MHIMAI was developed by a licensed mental health professional and veteran martial artist as well as educational professionals to bridge the gap between mental health awareness and martial arts instruction.
The system is:
-
Evidence-informed
-
Non-clinical by design
-
Structured for real-world dojo environments
Train your team. Protect your students. Strengthen your school.
Opening
Glen Aitken, MS, LCMHC, LPC, LMHC, EMDR CIT, CCPT, MCAP, CPATP
Founder & Co-Creator of MHIMAI
Glen Aitken is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and 7th Degree Black Belt with over three and a half decades of experience in martial arts instruction, behavioral health, leadership development, and emotional regulation training.
Throughout his career, Glen observed that martial arts instructors, coaches, and youth leaders are increasingly encountering students struggling with anxiety, emotional dysregulation, trauma, social pressure, burnout, and other mental health-related challenges — often without formal guidance on how to safely and appropriately respond.
MHIMAI was created to help address that need.
By combining evidence-informed mental health principles with the structure, discipline, and leadership traditions of martial arts, Glen helped develop MHIMAI as a practical training system designed specifically for instructors, coaches, schools, and organizations seeking to create healthier and more emotionally responsible training environments.
His work focuses on helping leaders:
-
build psychologically safer training cultures,
-
recognize patterns of distress and dysregulation,
-
improve communication and classroom leadership,
-
support emotional regulation and resilience,
-
maintain ethical boundaries and referral practices,
-
and strengthen long-term student development both on and off the mat.
Glen’s work emphasizes calm and ethical leadership, emotional awareness, structured teaching systems, and sustainable community culture within martial arts and coaching spaces. His approach combines discipline, professionalism, compassion, and practical application — grounded in the belief that martial arts can be a powerful force for growth, resilience, confidence, and human connection when guided by knowledgeable and ethically responsible leadership. Through MHIMAI, Glen works to help organizations preserve the strengths of martial arts culture while evolving to better support the realities facing modern students, families, athletes, and communities.
Nicole Aitken, M.ED.
Co-Creator of MHIMAI®
Nicole Aitken is an educator, coach, and leadership professional with over 20 years of teaching experience working with students of all ages, from early childhood through the collegiate level. She holds a Master’s Degree in Education and brings extensive experience in instruction, student development, organizational leadership, and safe environment practices.
Throughout her career, Nicole has worked across educational, athletic, and community-based settings, including experience as a cheer coach and in leadership roles overseeing compliance and background screening processes within church and youth-serving organizations. Her work has consistently focused on creating structured, supportive, and ethically responsible environments where students and participants can grow with confidence and safety.
As Co-Creator of MHIMAI®, Nicole helped develop the educational and participant-centered framework of the program, ensuring that complex mental health and leadership concepts are translated into practical, approachable, and actionable tools for instructors, coaches, and organizations.
Her work emphasizes communication, developmental awareness, classroom culture, organizational responsibility, and relationship-centered leadership. Nicole’s teaching style blends warmth, professionalism, structure, and real-world application, helping leaders build environments that are both high-performing and emotionally aware.
Nicole believes that instructors and coaches often play an important role in the lives of students and families, and that strong leadership requires not only technical skill, but also empathy, consistency, accountability, and ethical responsibility. Through MHIMAI®, she works to help organizations strengthen culture, improve participant experiences, and foster communities where individuals feel supported, respected, and empowered to succeed.