• May include: A deck of cards titled Facing the Givens, A Guided Existential Deck. The card features a black and white illustration of an hourglass, with the text Death, freedom, isolation and meaning, and how to live with all four and The Psych Depot.
  • May include: A set of off-white cards titled Existential Therapy Card Deck. The front card features a black and white illustration of an hourglass with the text Facing the Givens and The Psych Depot. Additional cards show text about life.
  • May include: Six off-white rectangular cards arranged in two rows of three, featuring black text. The cards are titled Finitude, Regret, Choice as Loss, Loneliness, Solitude, and Meaning in Suffering, with descriptive text and questions below each heading.
  • May include: A beige card titled Three ways in featuring the theme Bad Faith. It includes sections for The Idea, It Sounds Like, and One Question, with text explaining Sartre's concept of avoiding choices and the phrase That's just the way I am.
  • May include: A set of 24 cards titled Death, freedom, isolation and meaning. The text lists four categories: Death, Freedom, Isolation, and Meaninglessness, each containing six specific terms such as Finitude, Responsibility, The Gap, and Engagement.
  • May include: Two off-white rectangular cards with black text. The left card is titled How to Use This Deck and the right card is titled Follow the Worry Down. Both cards contain paragraphs of instructional text on a light beige background.
  • May include: A digital card deck titled Facing the Givens featuring an hourglass illustration. The text includes: What you get, Print it at home, or keep it digital, The deck, Card size 5.5 x 7.5 in, Paper, On screen, Also included, The Psych Depot.
  • May include: Two off-white rectangular cards with black text. The top card features the heading Isolation, the title Encounter, a paragraph about Martin Buber, the quote For a moment, they really saw me, and the question When did you last feel fully met by someone?
  • May include: A deck of cards titled Facing the Givens, A Guided Existential Deck. The cover features a detailed illustration of a wooden hourglass with sand flowing between the bulbs. Text includes: Death, freedom, isolation and meaning, and how to live with all four, and The Psych Depot.
  • May include: A deck of cards titled Facing the Givens, A Guided Existential Deck. The card features a black and white illustration of an hourglass, with the text Death, freedom, isolation and meaning, and how to live with all four and The Psych Depot.
  • May include: A set of off-white cards titled Existential Therapy Card Deck. The front card features a black and white illustration of an hourglass with the text Facing the Givens and The Psych Depot. Additional cards show text about life.
  • May include: Six off-white rectangular cards arranged in two rows of three, featuring black text. The cards are titled Finitude, Regret, Choice as Loss, Loneliness, Solitude, and Meaning in Suffering, with descriptive text and questions below each heading.
  • May include: A beige card titled Three ways in featuring the theme Bad Faith. It includes sections for The Idea, It Sounds Like, and One Question, with text explaining Sartre's concept of avoiding choices and the phrase That's just the way I am.
  • May include: A set of 24 cards titled Death, freedom, isolation and meaning. The text lists four categories: Death, Freedom, Isolation, and Meaninglessness, each containing six specific terms such as Finitude, Responsibility, The Gap, and Engagement.
  • May include: Two off-white rectangular cards with black text. The left card is titled How to Use This Deck and the right card is titled Follow the Worry Down. Both cards contain paragraphs of instructional text on a light beige background.
  • May include: A digital card deck titled Facing the Givens featuring an hourglass illustration. The text includes: What you get, Print it at home, or keep it digital, The deck, Card size 5.5 x 7.5 in, Paper, On screen, Also included, The Psych Depot.
  • May include: Two off-white rectangular cards with black text. The top card features the heading Isolation, the title Encounter, a paragraph about Martin Buber, the quote For a moment, they really saw me, and the question When did you last feel fully met by someone?
  • May include: A deck of cards titled Facing the Givens, A Guided Existential Deck. The cover features a detailed illustration of a wooden hourglass with sand flowing between the bulbs. Text includes: Death, freedom, isolation and meaning, and how to live with all four, and The Psych Depot.
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Existential Therapy Cards: Death Anxiety, Meaning, Freedom, Loneliness | Yalom Four Givens Reflection Deck for Therapists & Self-Work

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  • Digital download
  • Digital file type(s): 2 PDF
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“Fantastic information, well organized- A must have.”

Rose

Sep 16, 2026

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Price:$7.99

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May include: A deck of cards titled Facing the Givens, A Guided Existential Deck. The card features a black and white illustration of an hourglass, with the text Death, freedom, isolation and meaning, and how to live with all four and The Psych Depot.

Facing the Givens is a printable card deck for existential reflection. It's built around the four givens that the psychiatrist Irvin Yalom described: death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness. These are the parts of being human that can't be fixed, only faced, and a good deal of everyday anxiety turns out to be about one of them.

The deck has 24 cards, six for each given. Some name the anxiety a given stirs up. Others name how people try to escape it, or how they learn to live with it more fully. The cards draw on Yalom, Viktor Frankl, Martin Buber, and Sartre, in plain language.

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WHAT'S INSIDE

Death: Finitude, The Fear Beneath, The Awakening, Rippling, Regret, Presence

Freedom: Responsibility, Groundlessness, Willing, Choice as Loss, Bad Faith, Authorship

Isolation: The Gap, Fusion, Filling the Space, Encounter, Loneliness, Solitude

Meaninglessness: No Given Purpose, Engagement, Values, Meaning in Suffering, Self-Transcendence, The Examined Life

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

The deck also includes a How to Use guide, a Start Here card on finding the given underneath an everyday worry, a divider for each given, and a closing note.

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HOW PEOPLE USE IT

Therapists use a card to open a session, to give words to a worry a client can't quite name, or as a between-session prompt. It fits well with existential, humanistic and meaning-centered work.

On your own, draw one card at a time and read it slowly. These cards ask bigger questions than most, and you don't need an answer today. Some questions are worth carrying for a while.

A few cards deal directly with death and loss. Go at your own pace, and set a card aside if it's too much for the day.

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WHAT YOU GET

- Facing the Givens (PDF, 32 pages). Cover, How to Use, Start Here, four 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.

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WHO MADE IT

I'm Mike McInerney, a licensed professional counselor and a school counselor for 28 years. Existential therapy is my home orientation. This deck is part of a series with The Parts Within (IFS), The Patterns We Repeat (schema therapy) and What We Do Instead (defense mechanisms).

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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, I don't accept returns or exchanges, but if something doesn't work, message me, and I'll help.

  • Designed by
    ThePsychDepot
  • Item type
    Digital download
  • Digital file type(s)
    2 PDF
  • Width
    5.5 Inches
  • Height
    7.5 Inches
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