
Founder
Building
Learning
Studies
Five Rings Training Founder Kirsty Henderson
Architect, Athlete & Coach, FRT Founder Kirsty Henderson brings her extensive studies, knowledge and insights together under one roof at FRT in her collective work of Building: Building learning, building environments, building oneself, and helping to build others.
Featured at TEDx

#TEDxNewcastle
Projects
We are all here to build, build lives, legacies and build for others, but most importantly we are here to build ourselves.
How can we do that if we do not understand our own architecture?
The Life Architecture series begins with a journey through your own human system, explaining its components, its connections and its potentials, so you can understand your own building blocks and the tools you can use for life.
Leading Corporate Defence & Security organisation Personal Safety London was set up initially as the recovery and prevention training unit of FRT's lifecycle training spectrum.
Founded by Kirsty Henderson in 2009, the demand for the training and services has been so high that Personal Safety London is now a highly developed security organisation with its own security teams, investigations and cyber security units. PSL also has its own Instructor Training School, a team of internationally acclaimed consultants, and carries out training and security operations worldwide.
Ma
Ma (間) is a Japanese word translated as "the space between two structural parts."
In Japanese Architecture, Ma is used to describe the experiential space or event space between two defining posts: as the experiential space of the tea cerermony, the act defines the spatial parameters rather than the structure defining the parameters of the act.
In Japanese culture, Ma is also the term used to describe the space between two opponents in combat and is the realm in which the combat, interaction, energy and intention takes its place.
The Space Between
In Western Architecture the concept of Ma, the space between has recently been understood as Event Space.
Similarly in Western Culture the concept that our internal states and intentions impact our outer realm and others is finally being grasped, but needs to be taught. Our skills sets, knowledge, understanding and awareness are what equip us to affect, define, direct and impact our outer realm and the lives of others. These are the life skills we need. In Budo training this self responsibility of our actions and outcomes as a product of who we are and what we become is deeply ingrained from the start.
Self Improvement
The more you train, become educated, aware, the more clearly you see the changes within you alter the world around you.
This striving for self improvement at the four levels of education: mental, physical, energetic and spiritual, is a necessity at FRT because by changing the individual, we change the group.
Building Learning
"As an architect I designed and built schools but I couldn't see the clarity in the act unless we changed the people inside them. A well designed building is important but by itself it is not enough. That's when I began to see the need for new curriculum and built a school, in a different way, which would research, focus and develop material for others to learn from."

Budo School, Japan
Kirsty Henderson BArch Hons DiplA (Dist)
Founder
Human Development Specialist
Architect
Athlete
Writer
Speaker
Coach
Founder & Owner: FRT Training & Research Institute
Founder & Leader: Personal Safety London UK
In architecture we study the landscapes of life; cultural, social, economic, political, cultural and religious terrains, we look at how people move and how they gather, how they communicate, build and revolt. These are the matters of the collective.
At FRT we are concerned with matters of the individual; it's components, their relationships to oneanother, the impact of the lifecycle stages, the influences of the outer environment, the mind and its position as the director, and so forth. Both knowledge sets are needed to correctly programme the human system for change; hence the studies of both individual and collective states.
The mapping undertaken at FRT Research unit, under the Human States studies, has led to the root architecture now used as a software for FRT programmes which work along one human spectrum of recovery, development and change.
Biography
Kirsty Henderson has 3 University Degrees and undertook the 7 year training to become an Architect at the prestigious Charles Rennie Mackintosh School of Architecture. Whilst working as an Architect in London she trained dedicatedly in martial arts, fought for the British Squad, became the 1st woman in Britain to attain the grueling Shidokan (Japanese MMA) Black Belt and travelled to Japan where she undertook 2 of her Black Belts and fought 14 of the masters to become ranked top female Shidokan fighter in the world.
On returning to the UK, she became coach to the British Men's Team training them to successful international-championship wins & in her professional life was offered Directorship of one of Europe's leading architecture and construction firms and two of London's principle architectural practices.
Having been highly involved in construction in the UK & Europe, building hospitals, cultural and educational buildings, Kirsty Henderson lectured on Architecture in London and Japan and became involved in curriculum development. In her private studies she undertook extensive training in energetics, psychology, physics, philosophy, theology, nutrition and advanced defence training leading her to gain instructorships in Krav Maga (Israeli Military Defence), Specialist Defence, KEWAP, Weapons Disarment & become a Chief Martial Arts Instructor, a Senior UKMAA Instructor, and founder of Corporate Defence & Security company Personal Safety London. As demands for her teaching increased Kirsty left her career in construction and built Five Rings Training.
Established in 2009, today Five Rings Training works all over the world teaching comprehensive programmes and intensive training in vital life skills, resilience, wellbeing and Human Development Training.
Kirsty Henderson is also the Founder and Director of leading Corporate Defence & Security company Personal Safety London.
Qualifications:
Academic
Architect (fully qualified)
Bachelor of Architecture Degree with Honours
Diploma of Architecture with Distinction
RIBA III 2000
Martial Arts, Defence & Combat
Chief Martial Arts Instructor
FRT Black Belt Instructor
Shidokan Blackbelt 2nd Dan (Japan)
Top World Ranked Shidokan (Japan)
UKMAA Senior Instructor
MMA Competitive Coach
Top England Coach Award
Chief Self Defence Instructor
Krav Maga Instructor
Specialist Defence Instructor
KEWAP Instructor
Defence Consultant
Fully Insured Coach
Kirsty Henderson, BArch Hons DiplA (Dist)
Life, Lifestyle, Wellbeing & Performance
Fully Insured Wellness Consultant
Fully Insured Life & Executive Coach (MAC)
Performance Coach, Member of the Association of Coaching
Mind Body Coaching
Yoga Teacher
Kaiy Yoga (Martial Arts Yoga)
Kiko and Japanese Energetics (plus Reiki Degree)
Business
Previous: Architect & Construction Business Director
Founder & Director: Five Rings Training
Founder & Leader: Personal Safety London
Founder: FRTFA
Enhanced CRB / DBS Checked for working with children.
Speaking
Corporate
Kirsty Henderson speaks extensively in the subjects of:
-
Human Development
-
Energetics & Human Behaviours
-
Corporate Wellbeing
-
Risk & Analysis
-
Corporate Security
TEDx
TEDxNewcastle The Architecture of The Human System
Teaching
London
Corporate Training
University Lecturing
Organisation Learning
Executive Coaching
International
International Corporate Training
International Retreats
International Conferences
Speaking
Corporate Training
Keynote Speaking
Online Education Seminars

As Featured In