Elemental is a sexual assault protection program that offers realistic training for realistic situations. This program:

  • Combines the best of classroom education and self-defense training in a program with peer-reviewed evidence of long-term effectiveness.
  • Offers an organized, cost-effective, and holistic curriculum that is grounded in social science research and is inclusive of a variety of participants, including gender and sexual minorities (GSM).
  • Assists your institution in filling the most recent requirements of the Violence Against Women Act (including the SaVE Act). Elemental combines some of the best elements of primary prevention and risk reduction programming. We offer face-to-face training and ongoing prevention through self-directed student review.
  • Provides program participants with choices in the way they respond to an assault, each based on the four elements of To-Shin Do. Our name comes from this element-based problem-solving paradigm.

What are the four elements?

Earth (Confident)
Hold your ground
Water (Surprised)
Step back momentarily, assess, then react
Fire (Connected)
Anticipate the threat and stop it before it grows
Wind (Withdrawn)
Exploit weaknesses within the threat that enable you to leave entirely

Latest News

Elemental Featured in New Publication

Posted on May 30th, 2019

Read about the prevention philosophy behind Elemental in an article published in Change: The Magazine of Higher Education.

https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/AeT7Wuwqbut6cWHzgUSb/full?target=10.1080/00091383.2019.1606586

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Testimonials

First and foremost, I would like to congratulate you & your team on what a fantastic program Elemental is. I have been through several different types of programs, and I have to say that yours is one of the best I’ve attended.

Assistant Residence Hall Director

I really liked the earth, water, fire, and wind aspect to the seminar. I think it really helped by giving us four options for each scenario.

Participant

I would 100% recommend this class to others; in fact, I already have. It flows really well, it's very informative, it doesn’t tiptoe around the subjects, and you can ask any question and you don’t feel stupid or like you're alone. Everyone was really helpful and nice (even the creepers), and now you get review materials so you can keep practicing so you don’t forget what you learned.

Participant

Just wanted to let you know how awesome you are. You are making a huge difference! I think you are the only ones who get it.

M.W., PhD

My favorite part of the seminar was the video. So many times, I hear about these situations, but never really have any idea what goes on in these scenarios. Although I am not involved in any type of party scene, I do think it is really helpful to see these situations in context so I know how to react in an unexpected situation.

Participant

My daughter is signed up for an upcoming session. I just wanted to say that I think your program is a valuable service to the students!

Parent of a participant

Elemental gives people helpful, but basic communication skills in these situations. I also like that it teaches you that there are steps to take before heading to the more physical ones.

Participant

I really liked the "uh-oh" moment identifications because a lot of them I would have never thought of and it allows me to look out for them in real life situations.

Participant

I think this is a great seminar and I would highly recommend it to anyone, especially freshmen girls. So often we expect that these assaults would never happen to us, so we find it lame to go and learn defense tactics. But assault is a very real and scary thing, and I now feel much more prepared if ever faced with a situation like this.

Participant

I have recommended the seminar to other because it helped me a lot with confidence in uncomfortable situations, and made me feel like I could defend myself if necessary.

Participant