NATALIA GÓMEZ-CARLIER,
MA Art Therapy

Natalia Gomez-Carlier (b. 1975) has a degree in psychology from Universidad de Los Andes, a master’s in art therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is a Registered Board-Certified Art Therapist with the American Association of Art Therapy. She has practiced as an art psychotherapist for more than 20 years in Bogota, Chicago, New York, Muscat, and now Dubai.

Natalia uses art to process and witness her personal experiences and clinical work. Her intention is to find avenues of growth, develop an understanding of her unconscious and hone her inner tools of intuition and attunement to support the people she works with.

Plague Growth
(Watercolor on Paper, 6” High x 4” Wide) 

This piece was created during the initial part of the pandemic when the use of masks changed the relational space in her art psychotherapy practice.

“I smile inside my mask. Can people see me smiling if they cannot see my mouth? I explore ways to convey my emotions within only the top of my face; wrinkles and folds are my means of expression and communication. I smiled at the lady in the waiting room, and she stared at me in bewilderment, she was not there to see me, but I used to enjoy a micro-connection through a smile. I smile; you smile. Now I smiled, and she stared. A second of miscommunication, I felt it; I wondered if she did.

When I work with my clients, I try to attune myself deeper as I have lost the ability to witness all the micro-expressions from the faces before me. I observe the expression in their eyes, the tone, and the body posture with greater consciousness to compensate. I work with a young client who is now continually drawing eyeballs; he has difficulty understanding his masked teachers and peers and has become slightly obsessed with eyeballs. As we drew eyeballs exploring their different expressions, I pondered what I perceived and what was missing. Then I was reminded of psychoanalysis's structure, where the lack of face-to-face was identified as the best conduit for free association. Can this mask bring more freedom, as my clients also miss some of my non-verbal communication? Is what we are missing allowing for increased expression?

I sit with my questions in a mixture of curiosity and concern. With how rapidly the world has changed, I find no answers and only more questions. But I feel the comfort of my mask and prepare myself for my next masked interaction.”

natalia@nataliagomezcarlier.me
www.nataliagomezcarlier.me
instagram.com/nat.in.sane/