The Tarot Diagnosis

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis we wrestle with the age-old issue of temptation.  Honestly, we both came into this episode a little bit nervous, because as therapists we are trained to be non-judgmental. How could we talk about temptation without it sounding like we were judging a behavior? Spoiler alert: we figured it out.

It all began with Knight of Cups and Justice - an equally baffling and satisfying combination that brought us to questions of how do we recognize a temptation versus a need? When is behavior modification needed and when is it harmful? The idea of free will and choice and what role personal values may play into all of this also get explored through both the lens of psychology and tarot.

Let’s be honest, this is an issue we all struggle with in one way or another. Come listen in on a conversation with cards that offers a different perspective on the experience of Temptation.

Decks Used: Tarot of the Divine & The Art of Tarot

Here’s the thing, we all have a bit of a cynic inside of us. And that’s not a bad thing - except for when it starts to get out of control.

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, we wade into the sometimes healthy, sometimes not-so-healthy, yet always tempting waters of Escapism.

Inspired by a listener’s question, we explore and untangle all the ways in which people find ways to escape, why we feel a need to do this, and how to recognize when it’s gotten a little out of hand.

From Page of Pentacles and The Moon, to Three of Cups and Reversed Hermit, we dive into the mystery of this topic, it’s hidden joys, and it’s very real consequences.

We invite you to join us this week as take on the topic of Escapism.

Decks Used: Tarot of Mystical Moments & The Wandering Star Tarot

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please be sure to hit those 5 stars and write us a review on whatever platform you listen to us on. It really is a HUGE help to us and allows more people to see our podcast!

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, we do the gentle work of Healing Defensiveness.

We went into this episode not exactly sure what direction we would go (which is actually pretty typical for us), but it ended up taking a ton of unexpected twists and turns, and in many ways turned out to be a bit of an upside-down episode that was incredibly enlightening and personal for the both of us.

Let’s face it- we all can be defensive from time to time. So, settle in for a little self-care and self-reflection and join us for this rich, card heavy conversation. Which is probably one of our favorites to date.

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, we enter the slightly taboo world of money work by asking about Money’s Impact on Relationships.

We make quick work of unpacking how tightly linked our personal relationship with money is with our relationships with others - be that our partners, our family, our friends, or our community. And we discover that there are no easy answers here, but we do discover that this is a topic well worth talking about.

Travel with us, from Rx Eight of Cups (that Shannon accidentally kept calling Ace of Swords – oops) and Page of Cups, through Ten of Wands, Eight of Swords, and Nine of Pentacles, to eventually finding some clarity with Four of Wands and The Star. We also share some real life money stories and issues that play out in our own lives.

If you are a person who uses money and has relationships, this is for you (aka- this is a good episode for everyone).

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, we tackle the age old question, what does it mean to be a good person? Or perhaps more importantly,

"Am I a good person?"

We begin with The High Priestess and end with the Queen of Cups. Along the way spend time with (weirdly) a whole bunch of pentacles. We also geek out on some psychological theory and get into not only how we might define a good person, but also why it’s important to us as humans. No matter how you feel about yourself, this is a fascinating conversation that you’re not going to want to miss.

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, we decide to get creative and talk about The Art of Unlearning. In the spirit of this topic, we began this episode not entirely sure what direction we were going to go. We were surprised to discover all of the twists and turns we came across along the way, including how much this topic related both to therapy and tarot.

Get your Page energy ready and join us in this week’s episode where we explore all the cups and spend some quality time with Two of Swords.

In this week’s episode of The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, we get down to business in talking about a subject near, but not-so-dear to our hearts: Hustle Culture.

It’s unavoidable in today’s world to go untouched by the draw and push to engage in hustle culture. So, we wanted to step back and ask ourselves (and tarot), what is this really all about?  We started with Judgment and Knight of Wands. The cards went flying from there.

Join us for this frank, and in many ways, highly personal episode as we try to unpack what hustle culture is, and how we can best respond to it.

Decks Used: Tarot of the Abyss & Tarot Vintage

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please be sure to hit those 5 stars and write us a review on whatever platform you listen to us on. It really is a HUGE help to us and allows more people to see our podcast!

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, we talked about a topic you are definitely not going to want to miss (small joke intended)- FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out.

This is a phenomenon everybody has experienced at least once or twice in their life. The strong sensation that somehow, we are being left out of something, or missing something very important, And it makes us a uncomfortable to think about it. Shoutout to our Symposium members for inspiring this episode!

Listen in as we get real about FOMO, while pulling all of the cups and the swords. There’s a couple real gems in this episode so you really don’t want to miss out ;-)

Decks Used: Spacious Tarot & Tarot Vintage

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please be sure to hit those 5 stars and write us a review on whatever platform you listen to us on. It really is a HUGE help to us and allows more people to see our podcast!

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast we get into the a topic that feels really pertinent right now: Starting Over.

It’s not just in our own lives (although- for sure it is), this also seems to be an idea that is circulating a lot in our collective communities right now. There seems to be a pull towards it being time to scrap what we have and begin again. Sometimes we go into this idea kicking and screaming. Other times, it’s more of a dream or desire we have, but in the end, many of us are feeling it. Lots of Swords make an appearance this episode - but The Ace of Cups steals the show.

Join us for this lively conversation about the pros and cons, pitfalls and salvations in the process of staring over. It’s a good one!

Decks Used: Modern Witch & Scorpio Sea

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please be sure to hit those 5 stars and write us a review on whatever platform you listen to us on. It really is a HUGE help to us and allows more people to see our podcast!

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, we decide to have a little fun with the concept of… synchronicity.

This is an idea originally discussed by Carl Jung to describe the phenomenon of when a random event happens that seems to be filled with meaning - so much so that we feel a little blown away. As therapists who love tarot cards, we find this idea fascinating, and love trying to walk the very thin line of the reality of the inexplicable, and the realities of magical thinking.

We start off with Two of Wands and Eight of Swords, and then go on a fascinating journey, bringing us through Page of Cups, The Hanged Man, The Lovers and Two of Cups and, of course, The Fool. You won’t want to miss this super nerdy, totally surprising, and story-filled episode. 

Decks Used:

Hush Tarot

Gilded Tarot

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please be sure to hit those 5 stars and write us a review on whatever platform you listen to us on. It really is a HUGE help to us and allows more people to see our podcast!

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, we realized that we’ve been doing a series unintentionally. So, we decided to start doing it on purpose.

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast we take on an emotion we all have experienced: regret.  If you think about it, it’s such an fascinating thought pattern. We do something, it’s over, (or maybe we don’t do something) and yet- it stays with us, along with all sorts of imaginary realities about what *might* have happened if we had done something else. That’s a strange thing we humans do.

We open the episode by pulling Four of Swords and Ace of Cups reversed (um, those are perfect for this topic), and take some interesting journeys along the way - including a brutal realization about Three of Swords, and a lively debate about the role of The Empress.

You won’t regret taking some self-care time to listen to this episode (see what we did there?)

Decks used:

Tarot Vintage

Tarot of the Abyss

If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please be sure to hit those 5 stars and write us a review on whatever platform you listen to us on. It really is a HUGE help to us and allows more people to see our podcast!

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast we tackle a topic that’s been on our list for a very long time: Difficult People.

