The Mood Cards

By

Emma Jenkins

I came across The Mood Cards when I was looking for ideas to help me

with a client. From the outset I was pre warned that he might be autistic or

have some kind of learning difficulty but I was happy to put any potential

diagnosis aside and just concentrate on getting to know him and building a

trusting relationship in which therapy could occur.

During the first couple of sessions I noticed how much he was struggling to

express himself. My counselling skills (open questions, paraphrasing,

reflection, immediacy, self-disclosure etc.) did help him start to learn to trust

me and a safe therapeutic space was beginning to grow, but I was struggling

to get him to connect with & express his emotions and feelings. So after

spending a bit of time researching online I came across The Mood Cards.

What are moods & emotions?

The website Urbandictionary.com says ‘a mood is a way of expressing

someone’s feelings or emotions’.

The Cambridge dictionary says that a mood is ‘the way you feel at a

particular time’ and an emotion is ‘a strong feeling such as love or anger, or

strong feelings in general’.

Andrea Harrn, the creator of The Mood cards gives a nice detailed

explanation of her interpretation in the helpful guide included in The Mood

Card box –

She says -

‘A mood is a temporary state of mind or feeling. It is a way to define and

understand ourselves in order to assess possible future actions. It can be a

result of a number of emotions that arise at certain times or can be related to

ongoing or repetitive physical or social change. Our moods guide us about

what is going on in our lives and can enable us to face challenges or

predicaments’.

She goes on to say -

‘An emotion is also a temporary state of mind but a more instinctive,

biological reaction to events and/or relationships. Emotions are internal

feelings linked to body sensations, habits and behaviours. There are

hundreds of emotions and variations; you will rarely experience one emotion

in isolation. For example, if you are feeling anxious, you might also feel fear

and worry.’

To me I feel that moods are mainly seen as only positive or negative whereas

emotions feel more complex and descriptive of what we are really feeling or

experiencing.

So what are The Mood Cards?

The Mood Cards are exactly what they sound like - cards with moods and

emotions depicted on them. There are over 40 different ones to pick from

and they come neatly packaged in a box with a helpful guide included.

They are simple and easy to understand. Each one has the mood along with

a few words and an ‘emoji’ face on the front, and some questions and an

affirmation on the reverse.

The backgrounds are in a variety of colours which link the mood to the

relevant chakra (one of the seven centres of energy or spiritual power in the

human body according to Hinduism & Buddhism). For example red cards

(the root chakra) include moods such as ‘hate’, ‘brave’, ‘anger’, and green

cards (the heart chakra) include ‘proud’ and ‘forgiving’.

How I’ve used them

I’ve used them a couple of times now (with the same client), once on our

third session and again recently. Each time I have laid out all of the cards on

the table and asked him to take his time and select any cards that jumped

out at him. Taking each of his selected cards one by one we would talk

about what the mood meant to him, when he last felt like that, did the colour

of the card seem to fit with his feelings about that mood, how he would

describe that mood to someone else etc. We would then turn over the card

and read through & discuss the questions (some of which we had already

covered while looking at the front of the card). We finished by reading out

the affirmation on the card and discussing how he felt about it.

By using the mood cards a couple of times with the same client I have been

able to see very clearly how his moods have changed over the weeks of

therapy. Initially the cards he picked were all negative moods such as

frustrated, anger & depression, and he seemed reluctant to read out any of

the affirmations. The second time we used them some positive moods were

creeping in such as forgiving & happy, he also selected sorry (which is what

he wanted to say to his family about how he had been behaving). He was

also more engaged and seemed keen to read out the questions himself.

About the Author

Andrea Harrn created The Mood Cards.

She is a UK based psychotherapist and began

her career in counselling in 2000. She has a

wealth of experience in psychotherapy,

counselling, hypnotherapy, mindfulness training,

and supervision. She created The Mood Cards

in 2015.

I reached out to her after I purchased The Mood Cards as I was so happy

with them and decided I wanted to share them with the class. She was

extremely approachable and supportive and agreed to answer a few

questions and give me some words of wisdom for us trainees -

How did you come up with the idea?

‘I was looking for a decent set of images for my own therapy practice to

use with clients who struggled to identify and express their emotions. I had

an old scruffy page of faces but wanted something better, clearer and more

user friendly. This was around 7 years ago, way before emoticons and

emojis. So I looked online but the only images available were more suitable

for children. The seed of creation began. I knew I wanted very simple faces

without too much detail. I advertised online to work with an artist and many

came forward with beautiful design skills. However they weren't

right. Eventually at my local Athena women in business network meeting I

met Stacey Siddons, a young, fun and incredibly talented South African

digital artist. We started to work together and Stacey completely got what I

was after’.

Can you tell me more about the creation process?

‘Each little face (and there are 42 of them) were clients to me. However

before they became my clients they were me. In other words I had to go

through each of the emotions to know what it felt like, where I felt it and what

was needed. In a way the cards are my personal journey over a period of 2

years. The first card we created together was the hurt card. I can't tell you

now why I was hurt but I must have been, it’s history now. I felt hurt and I

was choked up, I needed to speak but I couldn't get the words out. The pain

I felt was in my throat. I linked this to a blockage in the throat chakra, hence

the colour blue. The periods when I felt the emotions were the moments to

create the images. It was an intuitive process and came from a deep space

within myself. Initially Stacey and I played with the idea of mandalas on the

reverse of the cards. I was looking forward to having these cards in my

therapy room’.

