Get to Know Us
Impactful global leadership, team collaboration and personal presence begins with strong CulturalEQ skills.
Result? Informed and empathetic communication that resonates across cultures.
We partner with you and your organization to create a tailored program of Cultural and Emotional Intelligence coaching, consulting, and training solutions for effectively communicating across cultural and linguistic lines for greater global agility.
ABOUT MICHELLE
I grew up in the multicultural environments of New York City and Cape Town, South Africa, and have lived in Asia for the past 18 years. I am bilingual in English and Mandarin Chinese and am passionate about all aspects of cultural intelligence. I consult with as well as train individuals, academic institutions, and companies on intercultural communication as the founder of Elephant Communications (雙象溝通) and I have over 15 years of experience working with individuals and groups from all walks of life as a corporate trainer, intercultural consultant, coach, and yoga therapist.
I graduated from Emerson College in Boston with a Bachelor of Science in Speech, studied International Marketing at the University of Melbourne in Australia and the Chinese language at National Normal Taiwan University in the Mandarin Training Center intensive program for four years.
My Professional Certifications:
- Certified Coach & Group Coach (at the PCC level) from International Coaching Academy
- Business Cultural Trainer from International House London in the U.K
- Certified Intercultural Trainer from EIFID (European Institute for Intercultural Development)'s TTIT certification program
- Certified Cultural Intelligence Trainer from C3 Consulting in Denmark
- Certified Emotional Intelligence and EQ-i 2.0/EQ360 coach from The Emotional Intelligence Training Company.
I'm also a certified yoga therapist from the Atmavikasa Institute of Yogic Sciences in Mysore, India, and have been taking weekly Chinese language classes for over 12 years.
I've partnered with multinationals in the East and West such as NIKE, Yahoo!, KPMG, Fortinet, Latch, Hitachi, and ING, not-for-profit organizations like Immigrant Social Services NYC and The Community Services Center Taipei, as well as guest lectured at academic institutions including Kaohsiung Medical University, National Yang-Ming Chiao Tung University, East Asia Institute of Technology, Chilhee University of Technology, and BOSKOP Germany.
My hobbies are walking in nature, swimming, reading, and drinking tea. I enjoy learning from people from all walks of life and consider myself to be very lucky to call Taipei my current home.
Client Testimonials
What my clients are saying
Michelle is a skillful and perceptive coach, with strong knowledge of Emotional Intelligence (EI). My experience with Michelle has been fruitful, rewarding, and insightful. She is people-centered, empathetic, and patient. Her calm and approachable demeanor made it easy for me to open up to her during our sessions. Michelle’s expertise in reflecting and accurately highlighting areas of EI that I could identify with, and subsequently work on is a quality I greatly appreciate.
She helped me gain clarity into areas I felt stuck in, and proffered me insights on how to work through them. The methodological way she conducted our sessions, helped to keep our conversations focused which I found to be effective and helpful. Her Chinese-English bilingualism also added a touch of liveliness to our sessions and helped deepen our connection. I would highly recommend Michelle as a coach to anyone who is looking to work on their EI.
We worked with Michelle for an intercultural program for our Taipei office. The blended approach (assessment, 1.1 analysis, and F2F workshop) helped to develop self-awareness and deeper understanding about teamwork and cultural working styles. Our colleagues learnt a lot, and we found Michelle knowledgeable and engaging! Thank you for the insights, and hope to partner again soon.
- Xingyan Chen, HR Director at Group Savencia
- Celine Lin, private client, Singapore
Michelle helped me immensely. I came to her with a myriad of ideas about how to launch my business amongst feelings of panic and dread. Working with her, my ideas transformed into a list of action items and my feelings of panic and dread became excitement. I was able to take the next steps that I was afraid of taking and make progress toward my goal. She is an excellent listener and has great insight and energy. Working with Michelle has been a pleasure and her coaching worked - I am moving forward with renewed energy and purpose. Thank you Michelle!!!
- Kirsten Webb, private client, Australia
Michelle creates a very comfortable environment for people to share ideas in. She is a highly experienced, skilled, and kind trainer who simply does a great job. Her trainings are interesting and offer practical takeaways for challenging situations in intercultural settings. I'd be up for another one! Recommend it to anyone interested in taking a closer look at the Chinese Culture.
- Belle, coaching circle participant, Taipei
Michelle's style is a model of oral English expression- with moderate speed, elegance, and kindness, plus sufficient lesson preparation. Her Chinese proficiency is also good and she understands Taiwan and Taiwanese as well. The intercultural communication terms and concepts taught are very interesting and practical, and Michelle is also very good at driving discussions. I personally recommend Michelle to give presentations or oral expression courses, which I believe will benefit even more people.
-Liu, coaching circle participant, Taipei
