What’s written on your face?

“…his face told her things which she was glad to know.” – A.A. Milne

When you look in the mirror, you may see the lift of your eyebrows, texture of your hair, curve of your ears and shape of your chin.

When Naomi Tickle looks, she sees the person inside and the person you can become.

The Petaluma businesswoman is an expert in face pattern recognition, a careful analysis of more than 85 facial features that contain clues about individuals’ personalities. She uses the technique she has studied for more than 20 years to provide individual consultations, lead corporate workshops, write books and serve as a guest expert on TV and radio shows. She also lectures, appearing Feb. 8 at Songbird Healing Center in Cotati.

Tickle also is using her expertise to help a Santa Rosa-based company launch a mobile app for customers interested in making quick, on the spot personality assessments.

“The face serves as a piece of our internal blueprint,” Tickle said, explaining the universal power of her profession. “On the day a child is born, we can see a writer or musician, an artist or designer, someone who loves the stage, a perfectionist, someone who’s interested in the bottom line, another who’s analytical or detail-oriented.

“Think of the face as a GPS, indicating our strengths and challenges.”

Even plastic surgery can’t change the basic messages our faces reveal, Tickle said. “Mostly people change the eyebrows, shape of nose, lips and sometimes the chin,” she said.

Tickle describes her process as more closely aligned to science than to the pseudosciences of astrology or phrenology. It’s based on the work of Los Angeles judge Edward Jones who, in the 1930s, observed behavioral patterns of people who appeared in his courtroom and compared them to their facial features. He became so intrigued that he dropped his legal career and began researching face pattern recognition.

Using established scientific principles, he looked at 200 different features, later narrowing it down to 68, Tickle said. “His research indicated 88 percent accuracy for personality profiling.”

She discovered the field in the early 1980s when she was studying color analysis and was drawn to it. As a child in England, she had always been intrigued by people’s faces, she said, but “when I told my mother, she said, ‘Don’t be silly. You’re imagining things.’ ”

Since that time, scientists in the field of biometrics have developed a number of technologies that measure human body characteristics that include DNA, fingerprints, eyes, voices and facial patterns, a growing number of which are used for authentication purposes.

In 2010, New York’s Department of Motor Vehicles offices began using facial recognition technology to unmask identity thieves, for example. An Arizona company now incorporates the technology in vending machines that identify medical marijuana patients by scanning their faces. Facebook also has DeepFace, a facial recognition research project that could provide lucrative behavioral tracking data.

Tickle said she prefers to use her expertise to help people better understand each other and to find their paths in life rather than tracking their spending patterns. With Sonoma Media Partners, she is providing the facial pattern analysis algorithm that will allow users of a mobile app called FaceReflect to assess people’s personality traits using just their photos.

“We’re in the beginning stages, looking for funding,” she said.

For corporate clients that include AT&T, IBM, National Semiconductor, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley, she conducts career counseling and team-building workshops. She is a frequent guest speaker at health and wellness symposiums, joining Dr. Mehmet Oz and Deepak Chopra in 2013 and Martha Stewart in 2014 at Bay Area events.

Tickle also has appeared on NBC, BBC, Good Morning America and CNN, where she was asked to comment on the faces of the 2008 presidential candidates. Barack Obama’s square face indicates “that he is a seed planter, someone who likes new ideas,” she said.

Using photographs, the Internet and Skype, Tickle said she is able to study faces worldwide, but some of her subjects are complete strangers.

She once approached a young man in a Santa Rosa garage who was helping people with parking tickets, she said, and after looking at him asked if he was going to college, what he wanted to do with his life. His answer: “I don’t know. I’m a high school dropout. Who would want me?”

Tickle told him what she does, adding that she could see he had a gift for film editing.

“He caught my hands and said, ‘You’ve just turned my life around.’

“So many (people) are lost, have no direction. I think the least I can do is reach out and make a difference, give them positive thoughts about what they can do.”

Tickle also studied the faces of Petaluma’s championship Little League team and noted that many of the players had close-set eyes, which indicate focus and attention to detail, and cupped-out ears that show her a player will be adept at ball control.

“When you see people in the same activity, you can see the features they have in common,” she said.

Tickle also recommends face pattern recognition as a way to strengthen relationships.

“It’s a huge issue today,” she said. “I believe if more people knew what to expect, you’d find many more successful relationships.

“I can look at two people and see if they’re compatible. If there are a lot of opposites, I’ll say there are issues that may come up. This helps them be more aware.”

And she’s not just referring to romantic relationships. Co-workers also can use face pattern recognition to better understand and accept each other’s strengths and challenges, she said. “Instead of judging, you understand where people are coming from. Instead of reacting, we can be understanding.”

Tickle’s biggest obstacle may be convincing skeptics that facial pattern recognition works. Her most effective tool, she said, is a demonstration.

“People so often form an opinion without knowledge, experience or research. I say in my talks, ‘Keep an open mind, watch and listen, and you’ll notice the patterns. You’ll start seeing people from a whole different perspective.’”

Tickle said she regrets that more people aren’t using the discipline to help them live more fulfilled lives.

“It’s such a great tool because it’s so portable. You don’t have to ask questions or wait for body language. It’s right there.”

Tickle will talk about her book on relationships, “Who Am I, Who Are You?” at 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 8, at Stones Throw, 15 Charles St., Cotati. To learn more about face pattern recognition, visit naomitickle.com.

Contact Petaluma Towns Correspondent Katie Watts at PetalumaTowns@gmail.com.