A martial arts studio that opened in Columbia Falls this month will offer self-defense classes. North Fork Tai Chi Chuan is in the same building as North Fork Pizza at 605 Nucleus Avenue, but is accessed through the alley.

Johnny Ray Birchfield has taught privately in the Flathead Valley for many years, including at The Wave in Whitefish and Imagine Health Wellness Center in Columbia Falls. He has worked as a message therapist at North Valley Hospital for 11 years.

His goal for the self-defense class is to empower women in the community to not be a victim. Men can come, but his main desire is to help women. He has seen a lot of women being victimized while working for the security team at the hospital.

“And I think it is really needed with what is going on in the world,” Birchfield said.

He teaches one how to escape from a dangerous situation using one’s voice, body and proper stance, rather than to fight.

“Everything here is done gently and with intention,” he said.

He teaches from experience. He has never been in a fight in his 35-plus years of practicing martial arts, but has diffused many conflicts.

The class is three hours on one Saturday per month. He may add an additional class as interest increases. The cost is $20-40, whatever a student can afford. The next class is April 16 at 10 a.m.

Birchfield also offers Tai Chi classes during the week. Interested people can start with a free introductory class. After that students can pay either a drop-in fee or a monthly fee of $40.

He has taught martial arts for 25 years, learning the art in California from several gifted teachers. He has lived in Flathead Valley for 13 years, and in Columbia Falls for 10.

He has three grown children in San Diego and six grandchildren. He also has family in Ohio and Florida. He prefers to live in Montana where it’s peaceful and there’s a small community.

Birchfield went through a troubled and lonely time after his wife, Mary Ann, left him. He attended a men’s retreat called Tres Dias that changed his life. He said he was able to leave his burdens behind and start a new dream of owning his own martial arts studio.

The space for the studio fell into his lap when he met Kim and Russ Sikorsky of North Fork Pizza. They offered him a back room in their building to use. At first he sat in the room for 20 minutes, then decided he would do it.

“It was kind of like I was being pulled along. … All of a sudden here it was. And I had an open house and 50 people came. It was beautiful,” he said.

He plans to refurbish the exterior of the building and put up larger exterior signs, but for now the place is identified by an 8.5-by-11 poster in the door.

He also offers private Kung Fu classes in the hung gar, or tiger-crane, style.

For more information contact Birchfield at (406) 249-2871.