De-escalation Training for Care Staff: What Martial Arts Schools Should Know Before Saying Yes

A counselling agency wants to pay a martial arts school to train its staff. Before agreeing, owners need to understand what these workers actually need, which restraint curricula their regulators may already require, and where a dojo’s expertise fits without overreaching.

The request usually arrives informally. A parent who works in behavioural health mentions that her employer, an agency with somewhere between 150 and 200 counsellors serving behaviourally challenged young people, is looking for a paid class. Could the school run a session for ten of the agency’s clients, each accompanied by a counsellor? Could it do something for the staff?

That scenario was discussed on a recent coaching call among martial arts school owners, and it raises questions that go well beyond marketing. Training people who work with distressed children and adults is a different job from teaching a Tuesday-night kids’ class. Done well, it can be a genuine community service and a durable staff programme. Done carelessly, it can put a school outside its insurance cover, outside the agency’s regulatory obligations and, in the worst case, contribute to someone being hurt.

What does a behavioural-health agency actually need?

Stephen Oliver, a 10th Degree Black Belt and the publisher of this journal, framed the need plainly during the call: counsellors in these settings do not need street self-defence. They are not preparing for a knife-wielding stranger in a car park. They need tools for people who are, in his words, “irrational in the moment”, and they need to use those tools without injuring anyone.

In practical terms, that means four things:

• Non-violent verbal conflict resolution: tone, pacing, word choice and the ability to lower the temperature of an escalating exchange.
• Non-violent physical conflict resolution: stance, distance, positioning, and how to move away from or disengage from a grab or strike.
• Passive and active control that does not injure: techniques that protect both the worker and the client.
• Confidence under pressure: workers who know what to do are less likely to freeze or overreact, which Oliver argued is when counsellors or their clients get hurt.

Strikes, joint destruction and “finish the fight” material have no place here. A school that shows up with its standard self-defence seminar has misread the brief.

Are agencies required to use a specific restraint curriculum?

Often, yes. This is the single most important fact for a school owner to establish before quoting a price.

Many organisations that serve children and vulnerable adults operate under state licensing rules, federal conditions of participation or accreditation standards that govern who may physically intervene and how staff must be trained. Some states publish lists of approved programmes. Oregon’s Department of Education, for example, has published a list of approved restraint and seclusion training programmes for schools that includes the Mandt System, the Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI), Pro-Act, Professional Crisis Management Associates, Right Response, Safe Crisis Management, Therapeutic Crisis Intervention from Cornell University, Safety-Care from QBS, Safety First (for early-childhood programmes only) and Ukeru Systems. Louisiana’s child-residential licensing office has published a similar list of state-approved restraint models, and the Handle With Care Behavior Management System is another widely used curriculum.

At the federal level, psychiatric residential treatment facilities serving people under 21 that participate in Medicaid must meet the conditions in 42 CFR Part 483, Subpart G. Those rules require that staff be trained by individuals qualified by education, training and experience, that staff demonstrate competency before participating in an emergency safety intervention, that competency in de-escalation and restraint be demonstrated semiannually, and that CPR certification be maintained.

The first question to put to the agency is therefore simple: “Which crisis-intervention or restraint curriculum are your staff certified in, and does your licence or accreditor require it?” The answer largely determines what a school can responsibly offer.

Why is the restraint of children treated so seriously?

Because it can kill. A 2021 study in Child & Youth Care Forum by Nunno and colleagues at Cornell University reviewed 79 restraint-related fatalities of children and young people in the United States between 1993 and 2018. Of the 63 deaths involving physical restraint, 38 occurred with the young person in a prone (face-down) position. Asphyxia was the leading cause of death. The authors pointed to organisational failures, including inadequate training, lack of medical monitoring and cultures that prioritised control, rather than a single bad decision. In 2009 the Government Accountability Office testified to Congress about cases of death and abuse linked to restraint and seclusion in schools and treatment centres.

For a martial arts instructor, this is uncomfortable reading. Many grappling arts routinely teach pins, top control and chest-to-back positions that are perfectly safe on a mat with a willing, healthy training partner, and potentially lethal when applied to a struggling, distressed, possibly medicated adolescent by staff who have had one afternoon of instruction.

Where can a martial arts school genuinely add value?

Positioned correctly, a great deal. Most certified curricula are delivered in concentrated blocks and refreshed periodically. What they cannot easily provide is regular, practical movement training that builds the confidence and body awareness staff draw on when a situation turns. That is a school’s home ground.

Framed this way, the school becomes complementary to the agency’s certified training rather than a rival to it, which is also the framing most likely to survive review by the agency’s compliance or clinical lead.

Is the bigger opportunity the clients or the staff?

Oliver’s view was unambiguous: the staff. A one-off class for ten clients is unlikely to become an ongoing arrangement. An introductory session for the counsellors, by contrast, can reveal how much they value practical, confidence-building training, and can grow into a recurring staff programme. With 150 to 200 counsellors at a single agency, that is a meaningful group.

He was equally clear about what not to expect. The agency’s clients are unlikely to feed the school’s regular enrolment, and owners should not build a business case on the assumption that they will. He also cautioned, more broadly, against letting small institutional contracts pull a school away from its core tuition model. The work should be judged on its own merits: fair payment, genuine community value and, perhaps, some counsellors who choose to train as individual students.

