When Words Collide 2026

What if the stories that shaped your life could also shape your career?
In this inspiring and practical session, Julie A. Christiansen—award-winning psychotherapist, executive coach, and bestselling author—shares how she wove threads from her family history and clinical experience into a four-part women’s fiction series written under the pen name Jaycee Ryan. The emotional authenticity of her stories resonated so deeply with readers that it opened the door to a traditional publishing deal for her nonfiction work, The Rise of Rage.
Participants will learn how to mine their personal and professional lives for rich, layered storylines, how to ethically draw from real-life trauma and relationship dynamics without retraumatizing themselves or others, and how fiction can become a powerful platform for building thought leadership—even in nonfiction genres.
This session is ideal for writers of memoir, fiction, or creative nonfiction who want to turn lived experience into meaningful narratives—and for professionals seeking to translate their expertise into publishable stories that sell.