Most models of mental health assume that when we are well, our minds and bodies naturally regulate our thoughts, emotions, memories, reactions, and sensations towards a stable equilibrium, known as homeostasis. This means that we may experience a stressful event, but we’re able to calm down afterwards, physically and emotionally. Likewise, we might experience a loss and a grieving process, but we learn how to manage the pain we feel and continue to nurture other aspects of our lives.
Mental health problems, then, arise when we are unable to return to homeostasis: when our various mental and physical processes no longer bring us towards a stable equilibrium but instead leave us in states of fear, anxiety, hopelessness, anger, hyperactivity, pain, or other dysphoric states. Theories about why mental health problems arise may tend towards two different ideas:
- Pathological models understand mental health problems as illnesses or disorders that dysregulate our mental and physical processes.
- Wellness models focus on the strengths, or absence of strengths, that enable mental wellness, such as resilience or self-esteem.
While traditional Western approaches to mental health have tended to have a pathological basis, current research and dialogue increasingly focus on wellness models. Many approaches contain elements of both ideas.
What Are Martial Arts?
The term martial arts broadly refers to different practices of fighting skills, usually accompanied by specific values and philosophies. Martial arts practices usually involve learning fighting and defensive techniques, building physical strength and balance, and developing psychological strengths.
Some common types of martial arts include:
- Taekwondo
- Karate
- Judo
- Muay thai
- Mixed martial arts
Can Martial Arts Training Improve Our Mental Health?
Martial arts practices may help develop various strengths that underpin mental well-being. These include:
- Strengthening the mind-body connection and mindfulness skills by focusing on and becoming more aware of different positions and movements
- Developing mindfulness skills by being aware of and controlling breathing
- Building self-confidence through acquiring self-defence skills
- Building resilience through overcoming challenges in the learning process
Few studies have directly examined the impact of martial arts on overall mental well-being or psychological strengths. But studies that have explored the effects of martial arts on different mental health disorders and symptoms, such as depression or anxiety, have mostly found that martial arts have a positive impact. However, most studies have significant methodological problems that limit our ability to draw general conclusions.
A recent meta-review exploring the impact of martial arts on mental health found a small positive effect on mental well-being and a moderate effect on internalising mental health symptoms.
Martial Arts and Interpersonal Trauma
As we have become more aware of the way our bodies store trauma and the body’s role in sustaining trauma symptoms, trauma therapy has increasingly included mind-body and somatic approaches alongside or as an alternative to talking therapies.
When we encounter reminders of traumatic events, we can relive traumatic experiences cognitively, emotionally, and physically through visual flashbacks, emotional flashbacks, and physical experiences such as pain, fear, and anxiety. Our bodies often become an unsafe place to be, and we may disconnect from our physical experience.
Traumatic events also dysregulate our emotional and physical stress response systems and can cause us to be stuck in a survival ‘fight or flight’ mode. This might cause hypervigilance, insomnia, and heightened perceptions of threat.
Interpersonal trauma, when trauma is deliberately inflicted by another person, often leads to additional symptoms such as mistrust of others and low self-esteem.
Consequently, a core element of recovery from interpersonal trauma involves the establishment of safety and security in the mind and body. When we establish psychological and physical safety, we are slowly able to confront traumatic events and integrate them into our broader experience, creating new narratives about ourselves and others and softening our emotional and somatic reactions to traumatic reminders.
Martial arts training is one practice that may help us to build this safety and stability. It teaches skills that facilitate concentration, self-awareness, and mood regulation. It may improve attention, focus, and self-esteem.
A 2019 study explored how survivors of interpersonal trauma viewed the impact of martial arts on their lives. They described how:
- Martial arts was a source of community and confidence that impacted the way they related to themselves and others
- Martial arts had improved their awareness of the mind-body connection, helping them understand how to use their bodies to stay calm
- They felt more empowered to assert themselves in the face of challenges
- They felt more self-confident and capable
Building Resilience Among Women Through Self-Defence
Women are more likely than men to experience interpersonal trauma and to have experienced trauma at a younger age. Around one in three women may have experienced interpersonal violence at some point in their lives. LGBTQ+ people are also at an increased risk of interpersonal violence.
We can conceptualise resilience as a dynamic process that follows experiences of adversity that disrupt our biological, social, and psychological equilibrium. We use different internal and external processes to restore our well-being and functioning. Martial arts may be a tool we can use to develop resilience, improving our confidence, self-regulation, and self-belief so we can adapt more easily to challenges.
A 2025 study explored whether participation in martial arts can improve the psychological resilience of women. It found that, compared to a control group mainly composed of pilates practitioners, engagement in martial arts led to significantly higher levels of control and challenge resilience. These dimensions reflected women’s perceived ability to influence events in their lives and see stressors as opportunities for personal growth.
However, the control group scored slightly higher on the commitment dimension of resilience. This might relate to their engagement in pilates as an alternative practice, which also focuses on the mind-body connection and mindful awareness.
Another study from the same year asked women about how mixed martial arts affected their health. Women described how martial arts offered empowerment, community, and a mind-body connection. Self-defence training also improved their perception of personal safety, which encouraged better mental well-being.
The Wave Clinic: Transformative Recovery Programs for Young People and Families
The Wave Clinic offers specialist mental health support for young people and families. We provide a trauma-focused approach to recovery that emphasises the way past experiences affect the way young people think, feel, and act today.
Unaddressed experiences of trauma often contribute to and maintain mental health symptoms, acting as a barrier to holistic recovery and complicating the treatment process. For us, trauma-focused means addressing these experiences from the very start of a treatment program and integrating trauma treatment throughout the program.
Our programs combine trauma-focused yoga, neuroaffective relational model therapy, somatic experiencing, prolonged exposure, and other types of trauma therapy, tailored to suit each young person’s needs. We offer martial arts training, cooking classes, outdoor adventures, and other experiences to develop young people’s strengths and resilience.
If you’re interested in learning more about our programs, contact us today via our website or by phone.
