Grief and Endings Cards, 50 Metaphorical Associative Cards for Therapy, Facilitator Guide
Printable metaphorical associative cards for coaching and therapy: 50 cards plus a 39-page facilitator guide with layouts, a coaching framework and a question bank. Instant digital download.
UNDERCURRENT
A deck of weather, depth and what moves beneath
Most card decks sell you images. This one gives you a method.
Undercurrent is built for the sessions that are not light. A wave caught mid-break. A thread of light going down into black water and disappearing. A cage standing open with one feather left inside. A pier that runs out over the sea and ends in air.
Fifty images on dark ground, and nothing printed on any of them.
⸻ AT A GLANCE ⸻
PRODUCT TYPE · Printable card deck and facilitation tool. Digital download only — no physical item is posted.
DIVINATION SYSTEM · None. These are not tarot or oracle cards. There is no doctrine, no spread meanings and no message printed on the card. Interpretation belongs entirely to the person holding it.
ITEM COUNT · 50 cards · 3 card backs · 39-page facilitator guide · printable session record sheet
SIZE · Cards 3 × 4.5 in (76 × 114 mm) at 300 DPI. Print sheets in both A4 and US Letter, four cards per sheet, 13 sheets.
FILE TYPE · PDF and JPG, delivered as 5 files (one is a ZIP)
FORMAT · Print at home, or use on screen in online sessions
INCLUDED ITEMS
· 01 — 50 cards, US Letter, 13 sheets with cut lines
· 02 — 50 cards, A4, 13 sheets with cut lines
· 03 — 3 card back designs
· 04 — 39-page facilitator guide (PDF)
· 05 — 50 single card images (ZIP) for screen-sharing
INTENDED USE · One-to-one coaching, group facilitation, workshops and retreats, team and leadership sessions, supervision, teaching, and personal reflection. Suitable as a reflective tool alongside therapy for practitioners working within their own scope of practice.
THEME · Weather, water, depth and fire. Dark ground, luminous detail, deep colour. Five clusters: Storm, Depths, Holding, Turning, Threshold.
USER LEVEL · Beginner to experienced. The guide includes verbatim language for the first three minutes of a session and a troubleshooting section, so a first-time facilitator can run a session on day one.
LANGUAGE · English
PRODUCTION METHOD · Original digital artwork and an original written facilitator guide, created by Digital Whimsy Wonders.
USAGE RIGHTS · For one person or one practice. You may print as many copies as you need for your own use and use the cards in paid sessions with clients. You may not share, resell or redistribute the files, print decks to sell, or reproduce the images or guide text in your own materials. Full terms are in the guide.
⸻ WHAT THIS DECK IS FOR ⸻
Light, open imagery is very good at helping a client imagine. It is less good at helping them admit.
This deck runs darker on purpose, and that is a working property rather than a mood. Dark images give a client permission to name the difficult thing first, which cuts through the polite opening phase of a session. Reach for it when someone has been managing something rather than saying it — a loss, a decision they keep deferring, a job they have outgrown, an ending that has already happened and not been acknowledged.
The guide is explicit about handling that well, including one rule specific to this deck: never close a session on a Storm or Depths card.
⸻ THE FIVE CLUSTERS ⸻
1 · STORM — what is happening to you. Force arriving from outside, or from a part of yourself you did not authorise.
2 · DEPTHS — what is underneath and has not been said. The slowest cluster.
3 · HOLDING — what is being carried, protected or gripped. Usually where the session actually is.
4 · TURNING — change already in motion, chosen or not. The cluster that moves a session to a verb.
5 · THRESHOLD — what is ahead and not yet stepped into. Close here.
Shuffle all fifty, or draw by cluster for a directed session. Drawn in order, the five clusters give a complete arc in five cards: what is happening, what is underneath it, what is being held, what is already turning, what is ahead.
⸻ WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT ⸻
The 39-page facilitator guide is a working manual, not a leaflet:
· The psychology of projection, and why ambiguity is the working part
· Ethics and scope of practice, written plainly
· Five card layouts, with diagrams
· A four-step coaching framework with scripted facilitator language
· A question bank organised by what you are trying to reach
· Verbatim language for the first three minutes of a session
· A troubleshooting section — what to do when a client says nothing, explains instead of feeling, cries, or when one person dominates a group
· Printing instructions, a printable session record sheet, and clear licence terms
⸻ PART OF A SET ⸻
Every deck in this line shares the same 3 × 4.5 in card size and the same five-cluster structure, so decks bought a year apart still shuffle together. Undercurrent is the dark one; the others run lighter and cover decision, place and state. The Words pack — fifty plain words on cards — is designed to be drawn alongside any of them.
⸻ USING THE DECK ONLINE ⸻
Every card is included as a single image, so you can screen-share one at full size during a video session. Each is numbered, so a client can name a number between one and fifty. The guide has a section on running sessions over video, including how to keep a blind draw.
⸻ PRINTING ⸻
Print at 100% / Actual Size — never Fit to Page. Recommended paper: 250–300 gsm matte card stock. Every sheet carries cut lines with a margin between cards, so cutting is forgiving. Full printing, cutting and laminating guidance is in the guide.
⸻ PLEASE NOTE ⸻
This is an instant digital download. No physical item will be shipped. Files are available immediately after purchase.
This deck is a reflective and facilitation tool. It is not a psychological assessment, a diagnostic instrument, or a substitute for therapy or medical care.
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