is helpful for students who want to academically branch out.

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Minn. ruling highlights online classes

Free online education platform Coursera says they are education for everyone. But after a decision by one U.S. state, they may have to throw an almost into that motto.

In a truly baffling display of governmental ignorance, the state of Minnesota has outlawed Coursera. Yes, the state of Minnesota has outlawed free, online education. As The Chronicle of Higher Education reports it, the ban cites a decades-old law that forces educational institutions to get permission from the state before they begin operating there.

A spokesperson for Minnesotas Office of Higher Education defended the declaration by saying,

This has been a longtime requirement in Minnesota (at least 20 years) and applies to online and brick-and-mortar postsecondary institutions that offer instruction to Minnesota residents as part of our overall responsibility to provide consumer protection for students.

From Courseras standpoint, the Minnesota law focuses on degree-granting programs which Coursera is not. Of course, a decades-old law would not have been able to foresee free, online education providers but it begs the questions: Why would the state expand the scope of the law to include them?

Adding to the odd nature of the decision, its entirely unclear how the state plans to enforce the new law. And its also unclear whether the state has included other similar online education services like edX and Udacity in its ban.

Either way, Coursera has done their part to inform Minnesota residents of the decree. Theyve posted this in their terms:

Coursera has been informed by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education that under Minnesota Statutes (136A.61 to 136A.71), a university cannot offer online courses to Minnesota residents unless the university has received authorization from the State of Minnesota to do so. If you are a resident of Minnesota, you agree that either (1) you will not take courses on Coursera, or (2) for each class that you take, the majority of work you do for the class will be done from outside the State of Minnesota.

Sorry, Minnesotans who wish to expand their knowledge. Im sure you can find everything you need to know on Facebook.

Coursera was launched earlier this year by computer science professors from Stanford University. As of today, knowledge-seekers can access 198 different courses in 18 different categories ranging from biology to business & management, from economics to engineering. Coursera currently boasts 33 University partners.

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Minnesota Gets Tough on the Enemy That Is Free, Online Education

After three semesters debating hot-button issues like smoking policy, the Reserve Officers Training Corps, and public course evaluations, the University Senate continued its quiet semester Friday with a plenary largely consumed by updates on online education and the new data sciences institute.

Sree Sreenivasan, Columbias newly appointed chief digital officer, told senators about Columbias efforts to establish a presence in the growing world of online education. Several Columbia schoolsincluding the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of Continuing Education, and Teachers Collegehave offered online courses for years, and next semester the University is offering its first two massive open online courses, or MOOCs, through Coursera.

This is part of whats a growing movement in higher education, Sreenivasan said. We want whatever we do to be thoughtful, strategic, sustainable, without locking into the current technology and keeping with Columbias brands and strengths.

Still, some concerns remain about Columbias impending entry into the online marketplace. University Senator Paige West, an anthropology professor, asked Sreenivasan how online courses might affect intellectual property rights, cultural hostility towards higher education, grading, and Columbias brand.

Im thinking of the people in the courses taking the intellectual property that belongs to Columbia and the faculties and reproducing it in ways that we would not be particularly happy with, West said.

Sreenivasan didnt address Wests question about intellectual property, although he assured her that neither professors nor teaching assistants would be responsible for grading the work of the up to 30,000 students who might be enrolled in a MOOC. Instead, he said, grading will largely be done by computer, even for written work, such as essays.

Sharyn OHalloran, the chair of the senates executive committee, said that she didnt want to get into a conversation about intellectual property rights for online courses. O'Halloran is the chair of a senate task force examining online education.

Thats very much an emerging field, and I think we are going to talk about best practices for individuals and for the University in relation to this, she said.

Sreenivasan added that MOOCs are only part of what he envisions as the future of online education at Columbia. He said that administrators are looking into expanding online components for a wide variety of traditional courses, as well as utilizing the flipped classroom model, in which students learn the material at home through the Internet and then participate in hands-on activities during class time.

Also at the plenary, Assistant Vice President of Benefits Fiona McLennan described professors and administrators health care options. McLennan reviewed the changes to this years policies, which include expanded access to child care subsidies and increased reimbursement for out-of-network services.

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University Senate plenary focuses on online education

More than 100 children will take to the stage to perform one of the most beloved movie musicals of all time in Alpine Kids! Theatre Project fall production of Disneys The Little Mermaid Jr.

Children are split into two casts for four shows, Oct. 20-21 at 2 and 7 p.m., each day at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center.

The Little Mermaid Jr. brings the beloved animated movie musical to life on stage, filled with such hit songs as Part of Your World, Poor Unfortunate Souls, Kiss the Girl, and Under the Sea.

The students in grades 1-8 come from throughout the Flathead Valley and represent almost every elementary and middle school in the valley.

Since beginning the program in 2008, Alpine Theatre Project founders and veteran Broadway actors Luke Walrath and Betsi Morrison have found a place for each child who turns up for auditions.

We find a way to put on a good show with everyone who wants to be in the show, Walrath said. Our goal is to get kids excited about the arts and learn the benefits of being involved. But its still ATP, so it has to pass a certain standard.

The students have been learning basic theatre concepts as well as rehearsing the show each day for a few hours after school.

