Tarot in my counseling room is not about predicting the future. It is a way to give shape to what a person already carries but hasn't found words for yet. When I tell people I weave tarot into my work with interested clients, I usually get one of two reactions: curiosity, or a raised eyebrow.
Both are fair. So let me explain what it looks like in practice, and why I find it useful.
Tarot as a mirror, not a crystal ball
A tarot deck is a set of 78 images: people, objects, landscapes, and moments of change. Each card is packed with symbols, and none of them arrive with a single fixed meaning for the person looking at them. That openness is the point. In therapy, we are always looking for ways to help someone see their situation from a slightly different angle. A card does this well. It gives you something outside yourself to look at and then asks what you see.
Why images can reach what words can't
Many of us have felt something strongly and still struggled to say it. Feelings often live in the body, in memory, in imagery. Talking about them directly can feel flat, or too exposed.
Images offer a side door. Carl Jung described how symbols and archetypes help the psyche communicate what the conscious mind can't yet articulate. Tarot's images, such as the Hermit, the Tower, the Lovers, or the Star, work as a kind of shared symbolic language. A client might say, "That figure looks exhausted," and suddenly we are talking about their own exhaustion, with a little more room to breathe.
This is projection used constructively. What a person notices in a card, and what they skip over, tells us something about what is alive for them right now.
What a session might look likec
A tarot-informed session is still therapy. It is collaborative, paced by the client, and rooted in the same care and ethics as any other session. A few ways it might show up:
A single card as a starting point. We pull one card at the beginning of a session as a reflective prompt, not a verdict.
Naming a pattern. A client describes a repeating dynamic, and we look for a card that seems to capture it, then explore what's familiar about it.
Holding a decision. For someone weighing a difficult choice, cards can represent different paths or parts of themselves, and we notice which ones draw energy or resistance.
Closing with intention. We end by choosing an image to carry into the week, as a small anchor for the work.
Questions that open things up
The cards matter less than the questions around them. Some I return to often:
What is the first thing you notice in this image?
Which part of this card do you feel drawn to, and which part do you want to look away from?
If this figure could speak, what would they say?
Where does this show up in your life right now?
What is missing from this picture?
There are no wrong answers. The goal is noticing, not decoding.
Who this is for, and who it isn't
Tarot is always an invitation, never an expectation. Some clients love it. Others prefer a more traditional approach, and that is completely fine. I only bring cards in when a client is interested, and we talk beforehand about what we are doing and why. I also hold a clear boundary: tarot is a reflective tool, not a substitute for clinical assessment or a way to tell someone what will happen. The insight belongs to the client, and decisions stay in their hands.
A different way in
Whether or not you believe cards hold any special power, they can hold your attention, and that is often enough. A well-chosen image can slow us down, bring up something unexpected, and give us language for an experience we didn't know how to name.
If you are curious about whether this approach might fit your own therapy, I'm happy to talk it through. You can bring the skepticism along, too. It makes for good conversation.