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Strong Body, Strong Mind | Self-Defense & Empowerment

@philly_selfdefense

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💥 Self-Defense Training
💎 Empowerment through Awareness & Action
✨ For Women, Youth & Community
📍Based in Philly
💌 [email protected]

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

LET’S CONNECT! 💜

There is so much amazing work happening across Philadelphia to support survivors of domestic violence, and we want to help shine a light on it! ✨

Through Survivor Warrior, we’re looking to collaborate with local organizations, grassroots projects, and foundations to highlight the services you provide, share your resources, and help connect survivors to the support they need.

It’s about community, visibility, and making sure the resources available to survivors are known and accessible. Because sometimes, the resource someone needs already exists. They just don’t know where to find it.

📣 If you’re a Philadelphia-based DV organization, project, or foundation, let’s collaborate!
📣 Drop a comment, tag an organization that should be included, or send @coliee_taught_mee a DM.

Let’s stop working in silos and start making connections. Together, we can build a more informed, connected, and supported Philadelphia.

💜💪🏼

#domesticviolence #domesticviolenceawareness #philly #fyp #explore

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Vegas, we’re coming for you!

I’m so proud to officially announce that @philly_selfdefense is heading to Las Vegas for a special Women’s Self-Defense Seminar at @xcmma, next month!

I’ll be teaching alongside Xtreme Couture’s Head MMA Coach, @dennisdavismma and my good friend @gthconsulting_rs, a BJJ black belt and longtime protective services professional. I’m incredibly grateful to share the mats with people who believe in creating spaces where women can learn, move, ask questions, build confidence, and feel empowered in their own bodies.

Philly Self-Defense grew out of my own healing journey. Martial arts helped me reclaim my autonomy, rebuild my confidence, reconnect with my body, and slowly find my way back to myself. Now I get to take what helped me heal and use it to help other women discover their own strength 🫂

We’ll also be raising funds for @safenestlv, the leading service provider in supporting individuals and families impacted by domestic violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking throughout Las Vegas and Clark County— through advocacy, emergency shelter, prevention, education, and ongoing support.

I can’t think of a better way to close out Domestic Violence Awareness Month while reminding people that these conversations cannot end when October does. Survivors need support, resources, advocacy, and community all year long. 💜

We’ll also have special guests, sponsors, and community partners joining us, with more to share soon!

📅 Sunday, November 8, 2026
📍 Xtreme Couture MMA | Las Vegas
🤍 Women’s Self-Defense Seminar + SafeNest Fundraiser

Registration is open through the link in my bio.

Can’t attend but still want to support? There’s also a link in my bio to donate directly to this event and our work alongside SafeNest.

Questions? Send me a DM.

Vegas, we can’t wait to meet you!

#womensselfdefense #xtremecouture #phillyselfdefense #lasvegas #safenest

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I’m genuinely SO excited for the Audacious Women’s Summit on October 16th & 17th and incredibly honored to share the stage with two truly audacious women, @erikalearothenberger and @tinagsellshomes4u 💜

I continue to be in awe of the rooms and stages God places me in. Not simply because I get to share my story, but because every time I do, there is an opportunity to give voice to someone who may not be ready to share theirs yet.

As a survivor, I know how important it is to create spaces where these conversations can happen openly and we can talk about domestic violence without shame or judgment. Where survivors feel seen, resources are within reach, and women are reminded that they are not alone. 💜

That’s what makes this particular room so meaningful to me.

Our stories are powerful, but what we do with them is where the real impact happens. When we use them to create awareness, open doors for conversation, connect women to resources, and advocate for those who may not yet have found their voice..that’s when our stories become bigger than us.

I feel incredibly blessed to stand alongside women who understand that responsibility and who are using their own platforms to make room for others. 💜

October 17th. Three women. One stage. And a room full of women ready to create a ripple far beyond it!

I cannot wait. 💜

#audaciouswomensummir #audaciouswomen #mikosplace #phillyselfdedense #dvam

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Thank you to @warrior_unfiltered , @philly_selfdefense for taking the time to encourage, inspire and give guidance to these ladies. Thank you @riverscasinophiladelphia for sponsoring refreshments and snacks. Thank you to the @ppd_26thdistrict officers who assisted to ensure this event was a success.

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Our community is stronger when we come together. 💜

We’re excited to welcome the incredible community partners and vendors who will be joining us on October 24th! They’ll be sharing valuable resources, services, information, and opportunities with our community.

Come connect, learn something new, and meet the organizations helping make a difference across Philadelphia.

