Tarot Therapy concerns

I thought I would post a thread to bring up any concerns people might have about therapeutic tarot .

My concern is the possibility that this use of tarot could eventually cause problems for the way the rest of us might use tarot . If enough professional therapists get behind the idea of using tarot in this way and manage to convince the general populace of its' value , then we could see a time when tarot could become regarded as a "powerful therapeutic tool " , and as such , it should only be utilized and practiced by people who have professional training and licenses .

I could easily see tarot being redefined to fit a new thinking . No more a device of fortune telling or communication with whatever constitutes the divine or paranormal , now tarot could officially become the simple collection of pictures on cardboard on which we project our little psychological movie. (There are already plenty of people who embrace that view anyway. )

I suspect a widespread acceptance and professional backing of the view of tarot as therapy only could produce laws that would conveniently dovetail with the agendas of those who would like nothing better than to see psychics and average tarot practitioners barred from being in business and declared frauds . And if this would not be possible to accomplish , at least a further denigration of their reputation and discouragement of their patronage .

The scenario I offer may seem a bit too extreme . But odd things do happen . For example, as I watch modern ghost hunting programs , I see mediums being painted as charlatans by default , replaced by anybody with a piece of electronic equipment , and the public willing to accept that these groups are somehow able to help them alleviate possible genuine spirit problems by taking allegedly scientific measurements . Certain segments of the population would see this as long overdue progress .

In any case , I am not under any illusion that tarot therapy can be or should be stopped . I think it's a great use for tarot . But I hope it would not become the only legal use in the future, or one that would aggrandize itself as the only proper use .

I could see a more immediate concern over a clients reliance upon tarot as a crutch. Where condoned by a therapist or used as a distinct counselling/therapy tool, a client could conceivably take matters into their own hands and use Tarot as a self destructive oracle instead of making their own decisions.


I guess this happens anyway but as a therapy tool it could, in naieve hands, offer the wrong basis for help.

Assessing the real needs and mental state of the client before therapy started would be very necessary first, I would think, in order to avoid legal actions and other fundamental problems.

yes that is it

there are those who scoff at the reading they get, as they wanted to test it out and such. that is ok.

but there are those who come to you as tarot readers ready to turn their lives over to you ,, aka making you their higher power for the brief time you are together.
then a person who is untrained in therapy techiques in other words doens't know how to apply it.. and we ended up affecting the person in ways we didnt' want to do , or even forsee.

another thing is for all the therapy techiques in the world ,, the person comes to us for a reading and we are using therapy techiques to help the person help themselves..
and we are avoiding some message the higher power, the creator, the angels, want to tell the client while the client is open.

therapy is a two side sword just as tarot is,, combine the two and we are using two swords.
a well trained dualists can learn to use two swords well..
a badly train swordsman will only learn to use two swords just as bad.

Dark Inquisitor said:

My concern is the possibility that this use of tarot could eventually cause problems for the way the rest of us might use tarot . If enough professional therapists get behind the idea of using tarot in this way and manage to convince the general populace of its' value , then we could see a time when tarot could become regarded as a "powerful therapeutic tool " , and as such , it should only be utilized and practiced by people who have professional training and licenses .

Click to expand...

I know exactly what you are saying and a part of me gets a little concerned about this.

I love the fact that tarot is basically what I call an "outlaw profession" (in that it's illegal or condemned in many places) and that gives me great freedom to explore it as I will—no laws constrain me. It results in both great blessings and great abuses. [Hey, the greatest single cause of death in the U.S. is hospital error - more deaths then AIDS or cancer or heart attacks - so who are "they" to speak to me about abuses?]

But, realistically, tarot is such a taboo according to so many that I don't think it will ever become entirely legit, thank Goddess.

Mary

Milfoil said:

Assessing the real needs and mental state of the client before therapy started would be very necessary first, I would think, in order to avoid legal actions and other fundamental problems.

Click to expand...

