​​​I am hugely proud of my Counselling Cards, which were three years in the making, and in the end I published them myself too. And, like many other projects that come from the heart, there is a personal backstory that hopes to inspire change in the future. 

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There is a traditional, broad-brush approach taken by most mental health practitioners when working with patients, which is to ask the patient to talk about their current situation and how it makes them feel. This is such a basic, obvious and traditional request, but it is not a simple and achievable task for everyone. We do not learn as children how to articulate our deepest and most intense emotions in a clear and coherent way. It is often expected (by wider society) that we suddenly acquire this skill when we stumble into adulthood or find ourselves in the middle of a personal crisis... but a lot of us struggle with it. Talking is indeed an effective solution to our emotional problems, but only if the talking can start in the first place! What about those of us who are so traumatised, upset, confused, sensitive, anxious, angry or depressed that we cannot even begin to answer a question about our feelings without walking away or bursting into tears? Highly-sensitive people (HSP) are only just beginning to be understood, but how many more adults have a similar experience due to their own disorders, personalities, or histories? How many of us avoid emotional conversations or avoid seeking therapy because the simple act of talking is too hard? I think most adults would like the process of communication to be easier (especially if we make up the 65% of adults who are visual learners and would benefit from prompts/aids).

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I Googled 'Counselling Cards' to purchase for myself back in 2017. I was very frustrated and upset by a personal problem, and I could not explain myself clearly without bursting into tears (my mother is sure that she's had a highly sensitive daughter on her hands). My personal problem could have been solved quickly if I had found the right words to articulate how I felt and why, but the words did not come. The mind is overtaken by a rush of intense emotions which cannot be connected to words or phrases. It feels like a chaotic blockage in the throat/chest, which causes the face to burn. This does not make me feel great, of course, as an educated and married adult with a successful career. Why are my adult reactions so flooding and overwhelming? Why can't they be articulated clearly (or at all)? In a therapists office, I would be a nightmare, as I would simply cry through my internal reaction which was unable to get out (known as 'internalising' and 'expressive suppression'). I don't think I'm the only adult, however, who finds it difficult to communicate my emotions. In the modern world of free communication this can be somewhat debilitating, due to the assumption that I should be able to simply 'answer the question'. It doesn't work like this for everybody, no matter how good the therapist is at asking the question.

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During my 2017 Google, I had spotted a small emergence of home-made 'relationship cards', 'affirmation cards' and 'emotions cards' on internet marketplaces, containing basic drawings, paintings, questions, or written prompts, to help couples work on their relationships or to encourage positivity in individuals. I also spotted trauma flash cards for children. There is clearly a need for visual prompts/aids to help adult relationships, but I personally needed something more: something that covered an array of (100+) emotions yet was situation-specific; something that I could use in private to bring order to my personal chaos; something that connected directly to my feelings with a relatable image but contained no interruptive paragraphs of text; something that could track my emotional journey but did not ask me intrusive questions, and something universal that both myself and my partner (or anyone around the world) could pick up and say: "this image is literally how I feel right now!". So I designed 120 adult-specific emotions cards with beautiful yet simple images of emotions and events, with a unique Spread Mat to put them on. The cards do not contain distracting paragraphs of text, prompts or questions, and the images are created to resonate with couples and individuals in 'grown-up' situations. The main aim of the Spread Mat is to provide a wholistic view of an emotional situation, giving a sense of control back to the user. I love the idea of being able to track an emotional journey in such a practical, hands-on way. I put questions on the Spread Mat to help the user clarify why certain cards were chosen for the 'past', 'present' and 'future': this is so their emotional journey can start to make sense. The cards are primarily designed for private use, when emotions cannot yet be clarified or a couple are not ready to take their problems 'outside', but they also make a great professional tool for therapists.

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• The cards are a tool for communication when talking is simply too hard or has not yet started, or seeking a therapist is too daunting;

• The Spread Mat is ideal for couples to compare how they feel, how they arrived at that point, and what drives each individual: it's the quickest and easiest way to see where a divergence is starting to emerge;

• After engaging with the cards and finding your voice, seek out a therapist and take the card(s) with you that most closely reflect how you feel if, like me, you struggle to communicate;

• They are an aid for therapists when confronted with a patient who cannot talk about emotions without difficulty, providing a useful tool for neurodiversity;

• The cards are part of a longer counselling process that starts with simply being able to talk in a clear and coherent way: if I were to place them anywhere in the therapy process, I would say they belong right at the start, when the right words still need to be found.

