How A Licensed Therapist Utilizes Tarot as a Psychological Tool - and 2 Ways You Can Too

Tarot is more than just a divination tool, it is a psychological tool used to unlock your potential.

In this blog post, we will explore how to use tarot to understand yourself better, gain clarity, and make positive changes in your life.

Tarot & Psychotherapy

Tarot cards have been used for centuries as a divinatory tool. But I’m going to give you a therapist’s perspective.  

So first, I’m giving you a therapist’s perspective. An honest to God, licensed therapist, who has a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. Which means, in short…

I’m not a witch. 

I can’t tell the future. 

I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or next year or when you’re going to find the love of your life. 

I really wish I could. I say to clients all the time, I wish I had a crystal ball I could look into or a magic wand that would just solve all the issues. 

But. I don’t. 

I do use tarot cards as a tool for psychological exploration. Tarot cards can be used to gain insight into the unconscious, to help uncover repressed memories, and to gain a better understanding of your own thought processes. Tarot is more than just a divination tool, it is a psychological tool used to unlock your potential. In this blog post, we will explore how I use tarot to improve mental health, and what you can do to use tarot to understand yourself better and gain clarity. 

What is tarot? 

Tarot cards are a collection of 78 pieces of artwork, each with it’s own unique and layered system of metaphors and parables. There are four main suits (like a traditional Bicycle deck you play poker with) and then a series of 22 trump cards. Tarot cards can be traced back to many different places. Most concretely, we can see Tarot cards used in 14th century Italy. They were used as playing cards at the time. 

Jessica Dore in Therapy for Change talks about how you can see some evidence of Tarot trump cards being used in Ancient Egyptian culture. The gods like to tuck the secrets of spiritual enlightenment into playing cards, counting on the greed of humans to outlast the pure desire for knowledge. 

It wasn’t until later that Romani’s started using them as a form of divination or fortune telling. 

The most well known form of the deck holds the illustrations by Pamela Coleman Smith from the early 20th century, also known as the Rider-Waite Deck (because a man commissioned them. Patriarchy, amiright?).

She was the first illustrator that we know of to illustrate the four main suits in addition to the trump cards. It’s these illustrations, and the more modern interpretations, that I love using in psychotherapy. 

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How does using tarot in psychotherapy work? 

Cuz again…I’m not a witch. 

Each card, with its unique set of artwork, is infused with metaphor and stories. And since all my work in the therapy room is about the stories my clients tell themselves - who they are, what they deserve, and what to expect…

It kinda makes sense that I enjoy other story telling to foster curiosity and change? 

Right? 

I don’t use traditional card layouts in the therapy room like you would see in a tarot reading. Because clients aren’t coming to me for a tarot reading. They’re coming to therapy. 

Tarot as a Psychological Tool In Action

Sometimes when a client is talking about their anxiety holding them hostage at work, I’ll be reminded of the image of the 8 of Swords, seen here. 

I’ll hold up the card and explain some of the traditional story telling that goes with the card. A woman loosely bound and blindfolded stands in water surrounded by swords. Water typically represents emotion. Swords typically represent intellect or conflict. And you get the sense from the loose binding that she could free herself whenever she felt she needed to. 

Begging the question - is there something about your anxiety at work that’s helping you? Or, what do you think is stopping you from dropping the rope and walking forward? 

Tarot Cards in Therapy Sessions

Rarely does a session start with the cards themselves. Cuz again…we’re using tarot cards in a therapy session. Not doing a tarot reading with a therapist. 

Usually the client opens with what their needs are this week, what they’re grappling with, the next stepping stone on their path to growth. I shuffle and shuffle as I absorb what I’m  hearing. I reflect the different patterns I see. I validate the pain and tension she’s experiencing. And then I pull a few cards. 

Some of my clients enjoy tarot as a form of self care and spiritual growth in their personal lives, and so the cards take a more center stage during session. 

Some of my clients are devoutly Christian, and find some of the Christian themes in the tarot artwork interesting and helpful, but don’t ask for the cards directly. 

Most of my clients are able to see an aspect of their experience better in the artwork of tarot than they are in telling their own story. Something about seeing their emotional experience expressed so concretely but also so differently, sparks a new idea. A revelation. An insight to help them move forward. 

Images in Tarot Cards for Self Awareness

Images are powerful tools that connect with our limbic brain. The never ending swirling of thoughts (“I should be doing x” or “What if y happens?”) and judgments (“I can’t believe I forgot that” or “Buck up girlfriend, just get your shit together”) sits in our prefrontal cortex. 

Our prefrontal cortex loves language. And when we get stuck in analysis paralysis, we’re firmly stuck in our prefrontal cortex. We’re often unaware of how tense our bodies feel. How shallow our breath is. How our stomach and jaw are clenched. We don’t even realize we’re picturing how mad our boss is going to be, how disappointed our date is going to be, how irritated our friend is. 

Which is what I love to point out. 

And where using tarot as a psychological tool shines. 

History of Cards & Images in Psychotherapy

This isn’t the first time visual props have been used to instigate change. 

Think about ink blot tests. These assess how your brain stem and limbic brain interpret vague visual information and turn it into meaningful information. Do you see people? If not, why not? 

When Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk was participating in a study of traumatized children, they would show children pictures of families engaged in different activities. Children were asked to tell a story using the photo, and think about what happened next for this family. 

Children who had not experienced trauma would say “the kids help the dad fix the car, and then they go out for ice cream.”