How are you going to do that effectively without having first been professionally trained in the use and interpretation of valid and validated mental health assessment tools, if thats what we are talking about? Tarot as therapy or therapeutic Tarot?

Originally Posted by Milfoil
Assessing the real needs and mental state of the client before therapy started would be very necessary first, I would think, in order to avoid legal actions and other fundamental problems.

Click to expand...

goddessof1967 said:

How are you going to do that effectively without having first been professionally trained in the use and interpretation of valid and validated mental health assessment tools, if thats what we are talking about? Tarot as therapy or therapeutic Tarot?

Click to expand...

Mental health professionals have their own protocols around this. Tarot readers who use therapeutic techniques need to be really careful - we fly under the radar most of the time, but can get into uncomfortable situations.

How about some suggestions for good boundaries to maintain in relation to querents if you are not a mental health professional? Assessing needs and mental states of clients is important in every public endeavor and rarely can be done ahead of time. Mental health professionals mess it up all the time. We all just do the best we can. But we can get better at it.

Mary

Teheuti said:

Mental health professionals have their own protocols around this. Tarot readers who use therapeutic techniques need to be really careful - we fly under the radar most of the time, but can get into uncomfortable situations.

How about some suggestions for good boundaries to maintain in relation to querents if you are not a mental health professional? Assessing needs and mental states of clients is important in every public endeavor and rarely can be done ahead of time. Mental health professionals mess it up all the time. We all just do the best we can. But we can get better at it.

Mary

Click to expand...

Very good advice. In counselling and psychotherapy, each organisation has a code of ethics which gives those affiliated with the organisation (eg BACP) something to refer to, something to rely on in court (so long as you followed the code), peace of mind that many others are backing you up by a collective voice and also protects the client by offering a benchmark for expected standards.

The Ethical code of practice for the BACP can be found here:

BACP Ethical Framework

I feel that using Tarot as a therapeutic tool has so much in common with counselling and psychotherapy that the boundaries are quite blurred. Even for a novice, non-certified or student therapist who uses tarot, the BACP code of ethics is a great starting point.

goddessof1967 said:

How are you going to do that effectively without having first been professionally trained in the use and interpretation of valid and validated mental health assessment tools, if thats what we are talking about? Tarot as therapy or therapeutic Tarot?

Click to expand...

Exactly my point. Thankyou for picking up on it. When we cross over the line from tarot as a curiosity, tarot as a game, tarot as fortune telling or tarot as personal developement and give it weight by attaching the concept of therapy, we immediately walk into a new arena which has problems and pitfalls all of its own.

Training in mental health has shown me the absolute need for a therapist, of any kind, to have both a solid foundational knowledge of their field AND the backup of an area-specific organisation who accredit their members and support them via a specific ethical code.

Many of us consider tarot as therapeutic but if you are to offer tarot as a specific 'therapy' to the paying public, this is a vast new arena where we can, at least, learn from the relatively new mental health sciences such as counselling and psychotherapy.

Another small concern I would have is in regard to standardising such a therapy. What deck 'should' be used?

I know, I know - can of worms time . . . .

In order to have any sort of comparative case studies or standardised practice across an ethical framework, an accepted standard in both deck and meanings may be required.

I could imagine a new 'therapy' deck being designed or at the very least a list of generally accepted decks with their generally accepted card meanings.

Milfoil said:

Even for a novice, non-certified or student therapist who uses tarot, the BACP code of ethics is a great starting point.

Click to expand...

I sincerely hope that I'm using this quote tool properly...so apologies if it all looks a bit wonky.

Milfoil - you could almost take out any reference to 'Counsellor' or 'psychotherapist' in this document and insert the word 'Tarotist' and you could have a great Code of Practice for Tarotists too.

The section on Personal Moral Qualities could have been written especially for Tarotists.

Perhaps we could take some of the information from this document and use it as building blocks for Mary's suggestion about coming up with 'some good boundaries to maintain in relation to querents if you are not a mental health professional'?

AX