What inspired you?

‘I thought about what I could offer as a therapist to enhance the value of the

cards. I was inspired by the idea of creating something different, a clear and

simple concept of therapy within each card, drawing on a number of

psychological theories plus my own experiences as a psychotherapist and

intuitive healer. I already knew the value of mindfulness and acceptance of

current state so I created the faces to reflect back, like a mirror to the user,

giving validation.

You may be familiar with Winnicott's work on child development and the role of

the mother acting as mirror. It’s about self-reflection.

The top back of the cards are based on CBT, cognitive therapy and comprise of

3 structured questions to help users define and identify, explore in more depth by

looking at relevant and meaningful examples and then to look at ways forward

towards positive change. On the bottom back of each card are positive

affirmations to embed positive thoughts and mindsets. The affirmations also

take an existential spiritual approach to life. There are some things we can

control and others we can't. Again it’s about acceptance and moving on. The

colours of the cards relate directly to the chakra wheel to strengthen where

needed’.

How do you use them yourself?

‘They sit in a little glass dish shaped like the sun, on my window ledge. I use

them with clients to help them gain insight and perspective on

situations. They are really popular with teenagers who often struggle getting

started in conversation. They are a good ice breaker for deeper

work. Clients use them in all sorts of ways. Some choose at random, others

place them in colour codes, others choose 3 at a time. There is no right or

wrong way to use them. The most important thing is to allow the client to

choose the card - never choose the card for the client!

I usually ask the client to hold the card close to their heart and see what

thoughts and feelings come up. We then discuss. Then we turn the card

over and I ask the questions - the client answers. I use the questions as

guides to go deeper. I don't stop at the first answer, I ask them to tell me

more and more, and so the client gains lots of insight, new thoughts and

ideas about themselves and their lives. We end with the affirmation which I

invite them to read out. If they like the affirmation I ask them to say it again

but the next time with more depth, a stronger deeper voice, and

again. Affirmations repeated in this way have a powerful effect’.

Do you have any words of advice for trainee counsellors heading out

into the big scary world of counselling?

‘Every therapist brings their "self" to the work and eventually finds their own

flow. So be yourself, create rapport and warmth between you. Be open to

what you are about to experience with the client. Reflect back and enter

their world with respect and integrity. Don't be afraid to challenge your

clients where needed but do this in an unthreatening way. Have strict and

secure boundaries to help your clients feel safe. Be self-reflective and get

supervision for your work. Care deeply about what you do, otherwise don't

do it. Don't beat yourself up if you have a bad day or think you've made a

mistake - we all make mistakes and this often helps our clients to understand

that its ok to get things wrong’.

My opinions

Overall I am a massive fan of The Mood Cards and look forward to using

them more and more in the future to help me engage and connect with

clients. I have also found them fun to use in conversations with family and

friends: it has prompted some enjoyable and thoughtful conversations.

The cards are based on mindfulness and the questions on the back are

cognitive. When using them I have found that they feel very Gestalt, we

talked a lot about the here and now and how the moods affected the body.

The affirmations are very positive & feel existential or spiritual at times.

In my opinion the simple design means that The Mood Cards are suitable

for anyone to use, counsellors/therapists, teachers, parents/relatives,

healthcare professionals and individuals. They are a nice size (not too small

and fiddly), the materials used feel robust and not too flimsy and I think

because of their simplicity they are easily relatable to anyone of any age. I

think they would be ideal for use on individuals, groups or even as self-help.

They represent good value for money (currenty £12.00 on The Mood Card

website, about £13/£14 elsewhere).

Further details –

http://www.themoodcards.com/mood-cards/

http://www.andreaharrn.co.uk

“Emotion is an energy with a huge potential for transformation. Conscious

awareness allows us to become observer as well as participant in our own

life story with the opportunity of directing the next chapter”

Urban Dictionary. (2017). Urban Dictionary: mood. [online] Available at: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mood [Accessed 17 Jun. 2017]. Dictionary, m. (2017). mood Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. [online] Dictionary.cambridge.org. Available at: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mood [Accessed 17 Jun. 2017]. Dictionary, e. (2017). emotion Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. [online] Dictionary.cambridge.org. Available at: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/emotion [Accessed 17 Jun. 2017]. The Mood Cards. (2017). Connections Book Pub. Amazon.co.uk. (2017). The Mood Cards: Make Sense of Your Moods and Emotions for Clarity, Confidence and Well-Being: Amazon.co.uk: Andrea Harrn: 9781859063927: Books. [online] Available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mood-Cards-Emotions-Confidence-Well-Being/dp/1859063926/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497723478&sr=8-1&keywords=the+mood+cards [Accessed 17 Jun. 2017]. The Mood Cards. (2017). The Mood Cards - The Mood Cards. [online] Available at: http://www.themoodcards.com/mood-cards/ [Accessed 17 Jun. 2017]. Chakras.info. (2017). Guide To The Chakras For Beginners And Healing Practionners. [online] Available at: http://www.chakras.info/ [Accessed 17 Jun. 2017]. Harrn, A. (2017). Re: The Mood Cards. [email].

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