Self-Work with Cards
"Self-Work with Cards" is a built-in guide that helps you pick and run a metaphor card technique without a therapist. It's there for when you've come to the platform on your own and want to try MAC cards by yourself.
What it is
Purpose
- Safety frame – a short reminder of what MAC cards are and aren't (not a diagnosis, not a treatment, not a prediction).
- Navigator – helps you choose one fitting technique out of fourteen, without getting lost in the choice.
- Companion – step-by-step instructions with ready questions, so you don't get stuck and don't end up alone with a topic.
When it fits
- An adult user in a resourceful state, no acute heavy feelings right now.
- You have 5–25 minutes of quiet time and want to try cards on your own.
- A good first encounter with MAC cards – techniques are short and not triggering.
When to skip
- Right now strong feelings are overwhelming you and you're not sure you can handle them solo.
- You want to work with a specific acute topic (trauma, crisis, parental figures) – that's about working with a therapist, not about a self-guided tool.
- You expect cards to give a "right answer" or a prediction. Cards aren't for that.
A footer disclaimer is always visible: MAC cards are a tool for reflection, not a treatment, not a replacement for professional support. If things get hard, talking with a therapist is the better next step.
How to open
Launcher button
The "Self-work guide" button sits in the top-left corner of the workspace, just below the version badge. The icon is an open book. Hovering shows a tooltip.
The button is visible to every user regardless of plan or role – the guide is free.
Auto-open
When you arrive at the platform and end up at an empty table with no deck and no cards, the guide opens automatically – once per page load. If you close it, it won't pop up again until your next reload.
Auto-open only fires for the host. If you're a guest in someone else's session, the guide won't auto-open over their game.
First-run intro
On the very first open, you'll see a full-screen text with a brief explanation of what MAC cards are and the boundaries the guide works within. After "Continue", you land in the main window. The intro shows exactly once – the flag is saved in your browser.
How to use
Home screen – pick a request
The home screen has six "intent cards" in a vertical list. Each card is a separate request with an icon and a short hint:
- Calm down, ease the tension – find your breath and a soft anchor.
- Understand what I'm feeling – name and recognise your state.
- Choose between options – a fork, the trade-offs, an anchor.
- Move toward a goal, something is in the way – see the obstacle, find the resource.
- Understand something about myself – a view from a step away.
- Just try the cards – a gentle first encounter.
Below the cards is an "All techniques" link – a flat list of all 27 techniques, sorted by duration.
Technique list for a request
After selecting a request, you'll see between two and seven fitting techniques with short descriptions, durations (5–25 minutes) and a depth label ("low", "medium"). Every technique answers at least one request – you'll always see recommendations.
The "Change request" button takes you back to the picker with a clean state – your previous choice is not pre-highlighted.
Technique details
When you open a technique, you'll see all the sections you need: 1. Short description – one sentence on what it gives you. 2. Suggested deck / group / room – what fits best. 3. When it fits and when to skip – gentle signals. 4. What to prepare – space, time, optionally a sheet of paper. 5. Steps – a sequence of 4–7 steps with ready questions. 6. Closing – a 1–2 minute grounding. 7. If a lot came up – gentle normalisation and a recommendation to talk with a therapist if the heaviness stays.
Active deck and room links
Inside the technique text, deck, group and room names are clickable. Clicking opens a popup card with a preview, description and a "Use this deck on the table" / "Use this room on the table" button.
The button applies the choice immediately: - Switches the deck or room on the table. - Applies the technique's recommended settings (blind / open draw, single deck / by groups, deal word cards or not). - When you click on a specific group link – it switches to "By groups" display so the named group sits on its own stack.
After the click, the popup closes, the guide window stays open – you can keep reading the instructions. A short confirmation toast appears at the top: "Deck placed on the table" / "Room applied".
"Use on table" – host-only
In a group session, only the host can change the deck or the room. If you're a guest, the button is still visible but disabled, with a tooltip "Only the session host can change the deck or room".
In anonymous mode (no session), you're your own host – the button works normally.
Other panels behaviour
When the guide opens, other overlays close: the right sidebar (deck/room picker), the left social sidebar (chat, sessions), the contextual hint panel. This is intentional – to help you focus on the technique. After you close the guide, the panels don't reopen automatically – you reopen them yourself if needed.
Question bank
Under the Navigator button on the workspace there is a second button: the question bank. It slides a visor out from the left while the table stays visible - this is a prompt you glance at while working, not a place you go instead of the table. The visor covers part of the board and hides neither the buttons above it nor the Air button below.
The bank holds 247 questions. They come from the 27 Navigator techniques and were rewritten to stand on their own: "what do I see here" pulled out of its step has nothing to answer.
Inside are three drums stacked: the topic, what I am doing with the card, and the questions themselves. Cards in a drum overlap: the selected one sits on top and whole, its neighbours slide out from under it. The two upper drums turn sideways, the question drum turns up and down with its arrows on the right. Turn a drum with the mouse wheel, a drag, a swipe, the arrows, or by tapping a neighbouring card. The drums are rings: past the last value comes the first one again.
The first two drums are the filter:
- What it is about - state, myself, relationships, a choice, a goal, footing, an obstacle, money, time.
- What I am doing with the card - looking at the image, linking it to myself, deciding what is next. This is the more useful cut: the same theme needs different questions at different points in the work.
A topic and a move are always set: "all questions at once" is a stack of 247 cards and no starting point at all. The bank opens on State and Looking at the image, and lands on a random question in the set so it does not greet you with the same sentence twice. Pairs with no questions are rare; if you hit one, the visor asks you to turn a drum.
Each card shows which technique the question came from. Escape closes the bank.
Tips and errors
- On a mobile screen the guide adapts: the launcher stays in the same spot, the window takes most of the screen.
- If clicking a deck link shows "Not available right now", the deck may have been renamed or removed – contact support.
- Screenshots in the guide and the technique always come in your current UI locale (Russian / English), even if the technique text itself is only available in one language (then the text falls back to English).
- The Russian and English technique texts are human-written; there are fourteen techniques in total.
- The six layout techniques added last (five steps to a solution, money flow, four-point cross, resource state, Johari window, masks) exist in Russian and English only for now. In the nine other interface languages (German, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Turkish) the guide shows the eight techniques that are available, and these six do not appear in the list.
- The eight earlier techniques in those nine languages are machine-translated and not yet reviewed by native speakers, so terminology may be imprecise. If you spot a translation error, let support know.
- The guide doesn't save your answers and doesn't send anything to the server. Card sessions are saved by a separate "Save session" mechanism (for Premium / PRO).
Screenshots
Elements on the screenshot: 1. Product version badge (top) 2. Launcher button with an open-book icon 3. Tooltip on hover
Elements on the screenshot: 1. Title and subtitle 2. List of six intent cards with icons and hints 3. "All techniques" link 4. Footer disclaimer
Elements on the screenshot: 1. "Back to list" button 2. Technique title, duration and depth 3. Active links to suggested deck / group / room 4. Technique steps with ready questions 5. Closing and "If a lot came up" sections
Elements on the screenshot: 1. Deck cover preview (vertical aspect) 2. Deck name and description 3. Recommended-setup chips (blind / by groups, etc.) 4. Group list with the suggested group highlighted 5. "Use this deck on the table" button