The 10 Best Therapy Card Decks for 2022

 Counseling tools and interventions have come a long way since it began. One of the great inventions has been therapeutic card decks. These can be helpful in almost any therapeutic settings. Some of the more popular ways to use them are when clients don't know what to talk about, when working with younger clients, expanding awareness, exploring interventions, and engaging clients in unique and different ways.

There are decks for almost any modality you use so you can stay in line with your preferred theory. Or decks can be used to broaden your approach by incorporating interventions from other modalities. 

These decks are useful in individual, group, and family therapy. Be on the look out for a post geared toward group therapy card decks as well. 

Here are 10 therapeutic card decks for you to consider adding to your practice:

1. The CBT Deck: 101 Practices to Improve Thoughts, Be in the Moment & Take Action in Your Life

from Seth J. Gillihan

Reduce stress in your life with practical, action-oriented, and mindfulness tools to quickly build positive emotions in your life. The 101 practices inside The CBT Deck will help you:

- Calm and redirect your thoughts

- Overcome self-limiting beliefs

- Choose actions that build the life you want

- Be more connected and engaged in the present moment

2.  CBT Deck for Kids and Teens: 58 Practices to Quiet Anxiety, Overcome Negative Thinking and Find Peace

from Seth J. Gillihan

When you’re a kid, growing up can be hard. The 58 cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) practices in this deck were created just for young people to help them manage stressful moments, overcome negative thinking, and find moments of peace. This beautifully illustrated deck will help kids and teens: 

- Build coping skills that will last a lifetime 

- Quiet anxiety and worry 

- Navigate difficult emotions 

- Choose actions that make life better 

- Relax into the present 

3. Art Therapy Card Deck for Children and Adolescents: 50 Therapeutic Interventions for Challenging Clients Who Shut Down, Meltdown, or Act Out

from Laura Dessauer

Sometimes words aren't enough. Art therapy allows for processing and externalization of emotions, exploration of choices, and reflection on conflicts. This deck can help children and adolescents to develop a growth mindset, increase their frustration tolerance, and strengthen their communication skills to reach their goals.

4. The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Card Deck: 52 Practices to Balance Your Emotions Every Day

from Matthew McKay PhD

Based on the best-selling The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook, this powerful and portable card deck presents 52 practices to help you balance your emotions and improve your life!

First developed for treating borderline personality disorder, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) has proven effective as treatment for a range of other mental health problems, especially for those characterized by overwhelming emotions. Now, you can easily and quickly access this powerful therapy method in bite-sized pieces.

On each card, you'll find:

• Highly effective mindfulness strategies to help you stay grounded
• Tips to help you improve relationships
• Skills for emotion regulation and distress tolerance

Whether you’re a therapist looking for unique client resources, a teacher, a parent, or simply seeking to balance your own emotions, this card deck offers daily wisdom and evidence-based skills for lasting peace, happiness, and well-being.

5. Cards for Calm. A Therapy Tool Using CBT to Combat Anxiety and Negative Thinking

from Cards for Calm LLC

• Used by counselors, therapists, social workers, and teachers to combat anxiety and negative thinking.
• A mindfulness therapy tool that encourages positive behavior while reducing stress, anger, and worry.
• Cards for Calm uses techniques from mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy to prompt discussion and different patterns of thinking.
• Find new ways to deal with confrontation, improve social skills and increase focus.
• Cards for Calm can be used in remote or in person therapy sessions. Recommended for ages 15 and over.

6. The DBT Deck for Clients and Therapists: 101 Mindful Practices to Manage Distress, Regulate Emotions & Build Better Relationships

from Lane Pederson

Filled with tips, ideas, calls to action, and brief exercises, these cards will be a daily go-to as you learn skills needed to enjoy the ups -- and navigate the downs -- of real-world life. And best yet, because skills take repeated practice, you cannot outgrow this deck, you can only grow with it!

- Coping strategies

- Tools to accept change

- Self-Soothing practices

- Increase self-respect

- Conflict resolution tips

7. The ACT Deck: 55 Acceptance & Commitment Therapy Practices to Build Connection, Find Focus and Reduce Stress

from Timothy Gordon

The ACT Deck offers 55 practices based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for use in therapy, classrooms or at home. These cards ask tough questions, encourage meaningful action and provide new perspectives to help you let go of negative thoughts and live in the present moment. 

Using mindfulness and acceptance strategies, this highly practical deck can help anyone suffering from:

- Stress

- Anxiety & depression

- Chronic pain

- Relationship problems

- Focus and attention issues

- Painful memories & feelings

8. The Values Cards

Exploring values is always a worthy endeavor and having cards helps clients think through their values. You can create sorts by having clients identify important, not important, or very important values. Creates lots of room for discussion and can be revisited periodically if things change. 

Here's another values deck. 

9. The Unwinding Anxiety Card Deck: 60 Science-Based Strategies to Break Cycles of Worry and Fear

from Judson Brewer and Mitch Abblett

STEP OUT OF YOUR ANXIETY AND INTO YOUR LIFE! 

Based on Dr. Brewer’s New York Times best-selling book Unwinding Anxiety, this deck features 60 research-based practices to help you identify and overcome unhelpful anxiety responses, or habits, that prevent you from living life to the fullest. 

Grounded in the science of mindfulness, each exercise harnesses your brain’s innate power to create new responses to anxiety triggers, so you can: 

- Form new habits that interrupt your anxious cycles

- Focus on what works instead of trying to control your anxiety 

- Explore the misleading “payoff” of anxious habits 

- Step out of worry and rumination and into healthy, fulfilling experiences 

- Create bigger, better habits that build kindness, curiosity, and gratitude 

10. RETHiNK Card Deck Mindful Conversation Starters: 56 Questions to Encourage Compassion, Shift Perspective & Build Connection

from Theo Koffler

Whether you're at home, in the classroom, or running a clinical practice, these conversation cards are meant to get people thinking and talking about who they are, what they like, and how they interact with the world around them.

Each question targets different skills and areas of life, but all the questions have one primary purpose: to get you discussing the important fundamentals of an emotionally balanced, mindful and compassionate way of living.

View this list and more therapeutic card decks on Amazon -->