Christen Reighter is a writer, speaker, and advocate who aims to use critical essays and public speaking as tools for exposing & confronting injustice, raising awareness, and inciting social progress, all the while, always rooted in sharing the philosophy that every person can live authentically to who they are, free from shame and cultural conditions.
Subjects addressed in her works include:
- clinical mental health
- (experiences, recovery, and stigmatization)
- expressed from her unique dual-perspective of both client & clinician,
- relational & personal development
- (emphasizing empowerment through such themes as sex-positivity and self-definition),
- navigating nontraditional relationships
- (emphasizing embracing compersion and integrating emotional-biofeedback to foster personal exploration, creating new impulses, replacing learned maladaptive interpersonal instincts.)
- social injustice/inequity
- (such as systemic racism & LGBTQIA+ discrimination),
- and women’s rights advocacy
- (by identifying & denouncing the spectrum of behavior [from calculated violence to institutionalized oppression to subtle microaggressions] that perpetuates rape-culture.
- (by identifying & denouncing the spectrum of behavior [from calculated violence to institutionalized oppression to subtle microaggressions] that perpetuates rape-culture.
Amongst the many subjects she has tackled, one stands out. Christen found herself on the world’s web radar after TED.com featured her 2016 TEDxMileHigh talk about living childfree-by-choice (“I don’t want children—stop telling me I’ll change my mind”), which confronts how medical paternalism often impedes bodily autonomy, all while calling for scrutiny of the prescribed roles in our lives.
Her work is heavily informed & inspired by her academic work in the social sciences. She holds degrees with honors in sociology and psychology and was trained in clinical mental health counseling through the master’s program at the University of Northern Colorado.
A few personal stats!—she currently lives in beautiful Colorado and is pet-parent to (AKA: is owned by) three cats (Navi, Mewzer, & Mojave).
Her hobbies include: reading voraciously (from her 2k+ book hoard home library), studying (faves include microbiology & psychology), listening to music (mostly rock and metal, typically [regrettably] at obscene volumes, while singing along, though only occasionally on-key), attending shows & concerts (from operas to metal mosh-pits), weightlifting & kickboxing [though, way less often than I should], and working on her car.
Currently, her efforts are aimed eagerly toward moving abroad and devoting her energy to several new writing projects.
Christen is available for private consultation and speaking engagements for nonprofit, academic, and women’s organizations. Experienced with diverse participants and settings, she welcomes proposals for all event types and sizes—from small, intimate groups to crowds of thousands, and everything in between. Described as “enlightening” and “inspiring,” her freeform delivery incorporates elements of storytelling and didactic styles, creating a flexible, multifaceted approach that dependably facilitates audience connection and motivation.
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Christen Reighter Writer|Speaker|Advocate 