We start with Wheel of Fortune and Seven of Wands, and then quickly discover that talking about people being difficult is hugely complicated… because sometimes we are the difficult person. But sometimes we aren’t - and the difficult people in our lives keep telling us we are. It’s super confusing, so we turn to all of the Fives to help us sort it out.

As always, we shift between the theoretical and the practical, and go deep into the dynamics of the “how’s” and “why’s” of difficult people, and then get real about what we can do in real life situations. Ultimately, this is a conversation of moving from Two of Swords to Two of Cups - and we loved every minute of it.

Want to be a part of the conversation?

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, we thought we might lighten things up a bit and talk about the purpose and need we have for play and to have fun.

“Talk about play” we thought, “It’s going to be so cheery!”

Enter Page of Cups Reversed, Page of Pentacles, Five of Wands, The Emperor, The Devil, and Three of Swords as the first cards we pull…

Okay, so talking about having fun turns out to be harder than we thought it would be.  But- we are so glad we did!

Join us as we talk though some therapy theory, talk about the magic of sand trays, and get real about how what we sometimes think is fun, actually isn’t.  We felt a lot better after this conversation, and we hope you will, too!

Speaking of playing…

Self-awareness is one of those things that’s really good to have, right? Yes… and…

You would think that as therapists this is something that we would be actively promoting – and while we very much do promote this - the truth is, there can be a real shadow side to self-awareness. And that is what we ended up talking about this week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast.

We began with reversed Justice and The Magician and the conversation takes off. We explore what the shadow side of self-awareness looks like and how to make sure you’re not headed in that direction. You’ll also hear Luna and Shannon disagree about a particular phrase (or way of thinking?), which isn’t common – but always an enlightening obstacle to navigate.

Somehow, we also end up talking about all of the Pentacles in this lively, a little bit nerdy, a little bit hilarious conversation. If you are on a journey of self-awareness, this is an episode you won’t want to miss!

And if you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please be sure to hit those 5 stars and write us a review on whatever platform you listen to us on. It really is a HUGE help to us and allows more people to see our podcast!

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast we talk about something we all (unfortunately) can relate to - Rejection.

Whether it be professional, romantic, friendship, or familial, feeling rejected is a terrible experience. Join us while we tackle the topic of rejection with tarot and explore what we can do to cope when the inevitable happens.

We go back to MySpace Top 8 days, to what happened in 8th grade, to the agony of a job search - and from The Lovers to 10 of Swords. We throw in some fascinating neuroscience and drop some knowledge about personality disorders. We really run the gamut with this episode!

Join us for this really straight-forward episode about the truths and myths of being rejected.

And if you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please be sure to hit those 5 stars and write us a review on whatever platform you listen to us on. It really is a HUGE help to us and allows more people to see our podcast!

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, we do our best to answer a listener question that we thought was super relatable right now. Our listener asked:

“Would you consider doing an episode on overwhelm? It seems like a lot of us feel overwhelmed when contemplating large scale issues like war, poverty, climate change...the list is long. The problems are so massive that thinking about them can shut us down, and it requires a lot of mindfulness to take action. The feeling comes up in day-to-day life for me, as well. Recently I was looking at all the things my child needed to do for their "spirit month" at school (wearing colors on certain days, bringing props on other days, etc) and I momentarily felt overwhelmed and I had a strong impulse to throw the calendar in the trash. I'd love to learn about overwhelm from the perspective of Tarot, and how it affects us as humans on a broad scale, as well as in those more mundane "everyday" moments of overwhelm.”

We really feel this. And we had an amazing conversation about this experience - why we get this way, what happens, and what the heck to do about it.

Join us for what turns out to be a wild ride of a conversation for some very real, raw, and vulnerable moments, as well as some great insights. This is an episode you won’t want to miss!

And if you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please be sure to hit those 5 stars and write us a review on whatever platform you listen to us on. It really is a HUGE help to us!

It seems like it’s dumpster fire season for so many of us. Both of us have been having some Tower card moments lately, so we decided to unwrap the experience of anticipating the Tower, being in the Tower, and the aftermath.

The conversation was more than we had anticipated and had us pondering days later.

Even if everything in your life right now is smooth sailing (anyone?), this is a topic that we all have experienced or fear experiencing, or both.  So, join us as we talk though the Strength card from the perspective of both the woman and the lion, totally geek out about the Judgement card, and journey though the pathway of The Fool - but in reverse.

Other Exciting News:

This week on the Tarot Diagnosis Podcast we take on a topic that everyone can relate to: confidence. And this is such a Goldilocks emotion. Too much is a bad thing too little is a good thing, when it comes to confidence we need to get it just right. In the end, as one of our favorite professors in graduate school used to say, “That’s easy to say, and hard to do.”

We dive deep with a look at Pages, contemplate Three of Wands, and discover how much confidence has to do with that in between place between The Sun and The Moon. And we also spend some time with what has become our unofficial mascot card: Knight of Swords and talk about how this card has both been a guide to us and has offered us its own cautions.

Join us as we sling cards and deep dive on this really interesting topic.

Other Exciting News:

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, we tackle the topic of perfectionism – what it is, why we experience it, and most importantly, what on earth we should do with it. 

We’ve all known a perfectionist, or been one ourselves, and although perfectionism isn’t technically a diagnosable disorder - we all know how debilitating it can be. The truth is, it’s hard to be a perfectionist and it’s also hard to live with one. On this episode, we explore both experiences and how to navigate them.

The cards come flying out as we explore the Four of Swords and Six of Wands, The Hermit and Reversed Ace of Wands. We sling cards like mad in this episode, as well as getting real about how perfectionism plays a role in our own relationship with each other.

Plus, Shannon shares a life changing mantra given to her by her own therapist over a decade ago that’s helped her deal with her own perfectionism. She gets raw and vulnerable - you’re not going to want to miss this one!

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, we venture into the complicated landscape of forgiveness. It’s a topic we’ve thought about addressing for a long time, but it’s a tough one to wrestle with because there’s such a huge variation of situations to consider when talking about forgiveness. 

Is forgiveness even an appropriate response in some circumstances? 

Are there times when forgiveness is a smart move?  

Or… do we need to think about forgiveness in a different way entirely?

Join us as we travel from Eight of Swords and the Revered Hermit, to Three of Wands and Queen of Cups and unpack the idea: What can forgiveness give me?  

Fun fact: This is our 51st episode and to date it’s the only one where we had zero edits. Normally we will have to pause to gather our thoughts or do a quick check in about the direction we are taking the conversation. This was a conversation that didn’t stop once.  It’s an episode we are both really smitten with. We hope you enjoy it and get as much out of it as we both did.

In other news: We’ve just announced that we will be opening up the doors to

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis we get down and dirty with the cringe worthy topic of… embarrassment.

It’s a human emotion we all have, but it’s one most of us prefer not to think about. But, it turns out that taking the time to really deconstruct the sensation of embarrassment is actually quite enlightening.

From Nine of Swords to King of Cups, we go deep not only on what embarrassment is and why we feel it, but also how it can teach us and how we can use it as a powerful tool.

Join us for this not-to-be-missed discussion, where we both talk not only about how to manage embarrassment, but also tell our own embarrassing stories (hint: the teen years were rough for both of us).

In other news: We’ve just announced that we will be opening up the doors to

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, we decided to talk about something we found interesting… but didn’t really know how to talk about it.

