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Defense Mechanisms Cards: Projection, Denial, Passive Aggression, Splitting | Psychodynamic Deck for Therapists, Students & Self-Work

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Highlights

  • Designed by ThePsychDepot
  • Digital download
  • Digital file type(s): 2 PDF

What We Do Instead is a printable card deck about defense mechanisms, the automatic ways the mind keeps a hard feeling at a distance. Everyone uses them, and most of them run without your noticing. You find out afterward, when a reaction didn't fit the situation or a feeling that should have been there wasn't.

The deck covers 24 defenses, sorted into three levels based on the psychiatrist George Vaillant's hierarchy. Each card explains what the defense does and what it protects you from, in plain language.

WHAT'S INSIDE

Level One, Defenses That Distort: Denial, Projection, Splitting, Idealization, Passive Aggression, Acting Out, Retreat into Fantasy, Help-Rejecting Complaining

Level Two, Defenses That Hide: Repression, Displacement, Reaction Formation, Intellectualization, Rationalization, Isolation of Affect, Undoing, Dissociation

Level Three, Defenses That Adapt: Sublimation, Humor, Suppression, Altruism, Anticipation, Affiliation, Self-Observation, Self-Assertion

Every card has a plain-language description, an "It sounds like" line showing what people tend to say when the defense is running, and one question to sit with.

The deck also includes a How to Use guide, a Start Here card on catching a defense after the fact, a divider for each level, and a closing note.

HOW PEOPLE USE IT

Therapists use a card to name a defense a client keeps reaching for, to open a session, or as a between-session prompt.

Psychology and counseling students use the deck to learn the defenses with everyday examples instead of textbook definitions.

On your own, draw one card at a time. If the line in the middle sounds like something you've said, stay with it before you answer the question. The cards that are uncomfortable to read usually point to the defenses you lean on most.

WHAT YOU GET

What We Do Instead (PDF, 31 pages). Cover, How to Use, Start Here, three dividers, 24 cards and a closing note.
Start Here (PDF). A welcome page from The Psych Depot.

Each card is 5.5 x 7.5 inches with corner trim marks. Print at actual size on Letter or A4 paper and cut along the marks. Card stock holds up best, but plain paper works. You can also read the PDF on a tablet.

This is a digital file. Nothing ships.

WHO MADE IT

I'm Mike McInerney, a licensed professional counselor and a school counselor for 28 years. This deck is part of a series with The Parts Within (IFS) and The Patterns We Repeat (schema therapy).

WANT ALL FIVE DECKS?

This deck is also part of The Inner World Collection, a bundle of all five Psych Depot card decks (IFS, schema therapy, defense mechanisms, attachment and existential) for $24.99. That's 120 cards for less than the price of four decks bought separately.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/4590055213/therapy-card-deck-bundle-ifs-parts

Please note: This product is for education and self-help. It is not therapy, diagnosis or medical advice, and buying it does not create a counselor-client relationship. Clinical tools support professional judgment and do not replace it. If you are in crisis, call or text 988 (US) or call 911.

Instant download. Because this is a digital file, returns and exchanges aren't accepted, but if something doesn't work, message me and I'll help.

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Listed on Oct 6, 2026
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