Michelle is a longtime member and facilitator of the Rock Blossom Sangha, a community of mindfulness in the tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. She is on the Sangha Caretaking Council and helps train and mentor sangha facilitators. She attended several retreats with Nhat Hanh, including a 21-day retreat at his monastery in Plum Village.

In 2019 she became certified as a mindfulness meditation teacher by the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center, after completing an intensive two-year training program led by renowned Insight Meditation (IM) teachers Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. This training deepened her understanding of the Buddhist roots of mindfulness and expanded her familiarity with secular forms, applications, and research. Program instructors included Larry Yang, Kristen Neff, Ruth King, Sharon Salzburg, and Christiane Wolf. She has attended IM retreats at Gaia House in England and Spirit Rock in California.

Michelle has studied the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) model developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn and completed the MBSR Foundations course in 2012. In 2019 she took Donald Fleck’s 8-week Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) workshop, and in 2013 she became his workshop assistant, leading in-class mindfulness practices. She and Donald have also partnered to offer online mindfulness sessions and in-person daylong retreats.

Michelle is also a Mindful Yoga instructor (RYT-500) and has taught since 2004. She is certified by Cyndi Lee (Yoga Body, Buddha Mind), Frank Boccio (Mindfulness Yoga), Jillian Pransky (Deep Listening), and Tari Prinster (Yoga for Cancer). She specializes in helping students cultivate curiosity, clarity, and playfulness in their practice. Her classes range from chair yoga to alignment-based vinyasa, to restorative.

Michelle grew up in Bar Harbor, Maine, and graduated from Wesleyan University.  She is married to comedian and musician Tim Ellis and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Mindfulness has been practiced in Buddhist contexts for millennia, but over the past few decades Western science has begun to study and measure its many benefits. A growing number of studies suggest that mindfulness training can reduce stress, pain, anxiety, and depression; increase focus; improve relationships; and provide an overall sense of well-being. Based on these studies — and people’s own experiences — classes and groups have sprung up in places as varied as hospitals, schools, offices, sports programs, and church basements.

Being mindful is something that we all experiences from time to time. But how do we sustain it, and what gets in the way?

We could blame modern life, with its fast pace and constant demands on our attention, and those things certainly do not help. But long before computers, mobile phones, and long commutes, people were looking for a way to quiet their minds, alleviate their suffering, and find enduring happiness.

Because, while humans have the innate capacity to be mindful, they are also prone to automatic and unconscious thoughts and behaviors. To a child’s eyes, the world appears new and full of possibilities, but over time, we develop habitual ways of reacting to experience — like grasping, worry, or anger — that hold us in a trap. Mindfulness training has the ability to wake us up and free us from the trap, so that we can respond with wisdom and creativity to our life as it unfolds.

Living mindfully takes training, practice. and a little bravery, but the rewards are great. As we cultivate mindfulness, we become less anxious, depressed, and stressed. At the same time, we become more calm, kind, and resilient.

Contact Michelle to take the first steps toward a more peaceful, awakened, and vibrant life.