Navigating Depression is a wonderful resource for therapists and counsellors to use and for their patients and clients to enjoy. With great creativity and skill, the authors and illustrator have woven together a set of materials that can be used to prompt reflection and help to bring forth the natural wisdom and resources of the heart and mind.

There is still much stigma in society when it comes to mental health, including the mental health and vicarious trauma of human service workers. What these cards do for me is hold up a different perspective, like a mirror, and communicate that it is all right to be human and I am deserving of self-care.

Wanted to share my joy in using the Choosing Strengths card set with some staff who are in charge of assessing and approving government aid… I was not sure how it would turn out, but the activity brought the energy up and made participants more open to seeing and positioning themselves differently in relation to their clients.

As an early childhood teacher and a researcher, I was looking for resources for social-emotional development and I found them [Strengths cards for Kids] on the internet … Young children cannot read, but the graphics of the cards were very intuitive and with my help they could understand what the card was about. I also had the card stickers and children were getting one sticker each time (the card which best described them) – they loved that positive reinforcement.

The cards from Innovative Resources have been a great asset in my DBT program. The cards help people to be able to name the feelings they have and describe what those feelings are like inside their body. There are so many other packs of cards that are useful but I have The Bears and the Body Signals® cards in my bag every shift. Some patients come and ask me if they can do the cards with me. It opens conversations that can be hard to start as a clinician. I often find out things that I never would have known without using the cards.

For people experiencing big emotions around change, life can feel problem-saturated at times. It can be really hard for them to get their head around the idea that they have strengths. The cards can be a really great tool for “concretising” what a strength is.