Mac Therapy

Е

Metaphorical associative cards are a set of images the size of playing cards or postcards, depicting people, their interactions, life situations, landscapes, animals, household objects, and abstract scenes. Some sets combine images with captions, while others include separate cards with illustrations and cards with words. The fusion of words and images creates a rich interplay of meanings that deepens depending on the context, topic, or current concerns of the individual.

Originally, this was a projective technique: what matters is not the predefined meaning assigned by researchers, but the personal response each person has to the chosen card. The same image can reveal entirely different phenomena for different people, as each person brings their own inner world of current experiences to the surface.

How do metaphorical cards facilitate mutual understanding between people? Above all, they serve as a bridge between speakers in situations where discussing a sensitive topic feels challenging. Metaphorical associative cards help express thoughts, articulate them, and clarify the message that needs to be conveyed. Beyond easing the verbal expression of emotions, the card itself—acting as an intermediary between the emotional worlds of two people—carries a certain emotional charge and can be perceived as a message even without verbal accompaniment.

Ева Романовна Морозовская

А

Metaphorical associative cards (therapeutic, projective, or OH cards) are among the most effective tools in a psychologist’s practice. They enable the rapid gathering of essential insights for high-quality client work, suitable for both individual and group sessions with adults and children.

The applications of projective cards are vast: personal growth, post-traumatic stress, parent-child and marital relationship challenges, group dynamics, conflict resolution strategies, addictions, goal-setting, and finding life’s meaning.

OH cards represent a unique collection of metaphorical associative decks, forming their own distinct genre. Their use differs from traditional card games—there’s no strategy, winners, or losers, and no fixed meanings, as in Tarot. During sessions, the participant defines the meaning of each card themselves. Despite the uniqueness of each deck, they can be combined with other metaphorical associative cards, unlocking new creative possibilities and fostering boundless imaginative exploration.

Александр Олегович Пушков

Among professional psychologists and psychotherapists, metaphorical cards are known by various names, such as "O-cards" or "projective cards." Thanks to psychotherapist and publisher Moritz Egetmeyer, these cards have gained global recognition as a high-quality projective tool used in diverse psychological support approaches, particularly for addressing the aftermath of crises and psychological trauma. Trauma or severe stress often brings people to therapy in states that make traditional methods like psychoanalysis or symbolic drama less effective. Incorporating metaphorical projective cards into therapy provides a visual way to symbolize the core issue, encouraging individuals to describe what they see in the images and connect it to their emotional struggles. This process bridges the left and right hemispheres of the brain, allowing feelings to gradually enter consciousness and find words to articulate the trauma. As a result, clients can articulate and process painful experiences in a safe therapeutic space, uncover inner resources, and ease psychological suffering.

Olena Oleksandrivna Kolesnyk

T

Metaphorical associative cards are a unique tool that empowers psychologists in their practice. In professional circles, these decks are known by various names, including "O-cards," "projective cards," and "therapeutic cards."

Each deck is typically co-created by a psychologist and an artist, making it suitable for clients of all ages and for addressing a wide range of issues.

The applications of these cards in both group and individual sessions with adults and children are vast. They are used to work with post-traumatic stress, psychosomatic conditions, addictions, family and parent-child conflicts, workplace relationships, conflict resolution, and personal growth—just to name a few areas where therapeutic cards prove highly effective. Working with them unlocks imagination, creativity, and free association, enriching the therapeutic process.

Cards offer several key advantages. First, they operate on an imagery level rather than a rational one. Children think in images, while the ability to articulate feelings develops later. Thus, cards allow access to deep, nonverbal experiences, touching on what we might call "childhood wounds." They bypass the filtering mechanisms of rational thought, which often keeps us from confronting what we’d rather avoid. Images evoke associations—sometimes unexpected—and provide a way to express what feels impossible to put into words.

Tetiana Levytska