Tori Eldridge uses her experience in marital arts to help people achieve “emotional self-defense.”
By Troy Dove / Special to The Malibu Times
The martial arts have been practiced in various countries throughout the world for centuries. Increasing in popularity in the United States during the past few decades, they have attracted thousands of men, women, boys and girls interested in learning the tried and true methods of physical self-defense.
But there are dangers, much more common than physical attack, that many people may find themselves helpless to defend against.
Tori Eldridge, author of “Empowered Living: A Guide to Physical and Emotional Self Defense,” said she believes emotional self-defense is just as important as physical self-defense, and is all too often neglected.
Eldridge, a fourth-degree black belt in To-Shin Do (based in Ninjutsu) and a black belt in Tang Soo Do, has been involved in the martial arts for over a decade.
“In helping people in self-defense, what I’ve noticed is that they divorce their physical self-defense from their emotional-self defense,” Eldridge said. “So what I’m trying to do is connect the two.”
Eldridge said she believes the tactics she’s learned through her martial arts training can be applied not only to physical defense, but to emotional self-defense as well.
“We are half physical beings and half emotional beings,” Eldridge said. “It’s all intertwined, and so is our safety.”
Eldridge said while many people can defend themselves physically, when it comes to dealing with the emotional situations encountered in daily life, such as arguments with family and friends or feeling unappreciated at work, many people find themselves emotionally defenseless.
“You can take a handful of these physical defense concepts and techniques [from the book] and you can use them at work and you can use them with your family, and, god forbid you get mugged, you can use them there.”
Eldridge did not give a specific example of how she applies her technique of applying the physical self-defense concepts to emotional self-defense, but said the topic always raises questions.
Eldridge said what people get out of the book differs greatly, especially between men and women.
“Their [men] revelations tend to be that they didn’t realize they weren’t protecting themselves emotionally,” Eldridge said. “Some of the strongest men have the disadvantage in an emotional situation, whether it’s marriage or whether it’s work.”
Eldridge said women appear to be attracted to a completely different aspect of the book. Women usually say, “I didn’t realize that I could be that powerful in a physical situation.”
Eldridge said she felt this book had to be written.
“Other books have hundreds of techniques that you’re supposed to memorize just to get through the week,” she said. “This book offers just a handful of techniques that you can easily incorporate into your day-to-day life.”
Not only a student and daily practitioner of the martial arts, Eldridge is also an instructor at the Warrior Quest Society in Newbury Park, Calif., a small private school focusing on To-Shin Do and Ninjutsu, the disciplines she studies.
The school hires teachers from all over the world, she said. “We are really there so that we can perpetuate the art.”
While her focus has been in the martial arts for more than a decade, Eldridge has a multi-faceted background.
She attended Northwestern University as a theater major before she moving to New York to perform. After performing in various Broadway plays, she moved to Los Angeles and accepted a recurring role on the television series “The Love Boat.”
Eldridge began using her skills in dance and theater to teach others by becoming both a performance coach and a singing teacher. She currently serves as the assistant director for the Malibu High School drum line.
“I have always been a teacher of something,” Eldridge said. “Always.”
Eldridge will be discussing her book, “Empowered Living: A Guide to Physical and Emotional Protection” at Diesel, A Bookstore Oct. 19 beginning at 7 p.m.