It began with a simple phrase - “living intuitively.” We both loved the way that sounded. How great would that be? (Cue images of self dancing on a beach in a gauzy dress at sunset)

It only took a few seconds to realize that we didn’t actually know what that meant, or what it would look like. We started asking “Is that the same thing as being mindful? How is intuitive living different than living intentionally? And how the heck do we do any of those things while still living in the real world?” (Cue images of wiping up dog puke and getting stuck in traffic)

So, we decided to intentionally be mindful in our conversation and let our intuition guide us, and it ended up being a great time.

Join us as we go from the reversed Six of Cups and The Devil into a deep dive of some of the queens and The High Priestess all while we unpack ways to be more thoughtful in our lives, and how tarot can help guide us.

*Side note* Shannon apologizes for some minor audio issues on her end.

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, we spend some time with the idea of Responding vs. Reacting - which really is a conversation about how to live our lives in a more mindful and purposeful way.

We all experience that knee-jerk reaction from time-to-time, but what happens when we become more aware of that inclination and shift away from reactivity? We start the discussion by realizing this is essentially the goal of therapy. Then,

Shannon takes us on a journey from her initial card, Reverse Princess (Page) of Disks (Pentacles) to a full on embrace of trying to live more like the Queen of Pentacles, and Luna breaks down how The Moon card relates to responding vs. reacting in a symbolic blow by blow. Knight energy, all the five's and the Nine of Wands, and the Two of Swords get lots of attention too.

In the end, we ask the question “Am I living deliberately, or am I living in patterns?” And that’s a question we should all be asking ourselves.

Join us for this rich conversation, filled with cards, quotes, neuroscience, and bit of practical advice. You don’t want to miss this one!

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast we decided to spend with a topic that we tackle A LOT in our clinical practices: negative thinking.

Some very smart people who came before us did us all the favor of studying and categorizing different types of negative thinking. The few we are exploring this week include: mental filtering, personalizing, catastrophizing and polarizing. Having this way of thinking and talking about the ideas in our brains makes it so much easier to notice them, and potentially make changes. Throw a little tarot in the mix- and you get one heck of a conversation!

Actually - throw a bunch of tarot in, because we pulled cards galore in this episode! Want to know what Two of Wands has got do with personalization, Reverse Ace of Wands with catastrophizing, Four of Cups with mental filtering or Queen of Wands with mental filtering?  We got you.

There’s a ton of cards, and a ton of information in this episodes that can help just about anyone (because, come on, don’t you fall into negative thinking from time to time?)

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis we boldly tackle a topic that we’ve been thinking of discussing for a while but honesty kept avoiding:

To Parent or Not to Parent.

We had a listener reach out and ask us to explore their feelings of needing to create something - but they weren't sure if that was a human life with their partner or something else.

From the get-go, we just could not find common ground on this topic… and that was really unusual for us, and pretty interesting. Eventually we were able to just call it out - that our own experiences and views, both as human beings and as therapists, differed.

We spend the rest of the episode figuring out what to do with this realization, which eventually lead us to finding a space of commonality- but in some ways we think this is actually the most interesting part of this episode. It’s a real journey to listen to two people who really love each other and normally are totally aligned fall out of step and then listen to them recover the conversation in a way that could honor each voice, while still holding fast to the relationship.

So, this is in many ways two episodes in one. It’s an episode about deciding to be a parent (or not), and it’s also an episode about how to have uncomfortable conversations.

Oh, and there’s also a bunch of tarot - And probably not the cards you might expect!

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast we tackle a topic that has been on our “to talk about” list for quite a while now. It’s a topic that is often dominating social media: Narcissism.

We love to talk about the narcissists, don’t we? We love to call them out and talk about how toxic they are. But we must ask - what are we really talking about? Are we trying to understand a phenomenon, or are we trying to protect ourselves? Perhaps both. Which is how we begin this not-to-be-missed conversation that dives deep both in terms of what narcissism is (and isn't) and what it looks like, and also what we can and should do when faced with it in our daily lives.

The Two of Pentacles and Nine of Swords are the cards that show up first, and they guide us through a host of others to help us better consider and navigate living in a world with some very difficult people.

Shannon takes a risk by using The Jungian Tarot, a deck she never uses, but finds cloaked in shadows – perfect for a discussion on Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Luna’s deck offers mostly the minor arcana, which ends up being a nice balance to the multiple majors that show up from Shannon’s pulls.

Join us as we get real about this very popular topic and even explore how society's fascination with the term narcissist is actually detrimental and furthers the stigma associated with mental health.

We’re back! It feels like it’s been forever since we released a new episode, but it’s really only been two weeks. During that time we launched our very own, private membership community: The Symposium and have been thrilled and overwhelmed at the response. Keep an eye on your emails for when we open this community to new members later in the year!

Now, on to podcast news. . .

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis we are talking about magical thinking. This is a term used often in the therapy and psychology world and when a listener heard it mentioned on a previous episode, they wrote in to request an episode on the topic.

The question was so good, we couldn’t wait to dive in.

The listener asked, “Where is the line between spirituality and cognitive distortion? Does all religion inherently involve some level of cognitive distortion? I’m curious about how to gauge magical thinking vs. spiritual engagement.”

We dive right in with Shannon pulling The Magician alongside the Queen of Swords. Luna helps us explore the important role of The High Priestess, which then takes us on quite a journey as we discuss Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD), manifestation, call out fake gurus, and nod to Harry Potter.

We then meander through some nerdy talk about developmental psychologist, Jean Piaget, and make a few pit stops with the Four of Cups, Knight of Pentacles, Three, Nine, and Seven of Swords, The Hermit, Reversed Hierophant, and the Seven of Cups. The King of Pentacles emerges and may essentially solve the dilemma laden question posed by the listener.

It's quite the adventure and we are grateful to the listener whose question inspired such a fun and meaningful discussion highlighting two important aspects of the human experience.

So, come join us as we walk a tight rope in-between the world of “woo” and the world of Psychology.

*Side Note: We had a minor audio hiccup, so the audio might sound slightly different.*

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis we continue to explore the idea of identity and self-conceptualization as we did last week in our episode on career identity- but ton a much larger scale. This week, we talk about “The Labels We Choose” and really dive deep into the idea of the ways in which our labels can serve us… and when they hinder us.

The first cards we pulled instantly let us know that this week’s topic was a heavy hitter: Death, The Tower and Judgement.  No big deal . . .But honestly, the conversation was really hopeful- joyful even, in spite of it all.

Join us as we explore the ideas of personal labels, how we choose them, and how we sometimes abuse them, as well as how to manage the expectations of others when it comes to these labels.  It’s both a practical and philosophical conversation that you won’t want to miss!

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis we explore a topic that comes up for both of us A LOT in our private therapy practices - work identity.

Right now, so many people are struggling with their thoughts about their relationship with work, and many are finding that their own sense of personal identity is deeply enmeshed in their work – which is kind of a problem for many people.

We start with Ace of Wands and Nine of Cups reversed, which frankly we could have just used these cards for the entire episode… but of course, we don’t. Knight of Pentacles and Knight of Cups dance around for a while, along with Seven of Pentacles (no surprises there), Hierophant, and Four of Wands.

