Welcome back to this substantial series exploring the individual cards of the Tarot and/or therapeutic approaches to reading. These sessions are short and fun yet full of mystery, meditation and beauty. You don’t need to know anything about Tarot to attend these sessions, or to use Tarot with your clients – it’s enough to seek the Tarot’s wisdom.
This session’s theme is story-making with tarot cards. Using a few simple techniques, you will learn a couple of fun, simple and creative tools for finding therapeutic insight using tarot cards. These approaches can be taken and applied your own life, or used in client work.
You do not need to own a deck of tarot cards to attend this workshop, but if you have one, please bring it with you.
These sessions are standalone and open to everyone: you do not need to attend every session to benefit and it is fine to attend this session even if you don’t plan to attend others in this series.
More about this series
Tarot cards are used all over the world for a variety of reasons: divination, self-support, journaling, creativity, and more. In recent years, their powerful, archetypal images – which depict the human condition so powerfully – have become popular as a therapeutic tool, both for self-reflection and for use in professional therapeutic work.
The Tarot is a deck of cards which was probably created in the 15th Century in Italy. Initially used as a gaming device – or perhaps for personal contemplation – these mysterious cards quickly spread all over the world and eventually became associated with occult practices and divination.
The images of the tarot are imbued with archetypal images; they depict a human journey towards enlightenment – or perhaps, from a counselling perspective, a journey towards individuation or the actualising tendency. It has an uncanny ability to reflect important insights about our lives to us – but only if we are willing and open enough to work with it.
It doesn’t matter if you see this process as a spiritual one or a psychological one: Tarot has the power to heal, and that in itself is significant. The cards can represent experiences that words sometimes fail to capture, making them a powerful tool for expressing difficult feelings and experiences. It can also offer us fresh perspectives on our lives, helping us to break old habits, as well as being a wonderful tool for meditation and creative inspiration.
Resources
Here are some online Tarot decks, which you might find helpful to use in the session if you don’t have your own deck.
Osho Zen Tarot: https://tarotx.net/tarot-card-meanings/osho-zen-tarot/
Marseille Tarot: https://www.flickr.com/photos/laird_of_kiloran/albums/72157627768980749/
Learning Objective Participants Can Expect From This Event
- To use a simple story-making method to pull personal meaning from one single Tarot card.
- To learn a creative Tarot spread that blends Storytelling Therapy with Tarot Therapy.
- To practise working creatively with Tarot.
Who is This Workshop Appropriate For?
- This workshop is appropriate for everyone with an interest in Tarot; experts and beginners alike, as well as those who use Tarot professionally.
How May This Workshop Impact Your Practice?
- By offering practical skills and spreads that you can apply to your personal wellbeing or directly into client work with others.
Course Content
Presenter
Stephen McCabe is an ecotherapist, tarot reader, counsellor and ordained Zen Buddhist. His work includes tutoring for the Ten Directions ecotherapy training programme, facilitating nature groups in Scotland, Tarot Therapy work and running wellbeing groups based on myth and folklore. He is currently working on his first (nature-infused) novel.
