Emotional Pro

During the hectic days of 1971 that followed my separation from my husband, re-enrollment in the graduate social work program and the beginning of my single-parenting years with a one-year old, I studied Aikido with Robert Nadeau at the Unitarian Church in San Francisco. This one-year study helped me to stay centered, exercise my body, and spend some time with adults!
Toward the end of that year, during my internship placement at Catholic Social Services in San Rafael, California, I was assigned to run a group for 12-14 adolescent boys, ages 12-13. My co-leader was Pat, a warm and gentle man who was doing community service as a Conscientious Objector during the Vietnam War. We were enjoying working together with a group of boys who had moderately severe emotional problems, and who could sometimes be rowdy.
On one particular Friday I learned that Pat would be unable to lead the group that day. With only a fifteen-minute warning, I prepared myself to lead the group alone.
The boys, already assembled, were whispering and laughing when I entered the room. I noted that they were eyeing me in an unusual way, then snickering together. Listening carefully, I determined that they had been making plans for something. Shortly the boldest of the group stepped forward and informed me that they were planning to attack me and remove my clothing. He moved toward me, ready to begin the attack.
One year of studying Aikido is not really much, but I realized it was all that I had. I centered myself, took a firm stance, and attempted one of the moves I had learned. The young man fell to the floor. He got up, eager to close in for the “kill” and came after me again. Once again, using another move, I applied pressure on his hand in such a way that he fell to his knees, unable to do anything but pay attention to the discomfort in his wrist.
He quit the field.
In their turn, three more boys came after me, fortunately not all at once. With each one of them, I used what I knew of Aikido, leaving them flat on their backs on the floor.
As this happened, they became curious. Finally the first boy said, “How do you do that, anyway?”
I informed him that I was using Aikido, something I had been studying recently. I told him if they would stop their aggressive actions toward me, I would teach them some of what I knew. The boys eagerly agreed and we spent the rest of our therapy time doing “Aikido rolls,” learning to “move from center,” and other basic things I had learned from Mr. Nadeau. The crisis was averted. Patrick returned the following week; and the boys in the group kept working until they graduated.