Therapeutic Tarot/Therapy: defn

[Teheuti]

Is it time for definitions of therapeutic tarot and tarot therapy? These could vary a great deal depending on the kind of practice and the background of the practitioner (or if doing it for oneself). We might need to distinguish our definitions among:

LP - licensed professionals
TC - tarot consultants (or coach?)
P - personal use
or, if appropriate, specify a particular therapy that tarot is to be used with: occupational therapy, dance therapy, aromatherapy, hypnotherapy, etc.

Some of the definitions we already have for THERAPY are:

1) a treatment or process that tries to promote physical and/or mental healing.

2) to attend or support someone with the intent of nurturing well-being and awareness.

3) the provision via external means or by a facilitator, of addressing a problem and effecting a positive change or outcome where no adverse reaction is intended.

4) an honest attempt at solving an issue using the help of a "proven useful" frame

5) a beneficial act (of treatment) with the intention to ease dis-ease.

ADDED: 6) healing the rift within humans themselves so they can heal their rift with the divine.

_________
A licensed health/counseling professional might use one of the above and append something like "using tarot as one method."

A tarot consultant might need to be more circumspect where therapy is legislated by law - especially when using the word "treatment."

As an example, many Life Coaches already use tarot in their practice:

• "Life coaching is a practice with the stated aim of helping clients determine and achieve personal goals."

• "Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential."

Colorado determined that coaching is unlike therapy because it does not focus on examining nor diagnosing the past. Instead coaching focuses on effecting change in a client's current and future behavior. (Interesting distinction, but how helpful is it to us when so many spreads have positions called 'the past'?)

Mary

 

[Teheuti]

Thousands of people already identify themselves as therapeutic tarot readers. Here are some examples from websites of what they say it is:

Tarot Therapy will enable you to access your divine potential and work with the building blocks of the past, through the issues of the present to create your future, putting you in touch with your life path and your life purpose.

You will learn how to read the therapeutic levels within the cards: to offer your clients self-help tools and new communication abilities that will catalyze the integrative forces within them.

In therapeutic work, the images and symbols of the Tarot are a profoundly meaningful way to help people to observe their interior worlds as they are reflected in what seems to be happening in their outer lives. Tarot can provide a way not only to get in touch with what is taking place at a deep level, but also to understand what it means in terms of one’s evolution toward wholeness.

The cards also have a therapeutic effect through the direct impact their images have on the psyche. The cards can cathartically release trauma that floats and stagnates below the surface of the psyche, without much discussion at all.

Used in a therapeutic way, the Tarot alone is often enough to bring about the energy shift or movement required to precipitate the healing required in the client. The sensitive Tarot Therapist can cause energy to flow, adhering to the powerful esoteric law that ‘energy follows thought which follows desire’. The most effective therapy is that which effects its cure at all four levels of the client: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. In order to act as therapist for another, we must first undergo the therapy ourselves.

Whether I use Reiki, Tarot or regressing I let my clients take their lives in their own hands. These techniques allow for the creation of happiness, joy and fulfillment in life.

A few psychoanalysts have been said to use tarot cards for therapeutic purposes too as the images they contain are archetypes embedded in the subconscious of all human beings.

Tarot Therapy is a process that helps to uncover the unconscious memories stored in the body that may have otherwise never come to the surface and helps bring the mind, body and spirit to wholeness to ultimately live more fully.

The aim of tarot therapy is to help clients to face the buried fears and resultant problems that have been crippling them.

"Tarot Therapists" use the tarot as a tool to diagnose, plan a treatment course, and help people to move through emotional-mental-/physical-spiritual blocks to true health and wellness. Tarot Therapy applies the cards to explore the underlying energy that makes people who they are and shapes what they experience.
Tarot Therapy is often used to:
* promote vital physical health
* achieve emotional balance
* help to reach mental understanding
* restore spiritual peace and well-being

 

[Grizabella]

You say "memories stored in the body". Did you mean to say stored the subconscious mind? Or did you literally mean stored in the body?

I personally believe that while tarot can be therapeutic whether used by a trained therapist, a professional tarot reader or a lay person using the cards, nobody should try to practice therapy of any kind unless they're trained for it.

 

[Teheuti]

You say "memories stored in the body". Did you mean to say stored the subconscious mind? Or did you literally mean stored in the body?

Actually, I didn't mean anything by it. These are quotes or paraphrases from lots of different websites where people described themselves primarily as doing some form of therapeutic tarot or tarot therapy. No one has to agree with them.

By "memories stored in the body" I presume the person who wrote this was referring to trauma and other memories that are most easily accessed physiologically. This is one of the "hottest" areas in recent psychological theorizing and research. I'm not advocating it in any way.

I personally believe that while tarot can be therapeutic whether used by a trained therapist, a professional tarot reader or a lay person using the cards, nobody should try to practice therapy of any kind unless they're trained for it.

If it is all right to do tarot that is therapeutic, but not tarot therapy, what specific things should the reader avoid? That is, what specifically would indicate that a reader had crossed the line during a reading?

Since there is massage therapy, aromatherapy, occupational therapy, gem therapy, humor therapy, art therapy, recreational therapy, what might something called "tarotherapy" (not psychotherapy but rather tarot that is therapeutic) look like? Or, is it not possible?

