How I Use Tarot in Therapy

Those familiar with my therapy practice know that I am passionate about balancing “the clinical with the mystical”. I highly value evidence-based practices, but I am also aware that these approaches can be limiting or ineffective for some folks. As we are embracing the very real efficacy of “emerging therapies”, we are gaining an understanding of the value of tools that have been used for healing and improving quality of life, across time and cultures. Healing traditions similar to many currently popularized therapy practices including Internal Family Systems, Psilocybin Therapy and MBCT have been used throughout time by BIPOC and ritualists, and are just now being recognized by Western mental health practitioners for their effectiveness in treating a wide range of mental health diagnoses such as PTSD, anxiety and depression. As a seasoned therapist with over 16 years of post-graduate clinical experience, I have found that traditional therapy *typically* does not place explicit value in the healing power of incorporating the unconscious, creativity, spirituality and other “non-evidence based” methods into mental health treatment.

I love using Tarot with clients, when it is deemed appropriate, as an additional processing tool and effective way to track progress and shifts in perspectives over the course of treatment. Here are some ways that I have found Tarot to have value in the therapy space.

The Benefits of Incorporating Tarot into Your Healing Journey

• Tarot can help to strengthen your relationship with your intuition. 

• Tarot can help open up new ways of thinking, resulting in motivation to make different choices by confronting us with our unconscious patterns that leave us stuck. 

• Tarot can help us see things from a different perspective, that otherwise may not have emerged in traditional talk therapy.

• Tarot stimulates our brain as we are introduced with newly accessed information that we are then tasked to integrate into our conscious awareness.

• Tarot can help us identify and name emerging themes in our lives that we have been striving to access the language for, making uncomfortable feelings harder to avoid and therefore assisting us in making significant breakthroughs.

• It can help us piece together aspects of our past, present and future to help us see the bigger picture in moments of chaos or crisis.

• It connects us to our creativity, unconscious, imagination, spirit, and higher self. When all aspects of ourselves are activated, we can take action in our lives with more self-compassion, awareness and intention. 

• It helps us to “externalize the internal” and better sift through our thoughts and emotions, and help organize them in a way that makes sense and that we can work with on a practical level. 

• These are just a few examples as there are so many ways that Tarot can enhance your healing journey!

Can You Use Tarot as a Self-Healing Tool?

Absolutely! Tarot is a great tool to use for self-reflection, when you are working to strengthen your intuition, or to help find new ways to tackle a problem. The first step is to get whatever deck you feel drawn to. Study the cards, get to know them, pull them with friends, note what the imagery is bringing up for you, what symbols are you drawn to? Don’t overemphasize memorization. Take only what resonates from the guidebooks, as this is your practice and there is no “right” or “wrong” way to develop your relationship with the Tarot. 

If this sounds like something you are interested in exploring, consider booking a Guided Tarot Session with me!