Digital clinical tool
Eighty-four cards to sort into three piles — not important, important, very important to me — then, among the very important ones, the three or five values that matter most. In the consulting room, over video or in supervision.
The tool
The personal values card sort (Miller, C'de Baca, Matthews & Wilbourne, 2001; French adaptation by Ph. Michaud and D. Lécallier, AFDEM) asks less for talk about oneself than for a choice: each card carries a value and a sentence, and the hand puts it on a pile before the head has finished arguing. The sort makes visible a hierarchy one could not have put into words — and the hesitations, the cards put off until later, say as much as the piles.
The interactive tool extends the gesture of cards on a table. The cards come up one at a time, in deck order or shuffled; you drag them to a pile, take them back, move them to another pile. Once sorted, the very important ones spread out and you keep the ones that matter most, on numbered places. The practitioner keeps the pace, judges no value, and keeps a record to compare with those of the other members of the system.
In session
The current card appears at the bottom of the board, with its sentence. Drag it to a pile, press a button, or the keys 1, 2, 3. “Later” puts it back at the end of the deck.
Not important, important, very important to me: the piles fill up in front of everyone. A touch on a pile spreads it out, and a placed card can be picked up again and moved to another pile at any time.
The very important ones spread out, and you keep the three or five that matter most, on numbered places. Then, for each, a 0 to 10 gauge says how much it is lived today: the gap between what matters and what is lived opens the conversation.
The person sorts from their own screen, in their language — French, Portuguese or English; the practitioner sees the same board, live, and can take or hand over the hand.
During the sort, around the values kept, circular questions, or the gap between values and daily life: supports visible to the practitioner alone, never a script.
Each finished sort can be kept, with the person's first name: from one sort to the next, the tool shows the values several members of a couple or family have in common.
Contexts of use
Clarifying what matters when words are missing: naming one's values, measuring the gap with what one lives, and choosing a first step in their direction.
Each person sorts, then the sorts are crossed: shared values, those only one holds, those in tension — and the room the system makes for each.
A shared support to explore the therapist's values, what they do to their stance, and what a case puts to the test.
Confidentiality. The journal of sorts and the supporting questions stay in the practitioner's space: the person sees the board, never the notes.
The tool opens in the browser, with nothing to install, in the consulting room or at a distance.
Try the tool