Then Shannon brilliantly walks us through three different card reversals that you will for sure want to hear and Luna offers some helpful, practical tips on how (and how not to) take those free career assessments you see online. We also throw in some really interesting therapeutic theory along the way.

Get ready to redefine how you think about yourself and your own work identity as you listen in on this thought-provoking conversation.

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis we tackle a typical topic, in a very unusual way and explore the shadow side of empathy.

Empathy is a word that we use a lot in today's world, and having, exploring, and encouraging empathy is a very good thing – there’s no doubt about that. But… can there be too much of a good thing?

We start with Four of Cups and Page of Pentacles, and from there go on a dynamic linguistic trek over the difference between sympathy and empathy (and why we need both), then we hop onto a tight rope walk about where the lines of boundaries should be before we mentally visit an art gallery that allows us to engage with the emotional experiences of others. We also explore the term "empath" and why this identifier can be positive and negative.

You are not going to want to miss this episode, where we pull what seems like all of the cards, and Luna offers up her own true confessions about the positive side of what she considers being a “master manipulator.”

It’s a fascinating revelation.

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, we decide to tackle a totally cliche and hackneyed topic for this time of year and see if we could turn it on its head.  Get ready for Goal Setting from the Inside Out.

We know that this is topic everyone is talking about.  It’s also a topic a lot of people are talking about hating how much people talk about it (hello crazy sounding sentence).  But for us this isn’t a seasonal topic- it’s what we do all year long.  We just call it something different.

Come listen in on this very frank and personally revealing conversation about how as therapists we invoke change in people, both internally and externally.  Because setting goals is not just about changing behaviors- first and foremost it has to be about understanding what you really want.  And that, is sometimes actually really hard to figure out and surprising.

Sneak peek- Shannon gives us another awesome tarot exercise that you’ll want to play with as soon as you’re done listening, and Luna dishes the dirt on her own goals and how she obtained them (hint- it’s not what you would expect).

From Five of Swords, to The Empress, to (of course) Two of Cups, and the dichotomy between Ten of Cups and Ten of Pentacles, this episode is one not to be missed as we blend the emotional and behavioral aspects of setting goals for ourselves.

We also want to take a moment to point out that we have a challenge up on Instagram right now to ring in the new year and as a countdown to the launch of our exciting new online community, The Symposium.

Each week we are exploring a different psychological theory, starting off with a spread based on that theory, and followed by daily prompts that also reflect that framework.  We’d love to have you join in!

[CW: Some profanity] This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, we tackle a topic that’s near and dear to both of us - The Art of F*cking Up.

This has been on our list for a long time, and that’s because it’s something we’ve both struggled with in our own lives, and it’s also something we work with our clients on pretty much every day.

We begin the episode with Four of Cups, The Sun, and Five of Cups - and from there we go through card after card exploring why so many of us are afraid of failure and how to heal from what can often feel like mistake paralysis. All the fours and all the sixes seem to make their presence known throughout this episode – which is fun and exciting to notice.

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis podcast, we are back with a topic that every single person can relate to in one way or another: jealousy. We know that this is a word that means different things to different people, and it’s a word we all use sometimes interchangeably with the words envy and resentment. We talk about all of that, and we gotta say, it gets juicy. . .

Of course, we run though so many cards as we explore this world of jealousy in all of it’s forms - including some surprising ones (hey Three of Cups, what are you doing here?).

If you listen to the podcast regularly, you know that our conversations are totally unscripted and can go in any direction. We never know where we will head, and usually end up thinking about a million other things we could have talked about after we’re done.

However, This week, it was our beloved sound engineer who picked up on something both of us missed. Apparently, we talked about sevens… a lot. And isn’t that exactly right? In numerology seven is seen as a highly spiritual number - and one that is associated with gaining wisdom and knowledge. What greater challenge can we face in seeking knowledge than in battling with jealousy?

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, we decided to take on a totally hackneyed and cliché topic and see if we could "Hanged Man" it to give us a totally different perspective.

The idea of practicing gratitude has been around for millennia. Even Plato and Aristotle had things to say about it. In the past twenty years, the field of Positive Psychology, along with every home decorating store, has embraced this idea and let it run wild. But at what expense?

Clearly, we’re not so sure this is a good thing. And now, we have things to say. Join us as we talk through the idea of gratitude - how it works, when it's useful, and when it’s really not.

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis we decide to tackle the uncomfortable place of feeling disappointed. We begin the episode by recognizing that this is a broad topic that could go in lots of diffident directions - which really is what we love about our podcast: we never know what’s going to come up.

And, what came up were a ton of super heavy hitting Major Arcana cards with some interpretations that even surprised both of us.

This is truly an episode for everyone, because we all know what it feels like to face disappointments in this world - both the major, life altering kinds, and the small day to day ones. What matters is what we take away from these disappointments, and how we grow though these challenging moments.

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, we last minute decided to change the topic to one we have been seeing a lot of in our practices (and, maybe a little in our own lives, too): Burn Out.

The idea of being burnt out is one that we throw around a lot in causal conversation, probably because so many of us have a tendency to have too many things going on. But there is a difference between stress, fatigue, burn out and depression - and, true to form, we get into all those! We define the differences and more importantly, talk about what very real steps we can all take in our own lives to better manage stress and burn out.

Honestly, this is one of those episodes that has stuck with us both, and we’ve found ourselves returning to the conversation in our own lives and in our work together for the past few days, so we are really excited to share this episode with you!

If you follow us on Instagram, you’ve already seen some of the cards we pulled as we’ve been posting them this week. Five of Cups, Knight of Swords and Two of Pentacles have already been mentioned, but we also spend some time with Ten of Wands, The Hierophant, and have a really great time comparing and contrasting Eight of Cups and Six of Swords. We also spend some time talking about the role of identity and society on burn out and exhaustion.

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, we tackle a term that gets thrown around a lot, but rarely is discussed at length - the inner child.

In classic TTD style, Shannon and Luna give all the nerdy background on this concept and give real examples of how the inner child can play out in a therapy session. We also blend in the cards we pulled and illustrate how inner child work can be done through an independent, personal tarot practice. From Jung’s concept of Personality A and Personality B, to the more modern theory of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (or CBT), and all kinds of nerdy neurobiology thrown in, we pull card from The Somnia Tarot and Tarot of the Abyss in order to cover it all.

Queen of Cups, The Star, Nine of Wands, Strength and The Sun all play a role in our conversation as well as our suggestions about what practice you can try at home to engage with your own inner child healing.

The week on The Tarot Diagnosis we take on the big, bad, ugly topic of loneliness. Truth, even though it’s a heavy topic, we actually had a ton of fun with this one (weird, right?).

If you’ve been feeling lonely, or are worried about being alone in the future, or even know someone who is lonely and want to help them - this is an episode not to be missed!  At long last, Shannon revealed her top three proven methods to meet new people (something Luna has been waiting for since the podcast began) and then she has a run of pulling cards that’s pretty unbelievable (can you say “all of the pentacles?’’).

And Luna keeps pulling the same card, really illustrating a point about what we can do about our own loneliness.

Join us as we pull cards, talk therapy, and get real about the experience of loneliness. It's an episode to come and listen to again and again.

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, we take on the topic of being a people pleaser, and gosh- we sure do hope everyone likes it! (See what we did there?)

