BOSTON -- Studies show three out of four women will experience some type of violent incident in their lifetime.

NewsCenter 5's Mary Saladna reported that for a local woman, it led to a life-changing and very personal mission.

Theresa Murphy has spent her life teaching other women how not to be a victim after her college experience included a sexual assault.

"I've been a victim of violence, so I knew the feeling of losing and that feeling of, 'I just want this to stop. I want to get away, and I don't how and I'm struggling,'" she said.

The memory of that feeling of helplessness has driven her to find a style of self defense that any woman could learn quickly and actually use in a sudden moment of crisis.

It's exactly what self defense expert Dennis Mahoney had been trying to develop and couldn't quite come up with -- until the two teamed up.

"Because we didn't want it to be like most seminars are, 'Come on in here and punch, kick.' It doesn't work. You can't learn to punch and kick in three hours. It just doesn't work. It takes years," he said.

What the two have perfected is a program called LIVE -- Lessons In Violence Evasion.

There are no set techniques, just three Principles that hey can teach in a quick afternoon.

"We teach it through games and we teach them how to escape and evade," Murphy said.

Principle one is to move any part of your body that's free into open space, effectively throwing your attacker off balance. Second, space is found in the movement or the "pressure" of the attack. Finally, do your "BEST" to survive. "BEST" breaks down in to bones, eyes, surprise and tickle.

Murphy and Mahoney are teaching their LIVE program to women of all ages.

Because statistics show that children are also a common target of sexual assault, they are now fine-tuning a school-based version of their violence evasion program.