We recently connected with Paula Gasparini-Santos and have shared our conversation below.

Paula, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Is there a heartwarming story from your career that you look back on?

I led art therapy groups for a re-entry program, for men who had been previously incarcerated. These men knew that I was there as a volunteer, and I would spend 4 hours weekly with them. During clean up for one of the groups one of the guys approached me and asked why do you care about us? I stopped putting away my supplies and looked at him in the eye and asked “why wouldn’t I care about you”. He went on to describe himself and the other men as society does to prisoners. He said we have all done awful things and it doesn’t make sense to have someone care about helping them. I remember feeling so sad that moment, that we dehumanize people because of behavior that mainly stems from trauma. I told him, “ I care because you are a human and yes, you did some terrible things with your behaviors, but I believe that you are still a good person and I’m here to remind you of that. Maybe healing is just reminding you that you aren’t what you chose to behave like in your past and you can choose differently moving forward .” This man went to every group I led, I worked with him for a year, he didn’t re-offend, he finished parole, reconnected to his children, got art up in an art gallery, became involved in his community. All it really took was unlearning a label about himself that made him a prisoner to his own bad choices. This was a pivotal moment in my career where I knew I would spend the rest of my life working with healing people’s traumas.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a mental health, therapist, art therapist, and a painter and a poet. I got into my field through the marriage of art and psychology, and a passion for creativity. It has always been in my blood. I take multiple research based approaches as a mental health therapist and I creatively choose how to bring these modalities to each individual client. I have always been fascinated by seeking truth, discovering truth and unpacking truth and I feel like working with individuals through psychology and art is a way to help a person, navigate their own truth and liberate themselves from the lies that are holding them back from living the life that they want.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

That therapy looks black-and-white for every client, or that there is only one modality that is the best for everyone. I had to unlearn early in my career. A lot of what we learned in school about showing up in this robotic way. Instead, I learn to show up as a human for my clients as a mirror there to new truly observe and reflect back what needs to be worked on.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

100% yes. If I could go back in time, I would always choose this career. I’m in love with helping people become their true authentic selves. Whether that is true mental health, my poetry, or my paintings. I like to instill conversations in dialogues that get people thinking, and considering deeper aspects of humanity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.theconsciousconnection.org/
• Instagram: @gdosart
• Twitter: @traumateachings
• Other: Tiktok: @TraumaTeachings

Image Credits
Anna Fischer, Boulder, CO