Shannon and Luna really get in the weeds on this one and untangle the difference between people who are naturally giving, and those who give out of fear or obligation. We talk about why this matters, and perhaps more importantly, what we can all do to have a greater balance between these two points.

The cards are flying this week and we throw out a pretty obscure reference to some morality research done in the 80’s, for all you psychology nerds out there. So grab your AirPods and join us for this lively conversation!

Quick ask - if you are a regular listener to the podcast (or even an occasional one), it would mean the world to us if you would take a moment to like, rate, subscribe, or even write a review for us on whatever platform you listen to us on. Oddly- we’ve never really asked this before and suddenly realized we probably should. Thank you all so much for your continued support and encouragement! We see how many of you there are out there- it’s humbling and staggering.

If you ever have a question you would like for us to discuss on the podcast, jump over to our website and click “submit a question” under “The Podcast” tab. Even if we don’t get to your question right away, seeing these question help us better know what’s in the hearts and minds of you, our listeners. Let us know what’s going on in your lives- we’d love to hear about it!

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis podcast, we tread into both the practical and philosophical around the concept of time. Time is something we all have - some of us feel like we have too much, some of us feel like we don’t have enough, and some of us prefer not to think about it all.

Join us as we pull cards and talk about our collective relationship with time (including some nerdy stuff about how different brains work). From Nine of Swords to King of Swords, and ADHD, to revenge sleep procrastination - we really sink our teeth into how we can stop fighting against time and how to get it work more for us.

Keep scrolling to see our custom spread about time to go with this week’s episode.

We want to take a moment now to thank all of you who have joined our newsletter in the past few days by signing up for our Therapeutic Tarot: A Samhain Inspired Self-Care Guide for October. The response we have gotten to this new offering has been really overwhelming- we are so happy you have joined us and we hope that you enjoy this newsletter and all its offerings!

And for those of you have been with us for a while - thank you for your on-going support! We hope you have had a moment to check out the new Samhain guide, which we sent to all of you before releasing on Instagram and our website. Let’s see those spreads! Be sure to tag us on Instagram @thetarotdiagnosis

We also want to let you know that we have some new offerings in our store (hooray for merch!) Now you can listen to the podcast while you sip your favorite beverage from your very own Tarot Diagnosis mug and journal your card pulls and spread pulls in your own Tarot Diagnosis journal!

We are constantly working to bring you all the best mental health and tarot related content. We have lots of exciting things brewing behind the scenes and cannot wait to share them with you all in the coming months!

Apps to help with time management when you have ADHD: https://psychcentral.com/health/best-adhd-apps

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis we spend some time wrestling with shame.

Shame is a universal human emotion, seen in all cultures around the world - but it manifests in such different ways. Thanks to the help of many listeners who offered us questions about their own experiences with shame, we were able to explore where shame comes from, how it works, how it’s different from embarrassment or guilt, and most importantly, what the hell we can do about it so it doesn’t rule our lives (or even wreck our day).

We ended up pulling a lot of cards on this one, so come and listen to how Five of Wands, High Priestess, Three of cups, Four of Cups, Six of Swords, The Tower, The Hanged Man, and yes, Seven of Swords (plus more!!) all can offer lessons when it comes to managing shame.  And, as always, hear our perspective as therapists on how shame impacts our lives and how to manage it.

We do want to take a moment to thank everyone who wrote in with their own experiences and thoughts. We are so humbled by our ever-growing community and to all of you who share your experiences and questions with us. It means so much to have your trust.

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, we tread *semi* carefully into the murky waters of how to find a good helper, or support person, in your life. So much of our work on this podcast is about helping people empower themselves, but we know that sometime that’s just not enough and it’s time to seek outside help. The problem is, how do you know who you can trust?

Luna and Shannon speak some hard truths on this one, and offer advice on how to find the right person for you… and how to know when to run far away. We go though all the red flags - and the green ones - to help you make the right choice.

Seven of Wands, Eight of Swords, Two of Cups, Two of Swords, and of course, The Hierophant all work their way into the conversation, along with an honest look at the problem with the current trend of making shadow work too sexy.

Also worth noting - at the end of the episode we highlight a recent IG live from Malakhim_Tarot called “False Prophets” that is very much worth checking out. If you don’t already follow Nick, it’s worth doing.

This week on a slightly abbreviated episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, we tackle a topic on lots of people’s minds right now: Stress. Join us for another half serious, half hilarious conversation about what leads to stress, the different types (nerd talk) and most importantly, what the hell we can actually do about managing it. We also answer questions directly from listeners about how to manage stress in their own lives, avoid absorbing other people’s stress, and pull cards for a custom spread we wrote just for this topic and episode (sneak peek- you’ll hear some therapist tips and learn what Luna and Shannon do in their own practices to keep healthy boundaries). 

Grab your deck and get ready to pull cards along with us as we go toe-to-toe with this issue that, frankly, all of us are facing in one way of or another right now.

This week we tackle the dishes, talk about sex, and explore conflict with money - all through the lens of couples therapy and romantic relationships. Luna and Shannon have found in their therapy practices that the majority of conflict couples experience manifests as "dishes, sex, and money" - but, spoiler alert: it's never actually about the dishes, the sex, or the money.

Join us as we pull cards, talk theory, and tell you exactly what you should and should not do in your relationships if you want them to survive.

In this episode we explore:

We decided to keep it light this week on The Tarot Diagnosis and chat about death, existential dread, and fear of nonbeing.
Actually, for real, though - this was a really fun conversation and it’s one well worth listening to. Because, let's face it, we all have to deal with it.
And as much as it seems heavy, so much of our work as therapists, and so much of our practice in working with tarot, comes down to the very core issue of searching for meaning. What we discovered in this conversation is that this is both a very simple and a very complicated thing to do.

Join us as we pull some cards, talk some theory (heads up- Luna geeks out on her very favorite therapeutic framework of all time and Shannon talks a lot about Freud and "a poet"). There is also some interesting and comforting hilarity in a few spots where Shannon battles with a lawnmower.

Originally the name of this week’s episode was “You’re Neurotic, Not Crazy." The other open is “What’s Your Type”- both are a good fit because this week on The Tarot Diagnosis we get real about the labels we like to claim and the types we want to be.

In clinical psychotherapy, we like to be able to give names to people’s experiences and ways of being in the world. But, really - doesn’t everyone? Don’t we all take the time to take some ridicules Buzzfeed quiz to tell us what type of pizza topping we are? Or which Hogwarts house we should be sorted into? We love to have labels and identifiers that describe us and we like it when other people do too. It's like having a fun secret code that we think will demystify ourselves and our relationships.

And, it does… sort of.

From Myers-Briggs, The Big 5, Enneagram, Holland Codes, and more- we talk about all the ways we have tried to classify personality.  And, of course, we do this all through an examination of the tarot- pulling in seemingly all of the court cards this week. We go into how mental health’s habit of rebranding all its lingo every ten years or so. We have a great conversation about the wonderful paradoxes of being a human and how tarot let’s us explore this more deeply.

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, Luna and Shannon venture into the harrowing and complex landscape of trust.

How do we know when to give it, what do we do once it’s been broken, and how much of this is really about our own expectations? Clearly, it’s a complicated topic. But, that’s what we love to do - get into the weeds with the complicated stuff and see how Tarot can offer us a lens to better understand our own experience of trust.