 

[Grizabella]

If it is all right to do tarot that is therapeutic, but not tarot therapy, what specific things should the reader avoid? That is, what specifically would indicate that a reader had crossed the line during a reading?

Since there is massage therapy, aromatherapy, occupational therapy, gem therapy, humor therapy, art therapy, recreational therapy, what might something called "tarotherapy" (not psychotherapy but rather tarot that is therapeutic) look like? Or, is it not possible?

Well, in my opinion, someone using tarot to regress someone the way a trained specialist might do would cross the line.

Trying to diagnose someone psychologically would be crossing the line. Such as, diagnose them as having neurosis or psychosis or such and then purporting to treat them for those conditions using the cards.

Attempting to treat those conditions that someone else more qualified has diagnosed would cross the line.

I suppose a person could call using tarot "therapy" in a sense. But I think if a person wants to call themselves a "tarot therapist" who isn't a trained therapist then they need to specify in detail what is meant by that term. What do they do? What do they not do? It needs to be made clear in specific terms. I think the term "therapy" has been used as a gimmick in a lot of cases, to be honest.

 

[Teheuti]

Well, in my opinion, someone using tarot to regress someone the way a trained specialist might do would cross the line.

Trying to diagnose someone psychologically would be crossing the line. Such as, diagnose them as having neurosis or psychosis or such and then purporting to treat them for those conditions using the cards.

Attempting to treat those conditions that someone else diagnosed using tarot would cross the line.

I suppose a person could call using tarot "therapy" in a sense. But I think if a person wants to call themselves a "tarot therapist" who isn't a trained therapist then they need to specify in detail what is meant by that term. What do they do? What do they not do? It needs to be made clear in specific terms.

Solitaire - these are all excellent points.

We started off exploring the definitions of therapy first: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=95616.
You seem to be using the term differently than any of those summarized in post #1 above. Could you give us your definition, since training seems to be a defining factor. Is licensing or certification also part of your definition?

So - boundaries include:
• No regressions. (past life included or excluded? could you be more specific?)
• No diagnosis - of psychological or physical conditions
• No treatment of conditions (diagnosed by self or others)
ADDED: • No reading or analyizing of the querent (only of the cards)

Any more??

So, it sounds like for you, the word "treatment" should never be used unless the person is licensed to treat the relevant condition. Treatment is one of the main synonyms for therapy. Whereas, diagnosis is usually differentiated as separate from therapy.

Personally, I think it's a good practice for everyone doing tarot to have an unambiguous statement of exactly what they do and then an agreement with each querent that the querent is willing to undertake this experience.

 

[Grizabella]

Well, the terms treatment and therapy can be synonymous in the minds of the general public, I think. If you claim to be a "therapist" then that implies being "treated" for something, right? And if I call myself a "therapist" then the implication to the general public is that I'm going to be treating my customers for something using the tarot. And that chances are, that "something" will be psychological.

As far as being qualified to practice "tarot therapy", I do believe that a degree in psychology at the very least is or should be the requirement to consider oneself a "tarot therapist". A massage therapist has a certification, I'm sure, but they're not dealing with such a potentially volatile and vulnerable area as the psyches of other human beings.

 

[Teheuti]

My current definition of Therapeutic Tarot:

The use of 78 symbolic cards, which serve as metaphors for esoteric principles, life choices, conditions, and character, to assist someone, through interactive dialog, in making the unconscious conscious, alleviating anxiety, exploring options, clarifying goals, and finding a sense of well-being.

Mary

 

[Teheuti]

Well, the terms treatment and therapy can be synonymous in the minds of the general public, I think. If you claim to be a "therapist" then that implies being "treated" for something, right? And if I call myself a "therapist" then the implication to the general public is that I'm going to be treating my customers for something using the tarot. And that chances are, that "something" will be psychological.

As far as being qualified to practice "tarot therapy", I do believe that a degree in psychology at the very least is or should be the requirement to consider oneself a "tarot therapist". A massage therapist has a certification, I'm sure, but they're not dealing with such a potentially volatile and vulnerable area as the psyches of other human beings.

Solitaire: If I understand correctly, your definition of therapy would be:

Therapy: "Psychological treatment by a trained (and licensed?) psychologist."

Aromatherapy, occupational therapy, gem therapy, humor therapy, art therapy, recreational therapy, massage therapy:

If all these other therapies exist—many of which imply training but for which certification or licenses are not always required by law—why couldn't there be an equivalent "tarot therapy" for which there is a specific training?

Note: most practitioners of the above therapies do not call themselves "therapists" without the qualifying word (i.e., massage therapist).

Should tarot be used in Coaching—where no training for either is legally required?

I'm not just asking you, Solitaire. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[Teheuti]

A massage therapist has a certification, I'm sure, but they're not dealing with such a potentially volatile and vulnerable area as the psyches of other human beings.

It sounds here as if you are describing tarot reading as dealing with the potentially volatile and vulnerable psyche of a person.

I agree. But, shouldn't we be trained to do so?

If you feel I'm hammering away at you, please tell me to shut-up. I think everything you've said is very important and should be discussed.

Personally, I've never called myself a tarot therapist or a counselor for precisely the reasons you've stated, but I believe tarot does deal with people's psyches and there's an obligation in that that I would call sacred. Additionally, some styles of reading are more deliberately therapeutic then others, and it would help if there was more awareness of the options, skills and boundaries involved.

Mary