The Diver (2013) by Nathalie Frickey (b.1972)

Dr. med. Nathalie Frickey trained and worked in Germany, France and Austria. She is physician-turned-art-therapist and mother of three. She lives and works in Vienna, Austria.

In her exploration of the liminal spaces between arts and healing, she uses found imagery, words and found objects in restorative storytelling. All these elements are assembled via collage or poetry into a new and larger whole, reflecting individual and collective growth and evolution. Her personal journey of integrating early childhood trauma, and growing awareness of transgenerational and collective aspects of trauma in various kinds of disease shape her particular approach to art therapy as a healing practice. Her current focus is on working with patients with severe eating disorders and a history of trauma.

The Diver is about fear and isolation – total, primal terror, a state of cryopreservation of the self. Individuals with complex post-traumatic stress disorder struggle to regain a sense of safety, to exit that cocoon of icy fear and reconnect with the warp and weft of the world and other people. The inner world experience in this case is quite distinct and different from the outer world experience since the fear itself projects a sphere of altered reality in which the sufferer exists.

We are always looking for interesting and visually appealing images for the cover of the Journal and would welcome suggestions or pictures, which should be sent to Dr Allan Beveridge, British Journal of Psychiatry, 21 Prescot street, London E1 8BB, UK or [email protected].