Glossary: 69 terms of work with metaphorical cards
What the words used to describe card work mean: projection, layout, drawing, resource, shadow. Short, in plain language, with sources for borrowed terms.
How to read this glossary
There are no card meanings here. Cards do not have meanings: the sense comes from what a particular person sees in the image. A lookup table of «what a road on a card means» would contradict the method itself. This glossary explains the words used to describe the work, not the pictures.
Each definition reads on its own: to understand one you do not need the neighbouring entries. Terms from psychotherapy are explained in plain words, with the source named next to them: transactional analysis, gestalt, Jungian psychology, IFS.
Looking for what a particular picture means? That is a different question with its own page: how to read a card. This page is about terms only.
Missing a word? Write to us and we will add it.
A
- Adapted child
- A habit of accommodating that stays from childhood: agreeing, pleasing or quietly stalling. Not a problem in itself; the problem is that it switches on by itself, without a decision.
- Anti-self
- An image of a person who is your complete opposite. It almost always holds something you need and do not allow yourself.
- Archetype
- A recurring image found across cultures and dreams: the Sage, the Hero, the Shadow. The term is Jungian and technical; in card work it describes recognition, not a mystical power of the image.
- Association
- A link between an image and inner experience that appears on its own, without deliberation. The first association is usually more accurate than the explanations that follow, so it is written down before the card is analysed.
B
- Blind spot
- Something about yourself that you do not see but others do. In card work a blind spot shows up as a strong reaction to an image that is hard to explain.
C
- Card back
- The reverse side of a card. In blind drawing it is all you see, and the backs are identical so that cards cannot be told apart before the choice.
- Coaching
- Work in which the facilitator gives no advice but asks questions through which a person finds their own solution. The format fits cards well because both rest on questions rather than interpretations.
- Collage
- A composition of several cards assembled into one image of a situation. Unlike a layout, a collage has no predefined positions: the person chooses the arrangement, and that choice is material too.
- Confidentiality
- The rule of not passing the content of someone's work to third parties. In a group it applies to every participant, not only the facilitator.
- Contact
- Live presence and attention to another: in card work contact exists between the facilitator and the person, the person and the card, the person and themselves. Without it a technique turns into a questionnaire.
- Containment
- The ability to hold another person's strong feelings without playing them down or winding them up. Next to such a person you can afford more. Working alone you do not have that support, so you keep the depth moderate.
- Contract
- An agreement on what the meeting is for, how long it lasts and how you will know it worked. A clear contract removes half the disappointment.
- Countertransference
- The facilitator's own feelings towards the person they work with. They need to be noticed and taken to supervision, otherwise they come back to the person as interpretations and advice.
D
- Deck
- A set of cards gathered around a common theme and style, usually 50 to 110 images. Decks differ by type: portrait, scene, abstract, resource and others.
- Deck typology
- Sorting decks by what they depict and what they are good for: portrait, scene, abstract, resource, coaching, specialised, universal. The type of deck determines which techniques work with it.
- Difficult card (dark card)
- An image that brings up hard feelings: pain, fear, anger. In open drawing people tend to avoid such cards; in blind drawing they give the most substantial work, but they need care.
- Disclaimer
- A plain statement that the method is not diagnosis, not treatment and not prediction. It exists not for lawyers but because without it a person expects an answer the card does not give.
- Dissociation
- Disconnection from feelings, the body or what is happening; often a defence after hard experience. It is a sign to stop card work, not to go deeper.
- Drawing a card (blind and open)
- How a card gets chosen. Blind drawing: the cards lie face down and the person takes one without looking. Open drawing: the cards are visible and the person picks. Blind gives less control and more often lands on the unexpected; open is gentler and suits a first session.
E
- Early decision
- A decision about yourself and the world made in childhood under pressure: «asking is pointless», «I have to be convenient». Back then it helped; now it usually gets in the way.
- Ego state
- The mode a person is speaking and acting from. Transactional analysis counts three: the Parent instructs and looks after, the Adult weighs things up, the Child delights and takes offence. Portrait cards make it easy to hear which one is talking.