From Three of Swords to The High Priestess, and from Freudian developmental stages, to the idea of financial infidelity - we cover a ton of ground; including how to learn to better edit trust in all of our relationships in order to have realistic expectations and clearer boundaries.

In the end, when it comes to trust it seems to come down to what renowned pediatrician and author Dr. Spock said, "Trust yourself, you know more than you think you do."

[Content Warning - domestic violence is briefly discussed beginning around the 40 minute mark. Please see resources below if you or someone you know has been impacted by intimate partner violence.] This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, Shannon and Luna go for the jugular on the topic of anger.  We all know what it's like to be angry- it is an emotion that is inescapable as humans. It’s programmed deeply into all of us, and yet, there are so many contradictions and inconsistencies in discussions and research about what anger is (and perhaps more importantly) how we should treat it. 

A quick stroll down Google avenue offered two quotes about anger, side by side:

First: “Keep your temper. A decision made in anger is never sound”- Ford Frick
Second: “Sometimes, you have to get angry to get things done.” - Ang Lee

Holy mixed messages, Batman

Chances are you have probably already experienced anger several times, just today. How do you think about that anger? Does it make you embarrassed? Self-righteous? Guilty? Do you try to move past it? Or do you take some pleasure in feeding it? And - have you ever really thought about your relationship with anger? What about how you saw anger growing up?

Come listen in as tarot helps guide us while we share our take on anger - what it means and what to do with it. Plus - we coin the new phrase “my bird/ Starbucks pastry rage.” Oh! And - we discuss all of the Wands. Because that's exactly what tarot offered us.

Dog days of summer are upon us, and to be honest, we are not really feeling it.

We think that’s true for many of you too - which is why we initially thought to talk about this idea floating around of having a "Hot Girl Summer." At first it sounds fun, but it quickly becomes problematic (sorry Megan Thee Stallion & Nicki Minaj). So was born our take on it - a conversation for those of us having a Not So Hot Girl Summer.

Once again, Luna and Shannon get real about self image, our expectations of others, and the wonky ways we think others expect things from us. Also featured, a fun little mini lesson in Schema Theory and what we love about it. Join us as we unlock the mysteries of eyeliner, the trick to real sexiness, and our complicated feels about The High Priestess.

This week’s episode on The Tarot Diagnosis is a little different. Usually, we are full of laughs, a bit of sarcasm, and fun - but this episode is heavy....heavy in all the right and necessary ways.

In Ep. 19 we talk about grief - how we can experience it, ways to manage the false expectations of what it should be, and explore potential pathways to continuing to live our own lives – all while still having our grief exist with us

every damn day.

One of our listeners wrote to us and shared their deeply personal and tragic experience with grief. We sat with that message for days - processing what was an intimate glimpse into their life - and frankly how much it rubbed uncomfortably against our own stories of grief.

We knew we wanted to explore this for the listener and for others who have, who are, and who will inevitably experience the suffering of grief that comes with loss. To be totally honest though, we also ended up exploring it for ourselves (maybe even a little uncomfortably) through the process of pulling cards and talking about what it means to grieve and what it looks like to live with our grief.

We wanted to do this story of grief justice, and to honor it though tarot, coupled with our knowledge of mental and emotion health, in the best possible way. We hope we did that here.

So, we (along with your fellow listener) invite you to listen in on our most intimate (and emotional) conversation yet. Our hope is that this episode helps heal any grief in your own life, to develop more compassion for the experience of grief in those around you, and perhaps to better prepare for your own

inevitable fate of grief.

Final note, although we have done so already privately, we want to thank the listener who trusted us with her pain. We are truly privileged and forever grateful to you for your vulnerability and your courage.

Resources:

As we all come crawling out of our COVID Caves, a lot of us are reassessing different parts of our lives, including our friendships. It’s… weird. But then again, there’s nothing new to this. Having a good friend is such a gift, but we rarely talk about what it’s like when a friendship goes sour. This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, we talk about the experience of friendship, why we crave it, and why it hurts so much when we lose it. The truth is, friendships can go from being Three of Cups to Ten of Swords - sometimes without warning.

What about you? Are you questioning some of your friendships? Are the wounds still stinging from a past friendship breakup? How are you doing with maintaining your current friendships? Whatever area of platonic intimacy you're needing guidance on - we got you. Come listen in as we explore the highs and lows of having friends. Oh, and best part? When Shannon talks about how sex therapy relates to maintaining a friendship. It’s awesome... and relevant in it's own way - we promise. Come hang out and explore The Psychology of Friendship with us!

Be sure to check out our Summer Solstice Retreat!  We designed this retreat to be self guided, and really you can do it any day you want- not just on the Summer Solstice. Head over to our website to sign up today!

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, we tackle a big one - boundaries. And, as with all things mental health (and tarot) related, we find that this topic has so many edges to explore.

Fortunately for us, we had some really wonderful listener participation ahead of time this week that pointed us in some really interesting directions. We give tons of shout outs this episode to some awesome followers and tarot therapists.

This episode took us from the Nine of Wands to The Lovers; zipping past the Emperor to Queen of Swords, and several other pitstops along the way.

We found so many ways to talk about how boundaries do (and don’t) work in our lives. We also have a transcendent moment of reflection on Dirty Dancing (thanks to the wonderful Candis Green from Many Moons Therapy), we mentally visit an idyllic picket fenced yard and think of Peter Rabbit, and discuss how we have much to learn about boundary setting by visiting Disney World.

Shout out to some of our really awesome listeners/followers for contributing to this episode. Check them out on Instagram:

@ManyMoonsTherapy

@Trivia_Tarocchi

@WitchWayKelly

@AngelCityHolisticTherapy

@MissMegan_Marie

If you're struggling with drug or alcohol use, please know you are not allow and help is available. SAMHSA National Helpline offers confidential, free help from public health agencies, to find substance use treatment and information. Contact them at 1-800-662-4357.

Be sure to check out our Summer Solstice Retreat!  We designed this retreat to be self guided, and really you can do it any day you want- not just on the Summer Solstice. Head over to our website to sign up today!

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, we call bullshit on self-care.
Not that we’re not in favor of self-care (we are, we really, really are), but we think that the way self-care is talked about in our culture, and held up on social media is all wrong.

Join us as we talk about real-world ways to care for yourself, why it’s important, and what nobody says about how hard it actually is. Because, the thing is, self-care is about caring for your whole self.  Social media (and a lot of therapists) only talk about the parts that are about rest and nurturing - and yes, those parts are super important. Don't get us wrong - we love some quality yoga and a walk in nature, but caring for anyone- especially yourself, requires much more than that. Essentially- you can’t be all Four of Swords and think that covers self-care.  There's a lot more to it.

You’ll get to hear a very serious conversation about the importance of  “the cuddle couch” and get a behind the scenes look at cringy parenting moments for Luna.

In the mean time, if you are looking for something a little self-careish that is about lovely nurturing, be sure to check out our Summer Solstice Retreat!  We designed this retreat to be self guided, and really you can do it any day you want- not just on the Summer Solstice.

We are so excited to hear what you think of all the goodies we have waiting for you- and are really looking forward to seeing your tarot spreads and content with us tagged on IG!

