ABOUT THAIS
Thais has been on book tour with her new memoir, Second Chance: A Mother’s Quest for a Natural Birth After a Cesarean, speaking to hundreds of people about her birth experience and the current state of birth in the United States. Because of the huge response and tears by unsuspecting book lovers, she is currently bringing her core message from her book to a bigger audience. She speaks about Invisible Choice and Becoming the Hero of Your Life at writing, business, medical, and wellness conferences, retreats, meetings, and schools. She has spoken live about her story on national media including NPR. Her writing has been published online and in print nationally and internationally.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Author of Second Chance: A Mother’s Quest for a Natural Birth After a Cesarean
International Speaker
Creator of the "Write Your Impact" book writing program for influencers
Head of The Writer's Circle at The Hivery in Mill Valley, CA
Mother to two amazing boys and partner to one extraordinary grown man
KEYNOTE DESCRIPTION (1 of 4)- "INVISIBLE CHOICE"
Topic: Invisible Choice
Title: CHOICE: EMPOWERING PEOPLE TO MAKE DECISIONS THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW ARE THERE.
Description: We live in America where we assume that we have a choice but do we really? There’s so many times that we don’t know that we have a choice. I believe that we give away our personal freedom when give away our power to make choices. The best decisions for ourselves are sometimes the options not immediately seen or even known.
To see a choice that may not be immediately obvious, we must learn how to do three things:
Listen and understand not our minds but our bodies
Identify fear and move past it
My own smart planning and research is enough to make choices that concern me
This is when we feel free.
There are choices all around us if we are willing to see them. Thais Derich, advocate for personal freedom, will teach the audience that feeling empowered through making tough and easy choices every day leads to the American Dream, FREEDOM. When choice is limited or non existent or we give away decision making power, we feel robbed of our personal freedom. Sharing her personal life and birth stories, she is a catalyst that helps people see that they are enough, just how they are, and they deserve and must fight for what they want . The hardest choices snowball into one big empowered YOU and the feeling of freedom that has no ethnic or socioeconomic boundaries. I want the unique you to stand tall and shine bright in your own power!
Audience will learn how to:
-How to listen to their intuition
-Believe in themselves and advocate for themselves
-Experience personal freedom and self empowerment through making real choices
-Re-frame their relationship with assumed beliefs and institutions
Thais goes beyond just giving a presentation. She creates an experience. She brings together the elements of intuition, self-empowerment and freedom. Thais brings an energy of activism, believing everyone in the room has a small action to take in their lives that will bring more positive change into the world. She sees it as our job to claim our authority over our choices.
KEYNOTE DESCRIPTION (2 of 4) - "Be the hero of your Life"
Topic: What does being the hero of your life mean?
Title: YOUR A HERO: EMPOWERING PEOPLE TO BE THE HEROES OF THEIR LIVES
Description: I encourage the audience to take back their power and become the hero of their lives. We matter. Our lives matter. Our stories matter. What will you do with your super power? Will you give it to someone else? Or will you wear the cape?
Here are three ways to wear the cape:
- Listen to our body when it's warning us
Take the time that you need to make the best decision for yourself
Do the research to back up your feelings and intuition.
We feel like heroes when we know what we want and ask for what we need.
Audience will learn how to:
-Feel empowered even without a title
-Believe in themselves and advocate for themselves
-Experience personal freedom and self empowerment through making real choices
-The urgency of reclaiming our voice
The power to own our lives, it is inside all of us. No one can take it, unless we give it to them. But we must seize it or someone else will speak for us. Today we are seeing that when women make the choice to speak up big change happens. OPERA said at the Golden Globes: “Speaking your truth is the most powerful tool that we have.”
So it’s time.
It’s time to be heroes!
KEYNOTE DESCRIPTION (3 of 4) - "Write Your impact"
Topic: How to write your book
Title: WRITE YOUR IMPACT: EMPOWERING INFLUENCERS TO WRITE THEIR BOOKS
Description: Thais believes that all people in business to make an impact can empower more people with a book. She takes the fear out of writing and shows the audience her signature "Write Your Impact" method to book writing.
- How to be your authentic-self and tap into your passion while writing?
You are already making an impact. How can you leverage the content that you already have to write your book?
How does your personal life story weave into your business?
How long does it really take to write a book?
What are the big moments in your life that have impacted you?
How have they lead you to what you do today?
What are the changes that you want to see in the world?
Audiences will quickly see their books unfold right there in their minds as Thais talks about the process.