To further its mission of education, AKTP has partnered with North Valley Hospital to teach the students about proper nutrition and excercise.

Tickets for The Little Mermaid Jr. are $15 for adults and $8 for children 12 and under. For tickets and more information, call 862-SHOW or visitwww.atpwhitefish.org.

See description for cost information.

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Littler Mermaid Jr.

Lenovo has confirmed an October release date for its IdeaPad YOGA 13-inch, 360-degree flip and fold Ultrabook that was shown at CES in January and IFA 2012 last month. It will be joined by another three Windows 8 devices to create a new convertible product family. A smaller 11-inch YOGA and an 11.6-inch tablet named the IdeaTab Lynx will be released later this year, while the business-oriented ThinkPad Twist Ultrabook will appear around the same time as the pack leader.

When Lenovo outed the YOGA 13 in Las Vegas back in January, only a few basic specs were revealed. While these haven't changed, the remainder have now been disclosed. The first of the company's new convertible range, the YOGA 13 can be placed in Tent mode (standing on its edges) or Stand mode (with its keyboard laid flat against the desk) as well as more familiar laptop and tablet orientations.

Upon release on October 26 for a starting price of US$1,099, the 13.1 x 8.9 x 0.67-inch (333.4 x 224.8 x 16.9 mm) Ultrabook will be available in third generation Intel Core i3-3217U, i5-3317U and i7-3517U processor configurations (with integrated HD 4000 graphics), sport a one-megapixel HD webcam and benefit from a Dolby Home Theatre capabilities. There's both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 connectivity, a 2-in-1 media card slot, and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Have a look at the following demonstration video of the YOGA 13 from Lenovo.

Lenovo has given the mighty YOGA 13 a little brother in the shape of the YOGA 11, which is being billed as the worlds slimmest multi-mode PC at 15.6-mm thin. It features an 11.6-inch multitouch display (which doesn't benefit from the wide-viewing-angle capabilities of its bigger sibling) and runs on Windows 8 RT instead of the full version.

The YOGA 11 is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad core processor supported by up to 2 GB of DDR3 RAM and up to 64 GB of eMMC storage, comes with a built-in 720p HD webcam, USB 2.0 connectivity and Wireless-N Wi-Fi, with Bluetooth available as an optional extra. It's also claimed to offer up to 13 hours of battery life.

The YOGA 11 has been given a December shipping window for a suggested starting price of $799.

The IdeaTab Lynx features an 11.6-inch IPS multitouch display, and is said to be one of the first Windows 8 tablets to be powered by Intel's latest Atom dual core processor (running at 1.8 GHz). There's up to 2 GB of LPDDR2 system memory and up to 64 GB of solid state storage with microSD expansion on offer, along with micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports. The tablet benefits from a 2-megapixel webcam with digital microphone, dual surround sound speakers and Dolby Home Theatre audio.

The Lynx can also be docked to an optional keyboard to extend its battery life to a claimed 16 hours and offer physical device connectivity via two full-size USB 2.0 ports. The new IdeaTab has also penciled in for December availability at a cost of $599 for the tablet and an extra $149 for the keyboard.

The remaining Windows 8 convertible is the small-business-friendly ThinkPad Twist Ultrabook, which features a bright (350-nit) 12.5-inch Corning Gorilla Glass IPS multitouch display that can be rotated and twisted around a central hinge. It's available in up to third-gen Intel Core i7 processor options supported by up to 8 GB DDR3 RAM and storage options of up to a 500 GB HDD (with included Active Protection to help protect against accidental drop damage) or 128 GB SSD.

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Lenovo confirms October release for YOGA 13, announces three new Win 8 convertibles

A Toronto yoga studio has traded downward dogs for groin kicks to help its members feel safer in a neighbourhood shaken by a rash of recent sexual assaults.

In a break from yogas peace-loving tradition, a team of black belt instructors took charge at Tula Yoga Spa in Torontos west end Sunday evening to launch a six-week street self-defence course.

To hear about (sexual assaults) in your area, its a little bit scary, said Samantha Marchese, a 21-year-old hairdresser whose own safety concerns prompted her to sign up. A lot of people dont think it would happen to them . . . but I think its good to be educated.

Since July, police have received more than 10 reports of sexual assault incidents in the west downtown area.

On Thanksgiving weekend, police got three similar reports of a man assaulting women from behind in the Christie Pits area, prompting officers to urge residents to use more caution, especially when walking at night.

In response, Tula owner Isabel Lambert said she decided to partner with Toronto police and self-defence instructors to create a course to help her studio members feel more empowered on the street.

On Sunday, nearly 20 people joined two Toronto police officers and a group of self-defence instructors at the Tula studio to learn the best ways to avoid trouble on the street and, if necessary, fight off an assailant.

They learned how to escape chokeholds, wrist grabs and, perhaps most importantly given the recent trend, how to respond when approached from behind.

Its called a coward grab, said Alfie Della-Terza, a retired correctional officer who led the class, and the best way to escape is with the tall become small approach crouch and bend at the waist, then push back before twisting around to escape the grab.

The yogis also learned how to escape a ponytail grab, how to twist out of a chicken wing where both arms are trapped, and how to best target kicks to the kneecap, upper thigh and groin.

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Toronto sex assaults: Yoga studio teaches self-defence