When we first started talking about doing a podcast, Shannon was really into the idea of doing interviews. Luna… not so much. But then, Luna came across Nicolas Bruno and his stunning Somnia Tarot deck on Instagram and immediately sent it to Shannon saying, “This is the person we have to interview.” Luckily for us, Nicolas was kind enough to agree.

Nicolas Bruno is an artist based in New York. He works in the mediums of photography, sculpture, and costume design. Nicolas uses art as a therapy to combat his experiences with sleep paralysis. Over the pandemic, he created “The Somnia Tarot,” a 78 image series that tells the tale of the classic tarot through his dreams and nightmares, which you have without a doubt seen all over social media.

It was Nicolas’ haunting images and the diagnostic component of sleep paralysis that captivated us and made extending an invitation to be on the podcast inevitable. As we prepared to interview Nicolas, we discovered that his creative journey with The Somnia Tarot was not just a story of sleep paralysis, but also a display of resilience.

Once we started learning more about Nicolas, we became equally enthralled with his story and experience with sleep paralysis and how it lead to him becoming an accomplished artist. During our interview, Nicolas emphasizes that The Somnia Tarot, along with his other artwork documenting his experiences with sleep paralysis, were a personal way of turning something profoundly negative and terrifying into something positive and beautiful.

And this embodies our own work as therapists, and in this podcast. We seek to help people build something meaningful and beautiful, even out of life’s hardest moments. We have been deeply touched by Nicolas’ story, and his personal character.  His story is one worth listening to- even for people who don’t care at all about Tarot.   

We hope you enjoy our first ever interview with this truly extraordinary artist and human being.

Side note: Since this is the first time we have interviewed someone on the podcast, there may be moments where minor technical difficulties are apparent.

To learn more about Nicolas Bruno, his artwork, and The Somnia Tarot, please visit the links below:

As therapists, one of the most enigmatic questions we struggle with is “How do I do that thing people talk about where I learn to love and accept myself?”

It’s one of those questions that we sort of know the answer to, but we can’t say it directly- just point people in the right direction (or, really, directions).

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, we start to peel back some of the layers of this question- talking about why this is a hard question to tackle, and how it’s a question that needs to be answered in more than one way.

Yes, we talk A LOT about shadow work! Inner child shows up, too.

And, of course, we get super nerdy talking about the theories of psychotherapy and which therapy rockstar we think is unnecessarily mean.

Join us as we pull cards throughout the conversation, to help deepen our understanding of the concept of self-acceptance through the lens of Tarot and psychotherapy.

Find more information about topics we discuss by visiting the links below:

Terry Real - www.TerryReal.com

Jungian Tarot Deck - https://amzn.to/3wbBpvw

Gloria videos - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFT89grAUOI

Myers Briggs - http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

Enneagram - https://www.eclecticenergies.com/enneagram/test

When we first came up with the idea of doing this podcast, we said we were going to do 12 episodes and just see how it goes.  We knew we had some interesting things to say, but we weren't quite sure how people would respond. Well, today we are dropping episode 13 (Luna’s daughter’s favorite number), so as you can see- it’s going really well - all thanks to you super cool people who are enjoying what we have to say!

We are so incredibly grateful and excited to see that so many of you are enjoying the content we're creating. We have lots of exciting things coming up for you all in the very near future to express our gratitude! So, stay tuned...

As a form of a mini-celebration, we decided to do something a little bit different and talk more in depth about our own experiences with Tarot (and therapy).  This was one of the most fun and fruitful conversations we’ve had (and, we’ve had a lot of conversations- so that’s saying something!).

We reminisce with Shannon about her favorite haunt as a teenager (you can practically taste the ice coffee and smell the incense), and hear Luna have a virtual dance party with the Death card. We hope that you’ll join us by listening in and perhaps playing along with some of the spreads we do for ourselves in this episode- Life Lessons though Tarot.

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, Shannon and Luna get into the weeds with the question- when does positivity become toxic?

We thought we were going to have some disagreements getting into this one (and frankly - were kind of hoping we might get some sparks flying). Instead, it’s a conversation about how positivity and happiness are seen in our culture - and how it has both light and dark sides to it. As always, we talk about this through the tool of The Tarot, loving how this simple deck of cards can give us ways to think deeply about the wide range of emotions we all experience as humans.

Spoiler alert - Shannon can’t stop referencing Parks and Recs, so if you don’t want to know what happened in season 7, save this one for later!

Luna and Shannon peel back the veil on their own lives this week, by pulling cards about themselves and asking what is blocking happiness and positivity in their own lives.

So here’s a question to ponder (which, btw- you will be seeing on Instagram later this week).  Is it possible that The Sun is one of the most difficult cards to work with in Tarot, because although we all say we want to be happy- we actually have a very weird relationship with that desire.

We also invite you to participate in the Mental Health Awareness Daily Tarot Challenge on Instagram!

Final note- if you have a moment, it would mean so much to us if you could rate and review our podcast on whatever platform where you are listening.  We are stunned and humbled by the response we continue to get from our listeners and feel honored and privileged to be able to share bits of our knowledge, experience, and passions.

Studies and Assessments explored in the episode:

Luna and Shannon have a lot to say about a topic that seems to be really taboo - money. In this episode, our tarot cards are plentiful and our therapist brains are on fire because there is SO. MUCH. TO. SAY. about our relationships with money. How comfortable are you when it comes to talking about money?

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, Shannon and Luna have the first (of probably many) conversations about the ultra-taboo topic of money.  It’s so weird to us that 72% of Americas experience some sort of financial stress every month, yet most of the therapy world is *crickets* on the topic.  Likewise, the extended tarot community tends to talk a lot about abundance- but little about the realities of money stress and anxiety.

But we are willing to go there…and we do.

We talk about some of the work being done in the budding (yet, very quiet) field of financial therapy, including what some common money thinking habits are - and how they can become a problem.  We take it a step future by talking about ways to work through some of these thinking pattens to come into a more positive and proactive way of engaging in a money relationship - all through a conversation about some of the most challenging cards we can face in Tarot.

As with all things, the stories we tell ourselves color our experiences in the world.  This is ridiculously true when it comes to money - and we love beginning the conversation of how that works. We also happen to go long with a ham sandwich metaphor and “Daddy issues.” It’s all relevant, we promise – and somewhat hilarious. We also offer some acutely helpful resources at the end of the show.

Deep breath - take a listen, and please let us know what you think - or if you have a question you would like for us to explore in future episodes let us know!

Check out the links below to resources mentioned in the episode. We may make a small percentage of the fee of the products listed on Amazon. This goes towards podcast production fees so we can keep talking about Tarot and Mental Health. :-D

Dave Ramsey

Every once in a while, we will hear a story that goes something like this: “I know this might sound a little crazy, but there’s this person (fill in cute meet story here) and even though nothing ever happened (or we ended things a very long time ago), I can’t stop thinking about them.  Maybe they were, like, you know, the one I’m supposed to be with or something…”

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, Luna and Shannon dive deep into this topic.  Is this a question of the red string of fate being tragically tangled in this life time?  Or maybe this is stalker situation?  Is this maladaptive daydreaming, or a reasonable developmental coping skill in a hereto-normative, overly sexualized world? Perhaps a little bit of all of the above?

As always, The Tarot offers us imagery and a framework to talk about how our minds work, and Shannon and Luna hop from The Devil and Seven of Cups to The Emperor and Six of Swords, and a whole bunch of cards in between to help between understand this uncomfortable situation- as always, through the lens of a therapeutic perspective.