Children who had experienced trauma would say things like “The car falls on top fo the dad and murders him, and the boy kills the girl with the wrench.” 

The picture itself isn’t what’s important. It’s what the individual makes of them. And that information tells me as a therapist, how your brain works. What it’s anticipating. What types of stories are you likely to tell yourself? Are you likely to believe? 

Using tarot as a psychological tool is less about the tarot cards themselves - whether a certain card means good fortune or new love - and more about how my clients participate with the images and stories each card represents. 

Can Tarot Cards Help? 

Tarot cards are incredible. But they’re not necessarily unique. There are a lot of amazing decks out there with similar benefits. 

Affirmation decks, calm art work decks, DBT skills decks. Cards that you can carry with you, that remind you of something helpful, so you can make choices that align with your values. 

What makes tarot unique is its depth. 

Carl Jung’s idea of archetypes explained how we humans make meaning of the experiences of our lives. Our family histories. Our inner struggles. Our hopes and fears for the future. 

Archetypes are found in fairy tales, religious texts, and common fables. Creation stories, Greek mythology, and indigenous rituals find common ground in archetypes - the explorer, the innocent, the artist, the lover. 

Jungian tarot card meanings connect his classic archetypes to the roles in the trumps of the cards. The innocent becomes The Fool. The Sage becomes The Hermit. The Ruler becomes The Emperor and The Hierophant. The Magician stays The Magician.

The artwork also reflects these ancient and timeless and universal experiences.. The themes, metaphors, and parables of each card stem from medieval folklore, religious texts, and greek mythology. It’s resonated with generations and generations of humans because each card kind of tells it’s own unique story of human experience. 

Knowing that you aren’t the only one to experience overwhelming failure is nice (X of Swords).

Seeing how terrifying change can be for everyone for the last 700 years is helpful (Death card). 

Engaging with the visual of enjoying the fruits of your hard labor is effective (X of Pentacles). 

Are tarot cards particularly more helpful than other types of artwork? Scientifically, no. But in my experience the depth of different meanings and metaphors found in tarot make it uniquely helpful to my clients. 

How can you use tarot cards for mental health benefits? 

For more modern uses of the Tarot, look to the work of Carl Jung than the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (the occult group that popularized tarot for spiritual awakening). 

Tarot artwork and stories then can show archetypes and a universal symbolic language, opening us up to see the blueprints we  approach the world with. Tina Gong in her well named book Tarot, says 

“And in tarot, [archetypes] are the many faces of the self that we carry within us who we must learn to meet without fear, shame, or hate. It is through the archetypes that we create images, tell stories, and ultimately derive meaning for our lives.” 

A lot of my clients struggle to see the stories they tell themselves as just that - stories. They are fused. Which causes suffering. 

If I don’t put myself out there, then I will never date again. 

No guy is just going to meet me, find me interesting, and pursue me. 

That’s a story my clients tell themselves so often they think it’s true. Even when it’s not. And it causes suffering. 

Through randomly curated tarot cards, they can more accurately see a story and recognize the ones they tell themselves. And then through that recognition, find the power to change it. And find liberation. 

How to Make the Most of Tarot Cards

I’m going to give you two techniques for using tarot cards to help your mental health and perspective. Approach these like active journaling prompts. In fact, having a journal nearby would be the best way to start.

Technique One - Make Your Own Story. 

Lay out the cards in a very big half circle, so you can kinda see a lot of them. Let your eyes scan over the half circle. 

First step - find a card that represents how you’re feeling right now. Scan the half circle and go with the first one that resonates. Don’t over think it. This is not about being right or wrong, or finding the best thing. 

Second step - find a card that represents how you want to feel. Again, lightly scan the remaining cards, and find the first one that jumps out at you. 

Third step - journal a story that starts with the first card and ends with the second card. Maybe there are some characters in each card that are a similar. A boy, a couple, the sun. Maybe there are complimentary elements - water, mountains, a boat. Don’t judge the process, just see where the story takes you. After the story is written, see if there’s are any tangible actions that you could take. Perhaps it’s letting go. Perhaps it’s taking a trip. Perhaps it’s spending more time with your partner. 

You can’t mess it up. Don’t over think it. 

Technique Two - Pull a Random Card. 

Take a deep belly breath. You can either shuffle the deck to your hearts content and pull a card, or you can spread the cards into a semi circle and pull a card. Just make sure it’s a blind pull. 

First notice how your body reacts. Does your chest tighten up? Does your stomach flip? Do you feel your shoulders roll in? See what’s happening there. 

Study the image. See the details. What emotions are you seeing portrayed in the cards? Start with the easy peasy happy/mad/sad. Then get more detailed. Disappointed. Forlorn. Content. 

Then ask yourself “What about the story of this card is helpful?” Don’t go googling the ‘meaning’ of the card. 

Just sit with your own creativity and curiosity. Get out of your judgment zone. And go with your gut. A lot of times the advice we need is within ourselves, it’s just hard to hear that part over the shouting judgments. 

Conclusion

Tarot is an ancient practice that can provide insight and clarity into life, love, and our mental health. Tarot as a psychological tool builds self awareness, and self understanding.

I use it in the therapy room to create curiosity, not to tell your future. Because ultimately, I want therapy to be self empowering. It’s not about replacing external validation with the validation of the cards.

It’s about putting aside your incredible smart pants brain and letting your intuition come forward through artwork and metaphors.