Tarot cards can provide fresh perspective to a stuck situation.
We all have blind spots. And sometimes, despite our best efforts, we simply do not and cannot see the full spectrum of possibilities available to us in any given situation
Tarot cards harness the power of metaphor.
Metaphors are widely used as a clinical tool because of their ability to make the many facets of the human experience concrete and comprehensible. Tarot cards contain vast imagery and are chock full of metaphorical content that can help patients understand their experience and circumstances in new light.
Using tarot cards in sessions is empowering.
In traditional tarot readings, a reader will shuffle the cards and draw cards for the client before interpreting and exploring the meanings of the cards. In a psychotherapy session, it tends to look a bit different. Clients can be prompted to use the cards in a number of ways, from choosing cards at random to laying all the cards out face up and selecting images that are the most personally resonant and then describing what the images mean to them.
Tarot cards are a unique way to tap experience that is otherwise difficult to verbalize.
Talking about inner experience does not come naturally to many. Whether it’s because people are so fused with their thoughts and feelings that they cannot describe them objectively or because the weight of shame or fear of judgment holds them back from expressing the truth about their experience, inability or unwillingness to talk about inner turmoil can thwart or undermine to the therapeutic process. An evocative image on a tarot card offers a way for people to talk about an otherwise difficult to express inner experience in an objective way, if that feels safer or more comfortable for them.
Tarot cards are neutral–philosophically, therapeutically and spiritually and easily adaptable to work within any therapeutic framework.
The symbols and themes depicted in tarot cards represent universal human experiences, which include thought processes, personality types, cognitive styles both maladaptive and healthy and more. The cards are wide open to one’s own unique interpretation and are available as tools to extract meanings that are aligned with their own unique world views, spiritual or religious perspectives and beliefs.