Sneak peek - There may or may not be a weird left turn half way though the episode that deconstructs the icon of the boy band- and Shannon and Luna tell about about their middle school obsessions (*NSYNC, Hanson, and Duran Duran anyone?)

If you’re struggling with a situation like this, we’ve created a mildly complicated spread for you, for a very complicated set of feelings, which you can find on our Instagram or when you sign up for our mailing list on our website.

“People use dating apps the same way I use Zillow…”

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, Luna and Shannon get super real about the what it’s like to enter the dating scene after a long hiatus (or- ever). We are so grateful to the listener who submitted a question to the podcast this week - a single mom who has been raising two kids while building a career, and now wants to restart her love life.  The conversation around this question (and the cards that were pulled) was so dynamic and really was more about facing our inner fears than about dating or single motherhood (but, there was a lot of dating advice in there, too).

Come take a deep dive with us into the realms of the conflicting desires, and vulnerable, (sometimes) annoying needs us humans have to constantly evolve.

Sneak peek - our discussion about The Hanged Man and 8 of Cups gets pretty raw.

“In many ways [the Two of Swords] is the ultimate therapy card.” – Luna

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis, Shannon and Luna dive into the two cards for each suit. Through the lens of a fictional client, they explore the ways each two card relates to Chelsea- a 26 year old woman stuck in a dating and career rut. In numerology, twos represent balance, harmony, duality, and choices- all of which our fictional client Chelsea seems to really be struggling with.

Luna is lamenting not talking about the role of twos in the Enneagram typology - but is just going to have to save that idea for the future.

Noted in this episode are the following:

"Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

If you want to explore the two cards more after listening, check out our Instagram for a spread specific to this episode.

Luna and Shannon explore the intersectionality of Tarot and Psychology in this week’s episode. Listen in as they highlight some of the pioneers of psychology and compare their well-known theories and research back to the practice of Tarot. Luna and Shannon explore the works of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Fritz Pearl and even share some details into what it is like being a therapist who pulls not only from these major psychological principles, but also from Tarot.

Shannon and Luna tackle everything from communication, sex, and childhood trauma in this episode that focuses on the differences in perspectives in our relationships. Relationships can be tough and we learn a lot about ourselves, our partners, and the world around us as we navigate through them during the good times and the times of conflict. As psychotherapist Esther Perel says, “The quality of our relationships determines the quality of our life.” Join Luna and Shannon as they incorporate principles from psychotherapy, developmental psychologists, and tarot to help increase insight within ourselves and our relationships.

Highlighted in this episode are the following:

Gottman’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - https://www.gottman.com/blog/the-four-horsemen-recognizing-criticism-contempt-defensiveness-and-stonewalling/

In this episode Luna and Shannon pull cards and talk about what happens when we’re feeling stuck, lacking confidence, and unsure how to move forward in our lives.

What this episode should be titled: How Tarot Helps Us Develop Coping Skills We Hate

In this episode Luna and Shannon talk about how to implement tarot into your daily life. They get vulnerable and explore their own tarot practices, where they fall short, how tarot has evolved for them over the years, and how they have utilized tarot in therapy sessions with some of their clients. They even talk about how sometimes therapists do not enjoy those go-to techniques that all therapists recommend *ahem* journaling.

Luna spoke about the Carl Jung concept and exercise of Active Imagination. Learn more about this here: https://medium.com/@SteafanFox/carl-jungs-active-imagination-technique-2a622e00311

In this episode we explore anxiety, its possible root causes, and coping skills, while pulling cards to help facilitate a deeper understanding of the issue. We also show examples of how tarot can be used to learn more about your own anxiety at home or with a therapist. A follower graciously and vulnerably asked a question about her own anxiety, which we use tarot to help unravel. 

We spoke about Gestalt therapy and the Empty Chair Technique. Learn more here: https://www.counseling.org/docs/david-kaplan%27s-files/wagner-moore.pdf

In this episode we explore the concept of work/life balance from a therapist point of view, while pulling cards to help facilitate a deeper understanding of the issue and help formulate a plan to create balance and harmony.

We spoke about Sonia Fregoso, LMFT who has a course on Tarot in Psychotherapy. You can access that course information here: https://www.angelcityholistictherapy.com/classes

We also spoke about a blog exploring what to consider when searching for your own tarot deck. This blog post covers wonderful aspects of narrative therapy and tarot, which is what we have touched on throughout this podcast: https://tiffanysostar.com/?s=tarot+woo

In this episode we explore the concept of boredom in a relationship from a therapist point of view, while pulling cards to help facilitate a deeper understanding of the issue and help formulate a plan to feel less bored.

When talking about Six of Cups, we were discussing the idea of play. Luna mentioned therapeutic framework that references this as a basic human need, and thought it might be Rational Emotive Therapy. Close- but not. It’s actually Reality Therapy, founded by William Glasser in the 1960 and  theorizes that humans have 5 basic needs to be met:

-Power, or self worth and achievement

-Love and belonging

-Freedom/ independence

-Fun

-Survival

Hey there! You’re listening to The Tarot Diagnosis! We’re your hosts – Luna and Shannon. We’re both clinical psychotherapists who trained together at Johns Hopkins and now we are both in private practice in Tampa, FL and Baltimore, MD. We also both happen to have a love for tarot. Each episode we work to demystify tarot and explore its connections to mental and emotional health.

If you are listening to our podcast, you’re probably someone who is already into tarot or someone who wants to be into tarot. You might also be someone interested in mental health and personal development and who is committed to building their own best life. You might even be a therapist who wants to learn to use tarot with their clients or to develop a tarot practice that helps you process the challenges your clients face.

Our vision for this podcast is to help demystify tarot while exploring and implementing its inherently helpful tools to better understand ourselves, our behavior, and our clients. As therapists, we often see common roadblocks, concerns, and struggles that our clients experience. Throughout this podcast, we will talk about many of these themes and utilize tarot to help us dive deeper into root causes and to help facilitate action steps to move forward or out of a struggle.

It’s important to note that we don’t believe the cards themselves are magic. Tarot holds familiar symbols and forms of art that have been seen for centuries. These symbols are meant to help tap into our unconscious – the thoughts, ideas, and solutions we already have, but that may not be at the surface or within our reach. Tarot essentially unravels these thoughts that you already have and brings them up to the surface so we can interact with them. This is what is actually magical about tarot – it’s tapping into our own inherent strength, knowledge, and thoughts, which allows us to make decisions, experience epiphanies and feel empowered.

We’ve been talking about starting a podcast together for a few years now. It all kind of started a few years after grad school, we reconnected and became each others’ weekly accountability partner’s regarding our private practices. We just always kind of got each other. Luna is the type of person who just feels familiar – you just want to be around her and you just want to listen to her talk – so naturally when I was gifted a new tarot deck and became inspired to explore tarot and mental health she was the person I wanted to start a podcast with.

Oh, and here’s our disclaimer: the themes and identifying characteristics of the clients and therapy sessions we talk about have been modified for confidentiality. This podcast is not therapy, nor is it medical or mental health advice. This podcast is not meant to replace mental health care from a licensed mental health practitioner. We always recommend seeking therapy from a licensed therapist.