Did you know that tarot cards have always had deep roots in psychological applications? Psychoanalyst Carl Jung explained that the cards were an easy way to represent the “archetypes of mankind” – or universal traits like strength, ambition and passion-in psychology, making them ideal tools for therapy and mental health.
Once a client sees the cards laid out, it can become clear what you actually want as they help to externalise your problems. They can allow you to storyboard your life and see your hopes and fears laid out in pictures and issues become more obvious. The cards are universal and this is precisely why they are so useful in psychology. To make it clear, they are not a fortune telling tool for use in therapy, they are in fact a tool that helps you enhance your therapy.
Those of you that know me well will know that I have been reading the tarot cards for 20 years. I know the cards very well and have conducted so many readings over those 20 years and quite often it opens up a dialogue between myself and the client on how to best move forward with their lives. Of course, with a client coming specifically for counselling it would not be ethical of me to use the use the cards by reading them for the client as a divination tool, but how about the possibility of incorporating the cards into the counselling session? I don’t want to get into the whole quantum physics theory here as it would go way beyond this blog but we do know that Jung was friendly with both Einstein and Pauli and he recognised the principles of quantum physics as a possible explanation for synchronicity. Jung discussed a series of experiments which demonstrated to him that there could be a connection between physical objects (tarot cards) and the images one sees in one’s mind.
For decades the psychology field has employed tests that utilise ambiguous visual images to reveal underlying, unconscious or difficult to communicate needs, beliefs and response patterns in patients. Tarot cards can provide fresh perspectives to a stuck situation, they can also harness the power of metaphor. The cards may also empower the client and help them to tap into an experience that otherwise would be difficult to verbalise.
Because the cards are neutral-philosophically, therapeutically and spiritually, and easily adaptable to work within any therapeutic framework they can provide an avenue for challenging psychological material to come forth in a way that feels safe for the clients in their psychotherapeutic work.
Of course, tarot cards come in all shapes and forms and if the traditional tarot pack is not quite for you, then I have plenty of packs that may be useful such as flower cards, animal cards, I have cards that can help you to understand your deep emotions and cards with empowering questions that you may want to ask yourself.
More specifically the new mood cards I have are based on mindfulness, cognitive behavioural therapy and positive psychology, and they can help to identify and explore moods and emotions by helping you embark on a deeper journey of self-discovery and help you to gain new insights and perspectives.
If you would like more information about how I can incorporate cards into a counselling or hypnotherapy session (not from a divination perspective but from a psychological perspective), then please feel free to contact me for more information. I am seeing clients face to face and also working online.