- Deep Empowerment
- Shadow Integration
- Trauma Healing  

The upside of living in a world that has been civilized is that you know you can go and buy a coffee on your lunch break with a very low risk of being brutally attacked by another human being. The downside of having been civilized yourself is that when you are attacked, whether explicitly or subtly, physically or psychologically, you are completely unprepared and ill-equipped to protect yourself.

This is what happens when your ‘niceness’ comes from conditioning rather than true personal choice.

Warrior Embodiment training prepares you for the moments when you need to stop being ‘nice’, whatever the context.

Authentic Warrior Embodiment (AWE) is a system of exercises and practices that enable the individual to embody the energies of the archetypal Warrior, as explored and understood by psychoanalyst Carl Jung (1875-1961).  

More than just ‘acting’ warrior-like, embodiment involves training the nervous system to express the Warrior from the inside-out, as opposed to simply wearing a mask of fearful warrior-like qualities.  

To embody is to become. In AWE, through authentic warrior training, this archetypal energy is revealed, explored and stepped into.  

Students experience: 

• Stronger boundaries

• Decreased fear of confrontation  

• Firmness and grounding in the face of stress 

• Sustainable self-discipline and consistency

• The capacity to take decisive action  

• The ability to hold their ground in conflict  

• Increased depth of integrity in their word  

• Decreased fear of being their authentic self 

• A deep sense of ‘permission’ to defend themselves and others 

• Feeling more connected to their base instincts, without shame  

• ‘Showing up’ in a way that enables respect and trust from those around them 

 A UNIQUE APPROACH  

What makes this training unique, is the authenticity and honesty in which the Warrior is approached. 

Elsewhere in the mind-body and self-development space, the word ‘warrior’ is used often, but almost always with a caveat associating it with love and light and with an undertone of shame around the reality of what the warrior’s role in society really is. 

While ultimately aiming to create heart-connected Warriors, the student is taken on a journey to discover and develop all sides of their Warrior. Including their shadow side.  

The martial arts aspect of the process revolves around training the student for functional and applicable unarmed combat techniques in order to produce actual self-protective capabilities. This boils down to creating a potentially ‘dangerous’ human being (within certain contexts). This is where the Warrior is found and herein lies the transformational power of this process. 

Sharif’s life-long involvement in the martial arts, as well as his experience as a soldier, provide the authentic platform on which this initiation from hate- (fear-) based warrior energy to love-based warrior energy is based. Further, Warrior energy has been central to Sharif’s own journey of successfully emerging, heart-connected, from trauma and abuse.  

THE WARRIOR – THE MISSING ARCHETYPE  

Healthy and integrated Warrior energy is possibly one of the most essential missing pieces in the current collective consciousness of us living in the industrialised Western world.  

For centuries, the Warrior has been misused and disconnected from the heart – resulting in a collective trauma associated with it. As such, in the last several decades, this energy has been shunned, shamed and repressed, which has had several unwanted effects on us individually and collectively.  

• Poor boundaries 

• Feeling unsafe 

• Lack of decisiveness  

• Uncontrollable responses in the face of conflict (unhealthy warrior energy) 

• Inability to access their true ‘voice’ 

• Quiet resentment towards their own ‘niceness’ 

• Lack of passion in life and intimacy   

THE PROCESS   

With the aim of becoming truly capable in their martial skills, the physical aspect of the training reveals aspects of the student’s body-mind where there may be unconscious ‘holding’, lack of flow or hesitation.  

Behind each of these problem patterns is a ‘story’ that is causing them to hold back parts of themselves. These stories are held in the body as varying degrees of trauma and addressing these then is a form of healing as well as personal development.  

Using a collection of methods taken from Eastern martial and yogic traditions as well as more modem Western physiology and counselling skills, the student is able to: 

• Move through patterns of holding back 

• Safely feel into and explore previously repressed parts of themselves 

• Discover and develop new-found power from the depths of their own mind and body  

ORIGINS 

AWE is born out of a combination of external skill development and courageous inner exploration, resulting in a system of self-development and Warrior initiation. 

Driven by growing up in unsafe conditions, Sharif has been involved in the martial arts since early childhood, having trained in a number of disciplines both in the UK and Asia as well as exploring various yogic traditions.  

For over a decade, he has been training and consulting people in self-protection tactics including unarmed combat, tactical communication and threat identification/awareness. Combining this with his use of practical psychology and counselling skills, he has worked with hundreds of people, including many who have experienced violent trauma, which they then begin to integrate through their training.

While this training is offered to all people, as part of Sharif’s personal mission, AWE is his primary tool in the Men’s Work that he leads. At the heart of his mission to re-shape men’s presence in the world, Sharif aims to bring a heart-connected ‘martialness’ back into the lives of men, as a foundation for courage, integrity, loyalty and commitment.

What People Are Saying About This Training…