✨ We can’t wait to see you there!

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We have something brewing for you, Philly! 🔥
____________

Always lovely to see @inbetweensets and @ant24fit! When it comes to providing safe spaces and experiences for our community, we take it seriously!
Mid- event and post @mensnightrunclub run, we managed to come together for a meeting of the masterminds 🙌🔥

#mnrc #phillyselfdefense

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I’m opening my calendar for October–December 2026, and I’m really excited about bringing this work into more rooms!

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to speak and teach inside corporations, schools, universities, nonprofits, government agencies, conferences and community organizations. And one thing I’ve come to understand is just how much this work belongs in the larger conversation around wellness.

When we talk about corporate wellness, we naturally think about what happens inside the workplace. But the people who walk into our workplaces every day are carrying whole lives with them.

For me, wellness is also about how someone moves through the world. Do they trust themselves when something doesn’t feel right? Do they feel confident advocating for themselves? Do they feel capable of responding when life puts them in a situation they weren’t prepared for?

That’s really where my work lives.

Yes, I teach self-defense, but what I teach goes far beyond the physical piece. I want people to leave a room with me feeling more connected to themselves, more confident in what they’re capable of, and better equipped to navigate life.

And when an organization invests in the person, not just the employee, that impact finds its way back into the workplace, their families and their communities.

This fall, I’m booking speaking engagements, corporate wellness programming, self-defense and personal safety workshops, relationship safety and domestic violence awareness presentations, panels and conferences.

October is also Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and I have limited availability for organizations looking to create meaningful programming around a conversation deeply personal to me as both an advocate and survivor.

All the different chapters of my life—combat sports, survivorship, advocacy and building Philly Self Defense—have somehow found their way into the same purpose:

Helping people recognize their own strength, feel safer moving through the world, and realize just how capable they already are.

If this belongs in your organization or community, I’d love to connect. 🤍

📩 jamiecmiller4@gmail.com
🌐 jamiemillerspeaks.com

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💜 VOICES UNBROKEN IS BACK!💜

Project S.A.V.E invites you to our 2nd Annual Voices Unbroken: IPV Community Event, a FREE community event bringing people together for connection, support, resources, and a day of family fun.

🍽️ Free Food
🎉 Family Fun
🤝 Community Vendors
📚 Resources & Support
💜 Wellness Activation: @healyourloveperiod | 2:30–3:30 PM

Bring your family. Bring a friend. Come connect with your community and enjoy a day centered on wellness, healing, and togetherness.

Everyone is welcome 💜

📅 October 24, 2026 | 12PM-4PM
📍 Lucien Blackwell Community Center (outside)
761 N. 47th St. Phila.,PA 19139

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Well… it’s officially out. 🥹✨

The digital edition of Philadelphia Style Magazine’s 2026 Dynamic Women issue is LIVE, and seeing these pages feels a little surreal.

When I first shared that I’d been named a 2026 Dynamic Woman, I talked about the road that brought me here.

But seeing the actual article feels different because this isn’t only about where I’ve been. It’s rooted in what God is building through me.

Philly Self-Defense. Speaking. Advocacy. Community safety. Survivor leadership.

What started years ago as an idea born from some of the hardest parts of my life has grown into work that puts me in rooms I never imagined I’d stand in—teaching, speaking, advocating and reminding people that our hardest chapters don’t get to write the ending.

I used to fight for a living.

And now? I still do. It just looks a little different.

I fight for women to feel safer in their bodies, homes and communities. For survivors to recognize that what happened to them does not diminish their power. And for young people to discover theirs before the world convinces them otherwise.

Increasingly, God has placed me behind microphones and on stages, sharing not only my story, but what it taught me about resilience, leadership, adaptability and continuing forward when life looks nothing like you thought it would.

For years, I thought the hardest parts of my story were things I had to overcome before I could become someone.

As it turns out, God was using them to prepare me for something much bigger than myself.

Some of the chapters I once wanted to hide became some of my greatest credentials.

So seeing Philly Self-Defense and my speaking career highlighted in these pages means more than I can explain.

And I know this is still just the beginning.

Bigger rooms. More communities to serve. More conversations to have. More work to do.

Wherever God calls me next, I’m ready. 🤍

Thank you @phillystylezine and @modernluxury for recognizing not only the woman, but the work behind her.

And a massive congratulations to all of the 2026 Dynamic Women!

The digital issue is officially LIVE. ✨
Read the full article at the link in my bio.

The ascension continues.

#Him

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There was a time when I thought the hardest parts of my story were simply things I had to survive.

