The  KEG®  Cards  (Keys  to  Emotional  Growth)  therapy  cards include original artistic pictures and original guidelines and questions for effective usage of the cards.

four picturesThese cards are a structured projective therapy tool for eliciting emotional and relational responses.   The cards may be used with individuals and groups, and may be implemented in  therapy  sessions,  counseling  sessions  and  social  gatherings.  They  may  be  used  by individuals for self-introspection and/or enhancing self-awareness.

The cards have a picture on one side and guiding questions on the back side. There are some cards that continue the guiding questions so that these cards have guiding questions on both sides. There are also general guidelines for using the cards and guidelines for particular usages  (such  as  PTSD,  Anxiety,  etc.).
The  cards  also  include  some  suggested  exercises.
The guideline questions were created by Dr. Eleanor Avinor, MSc. in psychotherapy, and are  based  on  CBT (Cognitive  Behavior Therapy),  Re-Decision Therapy¨ Gestault, NLP and guided imagery.

Many of the pictures are original art work by the artist Tamar Eshel. These pictures enable the client to be in touch with his/her inner feelings and projections.

The aim of the cards is to enable the client to identify early scripts and schemas in his/her life that are not effective today and to decide new decisions that will be more effective in the present. The client is enabled to create re-decisions, re-statements and new scripts that will improve his/her life.

The cards work on and appeal to thoughts, emotions and behaviors and help the client to understand where he/she is stuck or fixated and what he/she wants to change.  In using the  cards  there  are  body  work  and  mindfulness  exercises  in  addition  to  the  standard  psychotherapy questions.

The cards and their guidelines help the client decide to behave according to new options and to examine a wide range of possible options and perspectives which  previously  were  not  considered.The  cards  may  help  the  client  progress  in  the direction of achieving both emotional and behavioral goals.

The following links introduce the cards:
Talking about KEG cards part1
Talking about KEG cards part2
 Talkingabout KEG cards part3


Alzheimer's and KEG Cards
There are 5.4 million Americans living with Alzheimer's and every 69 seconds someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease (AD). KEG Cards (Keys to Emotional Growth) are cognitive tools that help Alzheimer's patients maintain their life memories. These visual aids elicit feelings and aid in memory recall. KEG (Keys to Emotional Growth) Cards are cognitive tools helping Alzheimer's patients maintain life's memories. Developed by Dr. Eleanor Avinor and Yona Joanne Silman in 2009, they are designed to stimulate the person's memory and elicit feelings which promote memory recall. Patients can LEAD (Live Empowered After Diagnosis) again!

The following video shows KEG Card developer Dr. Eleanor Avinor using KEG Cards to help her husband who was diagnosed with AD.
Here is a demonstration of working with an Alzheimer's patient, using KEG Cards

Enhancing Sense of coherence in Alzheimer patients
Sense of Coherence (SOC) is a measure of the extent to which an individual finds life comprehensible maneageable and meaningful (Antonovsky, 1987).  Sense of coherence can be enhanced in Alzheimer patients using KEG Cards. In Alzheimer patients life is often incomprehensible because memories are not retrievable and things do not connect; they are often confused and saddened by their feeling of loss and not understanding where they are in time and place. They feel insecure and cannot depend on their own capabilities which are deteriorating in front of their own eyes. Life is unmanageable for them and begins to lose its meaning and significance. Working with KEG cards on a daily basis and helping the patient find himself in the cards and helping him/her find remnants of memory that reconnect to their past and present gives the patient an enhanced sense of security and an increased Sense of Coherence.

Quality of Life (QOL) in Alzheimer patients
Quality of Life is increasingly important in Alzheimer patients -- the only thing they really have is the present and the connections we can help them make with the past. KEG cards can be extremely helpful in helping the patient create his or her lifeline every day. This is a vital activity for every day connections to their past life and memories. If you want to see how this is done, please look in youtube at the video that you can retrieve by writing in search "KEG cards Alzheimer's ". This treatment protocol can be effective in helping Alzheimer patients improve their Quality of Life by helping them feel secure and enhance their feeling or orientation in place and time. The KEG card activities also help Alzheimer patients feel a sense of belonging, renewing their sense of belonging by reconnecting to their memories.

Personal Growth and KEG Cards
KEG cards may be used also for personal growth.
Look at the link of personal growth demonstration video

You can use KEG therapy cards in the following ways:

   - To maintain life memories with Alzheimer's patients
   - To elicit feelings, talking about sadness and loss, talking about important life events

   - Desensitization of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) by using the KEG cards to describe the story of the trauma and changing the story to be more positive by exchanging cards. The relative positioning of the KEG cards is a vital part of the story line as the patient and/or client changes the cards positions according to changes in his feelings and working through the trauma. When talking about traumas and using trauma exposure therapy the client chooses relevant cards to symbolize and express his/her feelings.

   - You can combine using KEG Cards with geshtault activities
   - You can use the KEG cards combined with CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) protocols
   - You can use KEG cards combined with schema therapy
   - You can use the KEG Cards to reduce anxieties, trauma, ptsd, depression, social anxiety
   - KEG cards can also be used as a coaching tool expressing vision, goals, resources and blockages
   - KEG Cards may be used as a tool enhancing personal growth
   - KEG Cards can be used also for conflict management, decision making, resolving dilemmas


KEG Memory Game
We developed a memory game for adults, in order to exercise your memory skills.
Look at the video presenting our KEG memory game

KEG Workshops
We conduct workshops training social workers, psychotherapists, therapists and coachers in how to use KEG Projective Cards most effectively.We conduct personal growth workshops and workshops for communication as part of effective life management.

We conduct workshops for Training Therapists in effective use of KEG for:
   - Conflicts, Dilemmas and Decision Making
   - Alzheimer’s Patients’ Care Givers and Therapists
   - New/Established therapy group
   - Deep Therapy Work
   - Transference and Counter- Transference Identification
   - Couple Therapy; Making Adaptive Changes and Re-decisions
   - Identify Early Wounds and Soothing the Inner Child
   - Dream analyses work with KEG
   - Life-Work Balance

We conduct workshops catered to Customer Needs

KEG Products:

- Large KEG Cards (A4) with booklet of pictures of cards with guiding questions
- Medium KEG Cards (A6) with booklet of pictures of cards with guiding questions
- Workbook exercises and activities using KEG Cards
- Booklet of pictures of cards with guiding questions
- Memory game
- Workshops as described above

Our products are in English and translated to other languages as well
(Further products are in the development process)

These cards are amazing in that the client is able to reach and touch inner-most thoughts and feelings.



You are invited to try them and see for yourself

Our address for questions and comments is:
KEGcards@gmail.com