- Esotericism in card work
- Reading cards as prediction: fortune telling, «signs», meanings looked up in a reference table. The method works the other way round: a card has no meaning of its own, and assigning one replaces the person's own work with a ready answer.
F
- Facilitator's hypothesis
- A guess about what is going on with a person. It is not voiced but tested with questions: a voiced hypothesis almost always becomes the answer the person adopts instead of their own.
G
- Gestalt
- A whole that we complete ourselves: we see a face in three dots and hear the meaning in an unfinished phrase. In therapy the word also names an unfinished situation that keeps pulling attention until it closes.
I
- Identification
- The moment a person speaks as the figure on the card: «I am standing here and cannot get past». It opens access to what is hard to say in the first person.
- Informed consent
- A person's agreement to the work after being told what the method is, what it does not do and what may come up. Required before group work.
- Injunction
- A prohibiting message from childhood, absorbed without words: «don't feel», «don't be yourself», «don't ask». An adult usually does not remember it but lives by it.
- Inner child
- Childhood states that stayed with a person: fear, hurt, abandonment, and also curiosity and lightness. Work with them through cards starts with recognition, not with an attempt to «heal».
- Insight
- The moment when the link between an image and your own situation becomes obvious. A person's own insight matters more than any outside explanation, and it cannot be hurried with questions.
- Introjection
- Someone else's belief taken on as your own without examination, usually from a parent or an authority. Work with introjects starts with the question «do I actually think so».
J
- Johari window
- A model of four zones: open (known to me and to others), hidden (known only to me), blind spot (known only to others) and unknown. Cards help approach the last two, which a direct question does not reach.
L
- Layout
- The scheme by which cards are placed on the table: how many there are and what each position means. A layout answers «what it looks like», a technique answers «what to do with it».
- Light card
- An image that brings pleasant feelings: joy, hope, confidence. The term describes one person's reaction, not a property of the card: what is light for one can be empty for another.
M
- MAC (Metaphorical associative cards)
- Metaphorical associative cards: a set of images with no fixed meanings, used as a starting point for talking about yourself. The card says nothing on its own; the meaning comes from what a particular person sees in it.
- Metaphor
- When one thing is spoken about through another. A metaphor makes it easier to approach something hard: talking about a road in a picture is easier than talking about your own choice.
N
- Non-judgement
- Refusing to evaluate, praise included. «Well done» and «great card» sound harmless but push a person to produce what will be approved instead of what is there.
O
- Observer
- A group member who is not working this time but watching. Observers get insights no less often than the person who drew the card.
- Open question
- A question that cannot be answered yes or no: «what do you see here», «what is happening here». The main instrument of card work.
- Owner of the card
- The person who drew the card. The rule is simple: only they may interpret it; any outside reading is a projection of whoever voiced it.
P
- Part (in the IFS model)
- In the IFS approach a person has several inner «residents», each with its own history and its own reason, even when one of them acts against you. Cards give these residents a face, and they start talking.
- Persona
- The social mask: how a person presents themselves to others. Neither a lie nor a defect, but it is worth knowing where the persona ends and everything else begins.
- Portrait deck
- A deck whose cards show faces and human figures. It suits work with roles, relationships and parts of the personality: it is easier to speak about yourself through someone else's face.
- Position in a layout
- A card's place in the scheme, which gives it its question: position one is «how it is now», position two is «how I want it». The same card reads differently in different positions, and that is part of the method.
- Projection
- We attribute what is going on inside us to things outside: a state, a wish, a fear. All work with cards rests on this: a person describes the picture and ends up describing themselves.
- Psychodrama
- A method where a situation is enacted in roles rather than discussed. It combines directly with cards: a card becomes a role you can speak from.
- Psychological defence
- An automatic mechanism that keeps out of awareness what is hard to bear: repression, denial, rationalisation. Cards get around defences not by breaking them but by speaking in images.
- Psychosomatics
- The link between psychological state and bodily symptoms. Card work here explores the experience around a symptom and does not replace a medical examination.