I definitely understand them differently now!

Somewhere between homelessness, living in a shelter, finding my way back to martial arts and learning to feel powerful in my own body again, the seeds of my advocacy were planted.

In 2016, what would eventually become Philly Self-Defense began. It didn’t have a name yet. There was no roadmap. I just knew there was something powerful about what movement, martial arts and community had given back to me…and I wanted other women to experience it too.

Healing, for me, became an unearthing.. that’s what my best friend calls it. An Unearthing 🌱 @joyful__girl

And so much of my work today is about creating spaces where women can begin that unearthing for themselves.

To feel strong again. 💪
To challenge themselves. 📈
To reconnect with their bodies. 🧘🏾‍♀️
To open parts of themselves trauma taught them to shut down. ✨
To remember who they were…and discover who they’re becoming. 🫂

I believe lived experience is one of our strongest credentials. The worst parts of our stories don’t have to define us…sometimes they become the very thing that equips us to serve someone else.

And part of healing is taking our lives back.

What happened to you may not have been your fault. Abuse is never the survivor’s fault, but there comes a point when your life has to become your responsibility again.

Not because you caused what happened.
But because you deserve to decide what happens next.

That philosophy is woven into everything I teach.

@philly_selfdefense teaches physical skills, but underneath them is something bigger: Agency. Community. Confidence. Choice. and creating room for people to rediscover their own strength.

I’m incredibly grateful to @chrissy.vega80 and @loveshouldnthurt_philly for inviting me back and giving me space to talk not only about where I’ve been, but what has grown from it. 🌱

Maybe that’s the season I’m entering now…sharing more of the middle. Not just what I survived or what I’ve accomplished, but how one became the other.

#godissogood #loveshouldnthurt #womenagainstabuse #survivorship

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I don’t usually share moments like these because I never want service to become performative. But if we want kindness to create a ripple, sometimes we have to let people see it.

Earlier this month, @philly_selfdefense joined @ppdcentercitydistrict and other community partners for National Night Out.

That’s where we met Cadine.

Warm, funny, kind. She shared that she was unhoused and living in Love Park. We connected her with a community organization supporting people experiencing homelessness.

But that night reminded me that sometimes being in the right place at the right time isn’t enough.

We have to really see people. Listen to understand. Ask the right questions. Pay attention to what someone might need but isn’t asking for.
Because when we do, sometimes we get the opportunity to change someone’s world…even if only for a night.

And the beautiful thing about kindness is that it rarely stops with the person who receives it. 🫂

Before Cadine left, she gave us two pieces of artwork she’d made earlier that day. Later, she excitedly found me again to tell me she had helped another woman get something she needed.

She had already paid it forward!

We talk so much about changing the world that sometimes we forget the world is made up of individual people.

You don’t have to save everyone. Sometimes you just have to see the person standing in front of you.

Like, reallyyyy see them.

People are not their circumstances or the worst thing that has happened to them.

And as a Christian, I believe we’re called to be the hands and feet of Jesus..to love people, serve, and listen when we’re nudged.

I couldn’t change everything for her that night. But for one evening, she was seen…She ate. She laughed. She created. She gave. And she even danced. 🥹

That’s the ripple.

Maybe we don’t change the world all at once. Maybe we change one person’s world for a moment—and trust that love knows where to go from there. ❤️

Be kind.

#flufffluff #justlove #goddidit

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Last week, I had the privilege of sitting down with Kenny Holdsman, Co-Founder & CEO of @phillyyouthbasketball, at the Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center @sixthmancenter. 🏀

From the moment I walked through the doors, it was clear that this place is more than a beautiful facility. You can feel the heart, vision, and years of blood, sweat, and tears that went into building something truly meaningful for Philadelphia’s youth and the community as a whole.

Getting a tour, hearing more about the vision, and beginning the conversation about what could come next was an honor. I’m grateful to Kenny for opening the doors and making the time to connect.

Philadelphia Youth Basketball (PYB) uses basketball as a vehicle for youth development and community impact—pairing athletics with education, mentorship, leadership, wellness, and career opportunities.
The Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center brings that mission to life: a community hub designed to give Philadelphia youth the tools, resources, and opportunities to thrive.

There’s something truly special about being in rooms where people are building, serving, and creating opportunities for the next generation.

And grateful, as always, to have Bradley alongside me for these moments and the work that comes with them. 💙

Thank you, @ kennyholdsman! I’m excited to see what comes next! 🙏🏾🏀❤️

#pyb #sixthman #philadelphiayouth #phillyselfdefense #youthempowerment

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