Audience will learn how to:
-How to write from the heart
-Where to find content already written for your book?
-Time management
-How to create a writing mindset, ritual, and routine?
-How long does a book really take to write? How to get to that word count?
You need to be brave to write a book and put yourself out there in the written word. Thais talks about the journey and how to push through the anxiety and fears to get to the other side of the rainbow! I want to help influencers who are positively impacting the world get their message out in book form.
KEYNOTE DESCRIPTION (4 of 4)– "The Intersection between social justice and childbirth"
Topic: Women’s Empowerment in Childbirth
Title: THE LAST FRONTIER IN WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Description: Thais examines the relationship between her personal experience and our culture's definition of expertise and authority, as it relates to childbirth in today's society.
Discussing women’s rights, informed consent plus her personal story, Thais paints an indisputable picture of the last frontier in women’s rights.
Yet everyday, ordinary people are falling victims to a system that isn’t looking out for their best interests nor making medical decision based on scientific evidence. Even if medical providers have their heart in the right place, we are all part of bigger system that dictates how things are done no matter what. All too often, childbirth is depicted through the rosy lens of the birth’s afterglow: the mother gazing down at her swaddled infant at her breast, woozy and love drunk.
However, as soon as a woman knows that a child is growing in her body, she falls under the power of theories, ideals, archetypes, descriptions of her new existence, almost none of which have come from other women.
It’s up to each individual, each consumer of birth, to advocate for care based on evidence and patient rights not on doctor, hospital and/or culture bias. To do this we must learn the facts and learn what we can each individually do to help ourselves out and in the process change the world.
Audience will learn:
-Thais’s two birth stories
-State of birth in the US
-Brief history of women in medicine
-Feelings are information
-How to listen to your body when it’s talking to you
-That you have choices
We live in America where we assume that we have a choice. But do we really? Even the most self-aware people are victims of unconscious choices. Using the goals of each event, Thais creates an experience with audiences that empowers them to create their own personal freedom. When it comes to choice, we create the future.
TESTIMONIALS
“I don’t have words. I found myself at times crying, cheering Thais on, and just overall relating to her story. I didn’t know how much it mattered to me. In fact I realize I was just trying to forget, trying to keep it buried. Yet I feel empowered by her personal story rather than feeling hopelessly sad. That she found the courage, for ALL of her honesty is incredibly inspiring and impressive.”
“I have to tell you how passionate I found your voice. There is such a fire in you. Such honesty and simple truthfulness about what so many of us feel and think.”
“Thais’s story serves as a mentorship to women seeking their own voice despite the obstacles that block our authentic selves.”
MEETING PLANNER RESOURCES
Full Bio
Speaker Introduction
A/V Set-up Guide
Headshot 1
Headshot 2
photo by Kim Thompson Steel
TOPICS
Invisible Choices
Becoming the Hero of Your Life
Write to Make an Impact
Empowerment
Social Justice
Childbirth
Past Events
Evoso Live, Litquake, The Hivery, Listen to Your Mother Show, Mill Valley Public Library, Book Passage, Barnes & Noble, Green Apple Books, Napa BookMine, Natural Resources, The Depot, Kaleidoscope
BOOK THAIS AT AN EVENT
TESTIMONIALS
“Thais Derich speaks with passion and courage about a topic she has intimate knowledge of. With cesarean sections now happening at a rate of 1 out of every 3 births. It is also a timely subject. Seeing your choice even when it doesn’t feel like there is one is the lesson, childbirth is the context, and Thais is the storyteller leading you on the journey. It all makes for an engaging and engrossing talk.”
“Thais Derich addresses an issue that is critically important and yet not often addressed: a woman’s agency during childbirth. Through her own deeply personal story she points out the importance of being awake to the choices around us, not only at this pivotal moment when the medical system too often takes over, but in our broader lives. ”
“Thais doesn’t talk just about childbirth, but about control over our own lives and simply, about being human.”
“Derich is an important contribution to the current international debate about human rights in childbirth and the critical role of respectful maternity care.”
“Thais is an excellent resource for birth professionals — she provides a unique look into the inner thoughts of a pregnant and laboring person - thoughts that aren’t often shared, and therefore important for professionals when caring for families during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.”
“Derich helps to dispel the stigma of both VBACs and home births while shedding light on what she sees as a broken health care/hospital birth system.”
“Thais tells an unbiased, highly transparent account of her journey through the labyrinth of emotions and experiences that can accompany the post-cesarean birthing woman within the U.S.”