Dr. Christine Marie is a media psychologist, author, speaker, educator, activist and life coach specializing in the area of trauma and resiliency. In addition to her PhD, she has an MBA, an MA in psychology, a specialization certificate in Positive Psychology and Media, and she is a trauma-informed media consultant.
Dr. Christine’s doctoral research is titled The Traumatic Impact of Humiliation, Misrepresentation and Victim-blaming in the Media on Narrative Identity and Well-being.
In 2021, she won the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Psychological Association, Division of Media Psychology and Technology.
This is the first study to identify cruel media-based experiences as a unique form of trauma. Among other things, her contributions include two new psychological constructs – ‘mediated representation assimilation’ and ‘traumatic media misrepresentation,’ also known as 'media mortification.'
Dr. Christine writes, trains, consults, or speaks on topics such as media psychology, media misrepresentation, public shaming, cancel culture, victim blaming in the media, trauma bonds, and other trauma-related topics. She has unique expertise in trauma as it relates to online cruelty, cults, religious abuse, coercion, and human trafficking. She is a certified clinical trauma specialist, a sexual assault victim's advocate, and a certified trauma and resiliency life coach from the Arizona Trauma Institute.
Dr. Christine is the founder of Voices for Dignity, a nonprofit organization that promotes online kindness and compassion, and that contributes resources and advocacy for marginalized populations as well as survivors of public shaming, dehumanization and traumatic exploitation. She is also the founder of victimblaming.com
Her unusual expertise and insight comes from her own experience. In an unexpected, harrowing life twist years ago, Christine became a survivor of cult-based human trafficking. When she finally decided it was time to share her story, she went through exploitative misrepresentation and humiliation in the media. However, her recovery from this experience resulted in post-traumatic growth and launched her personal quest to turn her life’s darkest moments into something that would make a difference in the world. She is a passionate educator on her media-based research topics as well as the life-or-death importance of treating others with kindness and dignity.