Dr. Krista Andersen

Welcome! My name is Dr. Krista, and I am an expert in conflict resolution and mediation and the proud founder of Fiksal. My passion lies in harnessing the power of words to create community, connection, and safety. Through my work, I strive to transform conflicts into opportunities for growth and understanding, ensuring that every voice is heard and valued. Explore my site to learn more about my journey, my expertise, and how I can help you and your organization use words to create more connection, collaboration, and oneness.

Connect with Dr. Krista

  • If you put it in writing, it is there to stay. Save yourself potential problems by having your texts, emails, and documents reviewed by a professional before you hit send!

  • Let’s be real, it is often difficult to know what to say when tensions are high, emotions are flowing, and adrenaline is pumping. Conflict coaching gives you the tools to engage in conflict in healthy and productive ways through understanding conflict styles, word choices, and confidence.

  • Imagine being at a stalemate on an issue. Both sides feel right and justified and nothing is getting resolved. Been there, right? Single-issue mediation provides the benefits of a neutral mediator to guide you to a mutually agreeable resolution for issues big and small.

  • Some conflicts are large in scale, include many variables, and take time to resolve. For example, divorce, property disputes, tenant/landlord, contracts, guardianship, elder care, or business disputes. Complex mediations could take a few hours or several days to resolve.

  • Internal organizational conflict creates losses in profits, productivity, and relationships. Conflict coaching and training helps protect organizations from HR disasters, cancel culture catastrophes, and financial loss. By obtaining conflict engagement skills and knowledge, executives, managers, and employees will experience greater understanding of their role in the workplace, in conflict, and in creating and maintaining healthy relationships.

    Having Fiksal integrated into your workflow will prevent communication problems before they start.

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My Passion

My obsession with words began in fifth grade while feeling into the enchanting world of Shel Silverstein’s book of poetry, “A Light in the Attic.” The words danced from the pages, generating filaments of magic in my soul. I FELT the words and revisited them often to ground my aching little girl heart.

I discovered that words have real and deep meanings, matched with intended and unintended consequences. As a child, my mother was fighting Stage IV cancer. Well-intended people said things to our family that felt like a thousand cardboard cuts, stinging and slow to heal. During my battle with cancer as an adult, strangers and friends would tell me of people they know who died from my exact diagnosis, start sentences with “at least you…”, and so many other insensitive and thoughtless remarks. WORDS. They have power, intended and unintended.

As a conflict expert and mediator, the power of written and spoken words is highlighted constantly. Clients bring volumes of texts and emails to prove that their opponent is in the wrong and to validate their lousy behavior. WORDS. They provoke action and reaction, intended and unintended.

Organizations, governments, families, municipalities, corporations, individuals, cultures, and communities are affected by the words used to describe them, address them, and interact with them. Words live in infamy on paper, in the electronic ether, and our hearts and minds. My mission is to educate, bring awareness, and empower all people to use words with intention, understanding that words have intense power and, once released, cannot be retracted.

Words are passed down through generations, and cycles are meant to be broken. My passion is to break the cycles that cause harm and to establish healing and uplifting paths through the power of WORDS.

ABOUT ME

“I am a mom, stepmom, wife, sister, daughter, grandma, friend, mediator, survivor, innovator, and advocate. I have had a mom role in the lives of 12 unique humans, have over 20 years of co-parenting experience, and am a breast cancer survivor and patient advocate. I love yoga, musical theatre, dancing, good food, cooking, therapy, podcasts about true crime and health, deep conversations, medical research, my book club ladies, learning about oddities, and my family. I really, really love my family and my people.

Raised in Southern California, I moved to Utah to attend college, and with brief stints out of state for work and other education, Utah has been my home for over 20 years. I am an entrepreneur with experience in healthcare administration, financial services, conflict resolution, mediation, and organizational leadership. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management, a Master's degree in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, and a Doctorate in Interdisciplinary Leadership. I am enthusiastic about empowering people to engage in conflict in healthy ways. My areas of expertise are conflict resolution, negotiations, mediation, organizational policies related to self-care in the workplace, work-family satisfaction, and self-advocacy.

I am a student, first and foremost. I aim to evolve positively throughout my life, pursue learning and growing, and innovate in spaces that promote equality, respect, dignity, and oneness. I am passionate about self-advocacy and believe it is our responsibility to take control of our lives and futures through education, empathy, and assertiveness. I believe in people, kindness, opportunity, change, and love.