The community-service and PR angle

Oliver also noted that a well-run session, for example thirty young people with their counsellors learning life skills in a dojo, is the kind of story local news outlets cover. That is legitimate, but it carries obligations. Clients of behavioural-health services have privacy rights, and the agency will have rules about photography, names and publicity. No photograph, video or social-media post involving clients should be made without the agency’s written approval, and many agencies will refuse. Publicity focused on the staff programme, with staff consent, is usually simpler.

How should an instructor prepare before the first meeting?

By arriving with the facts, the vocabulary and a clear sense of what the instructor does not know. On a recent follow-up coaching call among martial arts school owners, the advice was consistent: research the setting, learn how staff talk about their work, and go in to listen before offering to teach.

Know the numbers for that type of facility. The risk is real and measurable. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 41,960 nonfatal workplace violence cases requiring days away from work, job restriction or transfer in health care and social assistance over 2021–2022, an annualised rate of 14.2 cases per 10,000 full-time workers against 2.9 across all private industry. The sector accounted for 72.8 per cent of such cases. An instructor who can cite figures like these, and ideally the provider’s own incident data, is taken more seriously than one who cannot.

Know the terminology and the population. Learn the provider’s words for incidents, behaviour plans and interventions, and find out who is served. Adolescents and adults present harder situations than young children, and a programme built for one will not suit the other.

Stay in your lane. Oliver warned against “walking into somebody else’s environment” and lecturing highly trained counsellors on their core expertise. Chief Master Greg Moody, a columnist for this journal, put it plainly: “Don’t try to be the expert in something that they are.” Moody cited the Dunning–Kruger effect, the finding that people with limited skill in a field tend to overestimate their competence in it, and said that when he began anti-bullying work 20 years ago the reality differed from what he had assumed.

Ask about real incidents first. Grand Master Jeff Smith, Chief of Instruction at Martial Arts Wealth Mastery (the coaching organisation run by this journal’s publisher), said care staff usually already have verbal de-escalation training; the gap is what to do if they are grabbed or struck. Before teaching anything, he asks staff which incidents they have actually faced, such as grabs to the wrist, neck or clothing, and builds from those. Many facilities have hands-off rules and use protective pads or shields, and those rules are to be respected, not worked around.

Assume previous training may have been poor. Oliver cautioned never to underestimate how weak earlier training may have been, and argued that a little bad training can be worse than none. Under adrenal stress, clear thinking degrades, which is why self-defence instructors such as Peyton Quinn, author of Real Fighting: Adrenaline Stress Conditioning Through Scenario-Based Training, built their teaching around realistic scenarios rather than technique alone.

Sources for this section: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Workplace Violence 2021–2022” fact sheet (accessed 24 September 2026); Kruger, J. and Dunning, D. (1999), “Unskilled and unaware of it”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77(6), doi:10.1037/0022-3514.77.6.1121; Peyton Quinn, Real Fighting (Paladin Press, ISBN 9780873648936).

What should be settled before the first session?

Treat this as professional services work, with the paperwork that implies.

• Scope in writing. A short statement of what will and will not be taught, explicitly excluding restraint of clients unless the instructor is certified, protects both parties.
• Insurance. Confirm with the broker that the school’s policy covers off-site instruction, professional training for another organisation’s employees, and, if relevant, sessions involving the agency’s clients. Many martial arts policies are written around on-premises classes for enrolled students. Ask whether the agency requires the school to be named as an additional insured or to name the agency.
• A contract. Fees, cancellation, location, maximum group size, who supplies mats, and indemnity terms should be written down. A solicitor or attorney should review indemnity language.
• Waivers and health screening. Staff participants should complete the school’s waiver or an agreed equivalent. Ask the agency how it wants participant health issues flagged.
• Safeguarding. If clients who are minors or vulnerable adults attend, background checks, two-adult rules and agency supervision matter. The journal’s analysis of the safeguarding gap most martial arts schools sit outside is directly relevant, as is its guidance on the first 24 hours after an instructor is accused.
• Instructor selection. Send the calmest, most experienced teacher, not the best fighter.

Frequently asked questions

Can a martial arts school teach restraint techniques to behavioural-health staff?

Only with care. Many agencies are required by state rules, federal conditions or accreditors to use a specific certified curriculum such as CPI, Mandt, Safety-Care or Handle With Care. Unless an instructor is certified in the curriculum the agency uses, the school should not teach holds for use on clients.

What should a martial arts school offer counsellors instead?

Complementary training: verbal de-escalation practice, awareness and distance, body mechanics, balance and safe falling, disengagement from grabs (with agency approval) and personal-safety skills. These build confidence without conflicting with the agency’s certified restraint programme.

How should a martial arts instructor prepare before meeting a care provider about de-escalation training?

Research incident and staff injury rates for that type of facility, learn the provider’s terminology and the age group it serves, and go in to listen rather than lecture. Ask staff which incidents they have actually faced, respect any hands-off rules, and do not present yourself as an expert in their counsellors’ field.

Why is prone restraint considered dangerous?

Face-down restraint can restrict breathing. A 2021 Cornell-led study of 79 child and youth restraint fatalities in the US from 1993 to 2018 found that 38 of the 63 physical-restraint deaths occurred in the prone position, with asphyxia the leading cause of death.

Will classes for an agency’s clients bring new students to the school?

Probably not in meaningful numbers. Practitioners who have done this work suggest treating client sessions as community service and focusing on a recurring staff programme, which is the more durable opportunity.

Does a standard martial arts insurance policy cover training at another organisation?

Not necessarily. Many policies are written around on-premises classes for enrolled students. Owners should confirm with their broker that off-site professional training, and any sessions involving the agency’s clients, are covered before signing.