Shihan Michelle, CMA, RSME is a 6th degree Black Belt, Six Time World Oyama Knockdown Champion and holds many North American Open Tournament Championship titles in Kata (Form) and Kumite (Fighting). She won the Canadian Kyokushin Knockdown Division in 2001 and took 2nd place, plus the Fighting Spirit Award at the Seidokaikan “Knockdown Kings” tournament at Hunter College in NYC 2002. On October 9, 2004 she completed 61 consecutive fights with multiple opponents in the historic, “A Woman’s Right To Fight” held at the Manhattan Ballroom in NYC. The event was created to showcase the fighting spirit of the extraordinary women who practice full-contact karate and the event drew participants from the United States, Japan and Canada.

As a Laban Certified Movement Analyst, she is a uniquely qualified instructor and leader devoted to people of all ages and backgrounds discovering and developing grace and power through consistent practice.

She studied Iaido (AUSKF) with Renshi Pam Parker at Ken Zen Dojo and was awarded the rank of Nidan (2004-2009), Yang Style Tai Chi with the late Grandmaster Cheng Hsiang Yu, Embodied Anatomy and Kinesiology with Amy Matthews, Anatomy and Kinesiology with Irene Dowd, 160 contact hours of Integral Anatomy (cadaver dissection) with Gil Headley, PHD, Experiential Anatomy, Embryology, with Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen, and Infant Developmental Movement Education courses from the school of Body-Mind Centering.

Her book, Brain Breaks for the Classroom, was written for Scholastic Teaching Resources and published in 2009. Her article, What’s Your Next Move; Consult Your Reflexes, was published in Exploring Body-Mind Centering; An Anthology of Experience and Method, by North Atlantic Books. Her preventative personal protection manual, Beyond Self Defense: How to Say No, Set Boundaries and Reclaim Your Agency was published by North Atlantic Books in 2024.