Between the Cards and the Couch: A Therapist’s Quiet Awakening

By Adriana Castro-Convers, PhD

For over two decades, I’ve sat across from clients as a licensed psychologist—holding space for grief, trauma, growth, and healing. My work has always been grounded in evidence-based practices, cultural humility, and deep listening. But something shifted a few years ago. A whisper stirred in my soul.

It came quietly—through dreams, visions, and card pulls done more for curiosity than clarity. It deepened through meditation, ancestral memories, and the return of stories my abuela never got to finish. And one day, I realized: I was no longer just a therapist. I was becoming something else, too.

A spiritual practitioner.

This realization didn’t come without conflict. I asked myself: Can I be both? Can I honor science and spirit? Psychology and mysticism? The answer didn’t arrive through a textbook—it came like a hush between therapy sessions, a nudge during morning prayers, a Tarot card drawn on a sleepless night that mirrored exactly what I couldn’t yet say out loud.

And that’s the thing about divination tools like Tarot—they don’t predict. They reflect. They offer images, metaphors, and archetypes that speak directly to the subconscious. In many ways, they echo what we do in therapy: help people name what has long gone unnamed.

As an Afro-Latina woman, I know what it means to carry both spiritual knowing and professional restraint. To walk between worlds. My ancestral line is rich with women who prayed, dreamed, and discerned—but rarely called it by name. I want to honor their legacy by no longer hiding mine.

So here I am—still a therapist. Still rooted in clinical training. But also a woman who believes Spirit belongs in the healing room. That intuition can sit beside insight. That sometimes, what helps a client move forward isn’t just a new behavior or tool—but a card, a gentle whisper, or a story that reminds them: you are more powerful than you know.

Maybe this is the path forward. Not choosing between the cards and the couch—but learning to sit in both