R
- Redecision
- Consciously replacing a childhood decision with a new one, made now and with present-day resources. Not a one-off realisation but work that cards help to begin.
- Relationship wheel
- The wheel of life applied to a couple: instead of life areas you rate trust, closeness, communication, time together and other sides of the relationship.
- Request
- A wish to work something out, stated at the start of a session. The more precise the request, the clearer what to do with the card you draw; a vague request gives a vague result.
- Resource
- Whatever gives strength: a person, a quality, a memory, a state. In card work you look for a resource before touching what is difficult, not after.
- Resource card
- A card whose image gives support: warmth, calm, a sense of possibility. It is used to hold a state or return to it, not to take a problem apart.
S
- Safe place
- An image of a place where it is calm and nothing threatens; you return to it when the work has touched more than expected. It is an anchor, not a topic to analyse.
- Scene deck
- A deck whose cards show a scene or an interaction rather than a single object. It helps to see the context and the movement of a situation, not only the state at one moment.
- Secondary gain
- A non-obvious benefit of a problem staying in place: a right to care, release from responsibility, a reason not to decide. Until it is named, a solution usually does not hold.
- Session
- One meeting for one request: usually 50 to 90 minutes with a facilitator and 15 to 30 minutes on your own. A session has a start and a close; leave time for the close, or what came up stays with you.
- Shadow
- Repressed and rejected parts of yourself, including ones that could be useful. Meeting the shadow through an image is easier to bear than a direct conversation, because at first you talk about the card.
- State
- How a person is right now: physically, emotionally, in their thinking. A session starts with the state and ends with it, to see what changed.
- Subpersonality
- A part of the personality with its own views and behaviour: the inner critic, the worker, the child. Cards give these parts a face, and after that you can address them one at a time.
- Symbol
- An image that means more than it shows. A sign has one reading, a symbol has many, and card work rests on exactly that.
T
- Technique
- A fixed sequence of steps and questions for working with cards: how many to draw, where to place them, what to ask of each. A technique differs from a layout in that it describes the process, not the geometry.
- Timeline
- Cards laid out in chronological order: past, present, future. It shows not the facts but how the person currently sees their own trajectory.
- Transactional analysis
- Eric Berne's theory of three ego states and how people exchange messages from them. It supplies the vocabulary for many card techniques: script, injunction, early decision.
- Transference
- Carrying feelings from past relationships onto a present person. In card work transference often lands on the image: the card «reminds» you of someone, and the conversation is really about them.
- Trauma
- The imprint of a hard event that keeps affecting the present. Trauma work needs a facilitator and stabilisation; solo card work does not go there.
- Trusting the process
- The stance that a person will reach their own answer if not interfered with. In practice it means holding the pause instead of prompting.
U
- Universal deck
- A deck that covers most requests: it holds portraits, scenes, resource images and difficult ones. It makes sense to start with one when you do not yet know what you will need.
W
- Wheel of life
- A circle divided into life areas (work, relationships, health, money and others), each rated on a scale. It shows the imbalance: where a lot has been invested and where almost nothing.
Questions about the terms
Do the cards have meanings, like tarot?
No. A metaphorical card has no fixed meaning and no lookup table exists. The same image brings up different things in two people, and that is the point of the method: the card shows not itself but the person looking at it.
What is the difference between a layout and a technique?
A layout is the scheme on the table: how many cards and what each position means. A technique is the sequence of steps and questions. The same three-card scheme can serve several techniques.
What are blind and open drawing?
In blind drawing the cards lie face down and the person takes one without looking. In open drawing the cards are visible and the person picks. Blind more often lands on the unexpected; open is gentler and suits a first session.
Why are psychotherapy terms in a card glossary?
Because card work uses them: projection, transference, subpersonality, secondary gain. We name the source of each such term so it is clear where it comes from and in which frame it works.
May I use these definitions in my own materials?
Yes, with attribution. The definitions are written so that each can be quoted in full, without the rest of the page.
Try it in practice
Next: card work step by step, layouts by number of cards, limits of the method, decks.