Art therapy is a respectful partnership between people for the purpose of using imaginative tools to gain self-understanding.
Playing with right-brain intuition and imagination is a very informal, flexible, whatever-works sort of process. It's important to have a relaxed bond of rapport with the client and to develop a sense of laughter and play. It's O.K. to have fun with therapy.

The tarot can foster mental health by asking the client to choose images that mirror his or her problems and put them out on the table where they can be dealt with and healed with conscious intention. The tarot awakens creativity and expands problem solving skills.

For example: The client can do theater, act out the situation and rewrite the “script”; make a collage about the card; choose some “helper” cards and then re-create the helpers in daily life; write a poem; draw a picture; keep a journal; choose one card for inspiration each day.

Tarot is very helpful for ADHD clients.
The fascinating images on the cards and the many ways of playing with them are excellent for capturing attention and teaching a client how to stay focused. Tarot teaches discipline, creates a way to slow down and clarify attention, and relieves restless anxiety.

For example: during a session it may often be necessary to call the client's attention back to the focus of the reading.

Peole get distracted when information floods in too fast. The ADHD client can become restless in order to shake off the excess energy caused by overwhelming input. In some cases he/she may get so absorbed in the play that they begin to perseverate. This is an opportunity to deal with engagement – disengagement issues. I found the map of the tarot to be a help for orientation. The overall diagram of the deck is a road map that can give a point of reference regarding your progress.

Tarot images can help to reframe negative thoughts into positive ideas through Active Imagination play. A shift of consciousness occurs when questioning pre-conceived ideas. Do not allow the session with a client to descend into heavy negativity. Suggest new possibilties. Questions empower the client to face the truth of the situation.

For example: “You don't like this card that just came up? - Go ahead and throw it out. You are in charge. What real life problem does it make you think of? How could you 'throw out' that problem in your daily life? How does that make you feel? How about choosing another card by looking at the cards face up? Tell me about your choice. What do you really want? How are you going to get it? What's the first thing you're going to do to make it happen?”

This technique is simple Reality Therapy. Questions empower the client to face the truth of the situation.

Tarot can foster self-awareness by paying attention to the emotional responses that particular images invoke in the client. This gives the therapist a way to ask awareness questions.

For example: “Where did you feel the shock when you first reacted to that card? Where in your body did you feel it? So, more is happening here than just your rational brain, isn't it? The gut feelings, or gasp that you made means that your subconscious is responding. Can you describe the feeling in detail? Does it have a shape?; a color?; a weight?; a memory?” Remind clients to report feelings, not ideas. Do not use “why” questions, only who, what, where, when. It helps to keep the client focused on the present.

Tarot images are so disarming that people open up easily and talk about themselves.
For example: Children are usually drawn to the cards. I show them all the cards face up and ask them to pick out their favorite, or choose a few cards and then tell a story about them. They often like to pick out a card and say, “this is me”. You can say, “tell me more”, or, “...and then what happened?”

Teens like to direct the play, and I encourage them to a lay out a pattern of cards that describes a problem. They are asked to find themselves in a card, or find the “bad guy” that they have in their dreams. “Reading the tarot is like having a dream while you are awake! Everything you notice as you look at the cards is an aspect of yourself. The important thing is to get your problem out into the open so that you feel empowered to act.”

The cards can be a projective technique for therapeutic insights.
Tarot cards are something like the Rorschach Test or the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) which is a set of cards with drawings of people in different “situations”. The client views them and then reports what he/she thinks is happening. The huge variety of tarot decks gives you and your client an endless supply of iconic images to work with.

The entire tarot deck is a diagram that can be used as another type of projective object.
When you see the pattern of the entire 78 cards laid out, you can't help but notice that there is a meaningful design to the whole thing. It is not a jumble of unrelated pictures. It can illustrate, step by step, many stages of personal development. It can be seen as a map of human evolution. Just as each individual card can be projected onto, this map can be projected on to define stages of Self Actualization, or a plan of action. A symbol system is not a list of proven facts – it just hints or suggests an idea, giving your client the freedom to make his/ her own subjective interpretations.

Learning the tarot as a system is like learning a new alphabet.
When you both know the tarot well, you can mention a specific card in the diagram and a huge amount of information is conveyed, like shorthand. An image is 100 x more powerful than ordinary speech.This alphabet is useful for dream analysis and dialog with like-minded people, such as your client or your partner. It's a communication tool for dyslexic clients who don't like to read and for those with non-traditional learning styles.

Fear of the tarot is based on the taboo against the right brain.
It is not as logical and predictable as the analytical left side of the brain and is much more imaginative. The imagination is a mixed blessing – it can dream up angels, or it can become negative and dream up demons. Many people fear to invade the subconscious. Carl Jung named this dark side the Shadow. In order to mature as we grow up, we have to deal with our irrational shadow fears and for this the tarot is useful. It can help to bring archetypal images out into the light so they can be faced with intelligence and humor - somewhat like Dorothy unveiling the Wizard of Oz.

The aim of therapy is to help clients to face the buried fears and resultant problems that have been crippling them. Art therapy with tarot certainly provides multiple means for that result.

Cameo Victor, ©2005

More information about Cameo and applications of her work may be found in the Introduction to the book, which is available as a free download from this site.