Safe Place & Belonging Cards for Therapy

Q: How many cards are in the deck?

{{cardsCount}} cards and one shared back, in seven groups: shelter, thresholds, rooms, gardens, refuge, together, and in-between places. The groups help you choose a theme; mixing them is encouraged.

Lit Windows is a 55-card deck about safety and belonging. A tent glowing from inside, an open front door, a kitchen table in morning light, a hollow tree, a long table set for many, two suitcases by the door — places, not people. There is no text on the cards and no fixed meanings: each person chooses the place that feels like theirs, the one they hide in, or the one they are only passing through.

The cards

Places you can step into

Every card is somewhere a person could be: a room, a garden, a shelter, a threshold. Nobody is pictured — the client decides who belongs there.

+40 more

Open the deck to see all 55 and choose the places for your session.

Before you start

A place, not a prescription

The deck does not tell anyone where they should feel safe. It is a conversation tool: the pictures make it easier to say where you feel at home, where you hide and where you cannot settle — and what each of those places asks for.

When to reach for it

Sessions this deck was made for

Building a safe place. Instead of imagining one from nothing, the client picks the card that already feels safe — and describes what makes it so.

Belonging. Which places feel like yours, and which do you only visit? The gap between the two piles is the conversation.

Grounding after activation. A tent, a bath, a reading corner: choosing a card and naming its details brings the body back into a room.

Moving, migration, leaving home. Suitcases, boxes, a caravan at dusk — the in-between places give words to a life in transit.

Family and childhood homes. Pick the room that was yours as a child, and the one you would give a child now.

Hiding and retreat. The hollow tree and the cellar are not failures: ask what they protect and when they stop being enough.

Teams and shared spaces. A campfire circle, a long table, a library — how does this group feel as a place, and who has a seat?

Your own week. One card for where you felt most yourself, one for where you felt least. Write three lines about each.

Three cards up close

Three different kinds of safe

Flat gouache illustration: a small canvas tent glowing warm from a lantern inside, under tall pines at night

The tent in the pines

What is the thinnest wall that still makes you feel protected?

Flat gouache illustration: an empty room with bare walls, one chair and one cardboard box, light through a curtainless window

The empty room

Is this a place you have just left — or one you have not yet arrived in?

Flat gouache illustration: a small arched door hidden in a wall of ivy, slightly open

The door in the ivy

Who knows about this place of yours — and who would you let in?

What's inside

55 cards in seven kinds of place

The groups make it easy to put one question on the table — safety, entering, hiding, sharing. Mixing them is where the client's own map appears.

Shelter8 cards

A glowing tent, a cabin in snow, a treehouse, a blanket fort — places that hold you.

Thresholds7 cards

An open front door, a garden gate ajar, a porch at dusk, a staircase turning upward.

Rooms9 cards

A kitchen table, a made bed, an attic, a reading corner, an empty room with one chair.

Gardens9 cards

A walled vegetable garden, a hammock, a courtyard fountain, a crowded city balcony.

Refuge7 cards

A hollow tree, an island hut, a door hidden in ivy, a cellar of jars — hidden and safe.

Together8 cards

A campfire circle, a long table under vines, a library, a bakery window at dawn.

In between7 cards

Suitcases by the door, a flat full of boxes, scaffolding, a roofless ruin in flower.

Cards55 gouache illustrations + 1 back

Format2:3 portrait, 1024×1536 px

Text on cardsNone — images only

People on cardsNone — the places are empty

Typical session10–40 minutes

Works with1:1, groups, solo and online

How to work with it

A session in four moves

1

Set the question

“Where do you feel safe?”, “Where do you belong?” or “Where are you right now?” — one question, all 55 cards face up.

2

Choose a place

The client picks the card they could step into today. Ask what is just inside the door and what is outside the frame.

3

Add the opposite

A second card for the place they avoid, or the place they have lost. Put the two side by side and let the distance speak.

4

Keep what surfaced

Write down what each place protects, lacks or asks for. The spread saves with the session for next time.

Example spreads

Three layouts to start from

Positions guide the conversation; they never fix what a card means.

Safe place

3 cards

1Where I feel safe
2What makes it safe
3What I bring with me

Timeline matrix

Home and away

2 cards

1Where I belong
2Where I am only a guest

Two-sided desk

The move

4 cards

1What I left
2What I carry
3Where I am now
4Where I am going

Quadrants matrix

Questions to ask

Prompts that work with these cards

“If you stepped into this picture, where would you sit?”

“Who else is allowed into this place — and who is not?”

“What is the light in this card doing for you?”

“Which card is the place you grew up in, and which is the place you are building?”

“What would have to happen for this place to stop feeling safe?”

“Which of these places have you never had — and still recognise?”

Why this deck

Made to be stepped into

Places, not portraits

No faces to compare yourself with. The client is the missing person in every picture, which is what makes the picture theirs.

Safe, hidden, shared, in between

Seven groups cover more than cosiness: thresholds, hiding places, shared tables and the rooms between two lives.

One deck for every language

No words on the cards, so the same deck works in any language, with children and adults, in person and online.

Flat gouache illustration: a front door standing open, a worn doormat and a lit hallway lamp inside

The artwork

Flat gouache, mid-century calm

Every card is an original gouache-style illustration created for MindTrays: flat shapes, a slightly offset print feel and the tooth of cream paper in teal, mustard and coral. One warm light source — a lamp, a window, a doorway — tells you a place is lived in, even with nobody there.

Cards render at 1024×1536, crisp enough to zoom into the one detail a client noticed on a shared screen.

Questions

About this deck

What are safe place cards used for?

To help someone describe a place where they feel protected and at ease — in trauma-informed work, grounding, anxiety and stress sessions. Choosing a picture is easier than imagining a place from nothing, and the details on the card give the conversation something concrete to hold.

How many cards are in the deck?

55 cards and one shared back, in seven groups: shelter, thresholds, rooms, gardens, refuge, together, and in-between places. The groups help you choose a theme; mixing them is encouraged.

Why are there no people on the cards?

So the client can be the person in the picture. Faces invite comparison and casting; an empty room, a lit window or a set table lets anyone place themselves — or someone they miss — inside.

Can I use it with children and teenagers?

Yes. Houses, tents, gardens and secret doors are images children already use to talk about safety. There is nothing to read, and the same cards work for the adults in the room.

Can I use it online?

Yes. Start a collaborative session from this deck and send the link. Clients join with a display name — no account needed — and move cards on the same desk.

Is this a diagnostic tool?

No. The deck does not measure safety, attachment or anything else. It opens a conversation; the meaning of each place belongs to the person who chose it.

Other decks

Pairs well with

MindTrays Still Hours

48 cards

MindTrays Slow Ripening

52 cards

MindTrays Quiet Signs

55 cards

Find the place that feels like yours

Open MindTrays Lit Windows, choose the card you could step into today, and say what is inside. Working remotely? Start a collaborative session and send the link.