Michelle Powell is the founder and director of empowHER, a charity supporting women and children impacted by domestic and family violence, and the Chief Operating Officer of Encompass Home Care. Drawing on her own lived experience of abuse, trauma, resilience, and rebuilding, Michelle is a passionate advocate for cultural safety, trauma informed support, and empowering women to reclaim their lives beyond violence.
Michelle is the author of the released book Freedom of a Warrior Princess, with Goodbye Without a Funeral, Purple Comes in Many Shades, and What if Cows Were Green? soon to be released. Her work and writing explore coercive control, grief, identity, healing, and the pathways from trauma to empowerment.
Michelle brings both professional insight and powerful lived experience to conversations around how CALD women experience FDV systems through culture, trauma, and access barriers, how lived experience is shaped by navigating systems of support, safety, and recovery, and the journey from trauma to empowerment through healing, resilience, and peer led change.