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Try as I might, I could not get my Counselling Cards published. I started with Llewellyn (they publish self-help books, tarot cards and oracle decks), but they said no. I moved to Arcturus (they publish creative books and decks), but they said no. I changed tack and finished with Sage Publishing, who publish books on counselling and psychotherapy. That seemed a perfect fit for adult counselling cards, but they said no. Essentially the answer was the same from all three publishers: they didn't know what to do with my 120-counselling-cards-with-spread-mat. There wasn't a product like it on the wider market. This will come as a surprise to many, since the self-help genre is booming, and smaller packs of simpler/home-made 'flash cards' have become common fayre in small internet marketplaces. But then I thought about it. We typically see a therapist face-to-face (whether on screen or in person) and their trade is talking, assuming that patients can simply talk back. Professional training is set up this way: to ask open-ended questions and respond to the patient (this client-led philosophy is popular, but it inevitably requires collaboration). In addition to this, adult neurodiversity is a growing field and the need for visual prompts/aids for adult communication isn't resonating with the wider world yet. Adult flash cards are dismissed by many due to the patronising connotations that they bring (i.e., they are only used for children). Therefore, why would leading publishers print a detailed set of adult counselling cards when adults are assumed to be able to articulate their deepest, most intense personal problems? I believe this is an old and stagnant myth, a debilitating expectation that has not been fully questioned, and is becoming increasingly unsustainable in our neurodiverse society. I think this myth is the reason why, when I searched for an extensive set of adult counselling cards to purchase for myself back in 2017, I couldn't find any. And I needed a complex deck to help me process my own emotions privately as a so-called 'normal' adult.

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I stopped at three publishers, as I had spent over a year waiting for them to respond, and my beautiful card designs were burning a hole in my pocket. I felt as though mainstream publishers did not take my concern seriously (that more than half of adults are visual learners and would benefit from visual prompts/aids to communicate effectively), and smaller publishers were too nervous of it, mainly because no one had broached the idea of counselling cards for adults on a 'big scale' before. ​So I set up Horace Publishing Ltd, purchased an ISBN, found a printing company, and published The Original Counselling Cards myself. I believe we have created something unique that can help many other people to identify and articulate their emotions in private and with others. It has not been an easy journey setting up my own publishing company, but I absolutely believe in its purpose, which is to help adults to communicate clearly and with confidence.

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​​​​​​​​​The journey of getting my Counselling Cards onto the market has opened my eyes to how many other disorders and conditions would benefit from visual prompts/aids to help with communication (e.g., ADHD, Autism, anxiety etc., and that's just the A's). I also noticed how many traumatic life events are not canvassed from the patient's perspective but should be, due to the isolation they can cause (e.g., postpartum depression, grief, menopause, separation and life-pivots, divorce, cancer diagnosis, etc). I imagine that the stigma of a mental health problem has many sufferers living underground and feeling unable to seek therapy. I would never force anyone who wishes to deal with these things privately to step out into the light, but for those of us who are willing to share our first-hand experiences of these conditions with the world, the kinship and comfort that it brings could console another sufferer beyond measure. I would like to help with the publication of these experiences. I think it is very important.

 

I recall telling my mother about my new publishing company and my plans to publish books written by sufferers as a tool for professionals and individuals alike, and she hit the nail on the head: "all the books out there give doctor/psychiatrist interpretations of [narcissism - this was the topic of conversation], but they don't contain the experiences of the people living with it". I quite agree, and I want to share more real-life experiences with the world to help us understand and support each other.

 

- Lisa Atkins, March 2026.

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Lisa Atkins works in academia (UK) and has a doctorate in fertility law. She created The Original Counselling Cards as a personal project of her own, stemming from the unmet needs in the wider market of highly sensitive visual learners, and wanted to share them with the world. As a highly-sensitive person, she became frustrated by the lack of tools available to help her articulate how she felt in stressful situations (both at work and at home). She hopes, with the creation of these unique cards for adults, that she can help other individuals to identify and communicate how they feel, not only to themselves but in conversations with friends, partners and therapists. 

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She is happy to hear from you! info@horacepublishing.com

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