At a glance
About the Author
Judith Belmont1 book reviewed
The Group Therapy Card Deck
CBT, DBT, ACT
by Judith Belmont
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Group therapy facilitators who draw eclectically from CBT, DBT, ACT, and Positive Psychology and need a single, session-ready tool they can navigate quickly mid-group without lengthy preparation.
Worth it if
You run eclectic or introductory therapy groups and want a colour-coded, modality-spanning card deck that reduces prep time and makes evidence-based concepts experiential rather than didactic.
Skip if
Skip it if your practice is exclusively within one modality and you need deep clinical depth, or if you work primarily in individual therapy — the deck's structure is built around group dynamics and cohesion, making it a poor fit for one-on-one or fully self-directed use.
What readers & critics say
The author's own site (belmontwellness.com) describes the deck as offering experiential group learning and skill-building through activities designed to improve personal development and facilitate group cohesiveness. Aggregated reader ratings reflect broadly positive reception: abebooks.com records a 4.38 out of 5 from Goodreads raters, while the deck carries a 4.6 out of 5 across over 400 Amazon ratings.
Sources: belmontwellness.com, abebooks.comPreview the book
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- Is it worth reading?
- For facilitators who draw eclectically from multiple therapeutic frameworks, the deck offers genuine practical utility: five color-coded sections reduce preparation time, and the dual design serves both mental health professionals and self-help readers in a format uncommon for clinical card decks. The deck holds a 4.38 out of 5 rating on Goodreads, reflecting a positive reception among clinicians and self-help readers who have used it. The key caveat is that specialists in a single modality — for example, dedicated DBT clinicians — receive only 19–20 cards per framework, which may not be sufficient for deep, ongoing work without supplementary materials.
- Similar books
- Readers interested in the Group Therapy Card Deck may also want to explore other psychoeducational resources in Judith Belmont's Tips and Tools for the Therapeutic Toolbox series, which share the same accessible, activity-driven philosophy. For practitioners seeking deeper single-modality depth, dedicated DBT workbooks such as Matthew McKay, Jeffrey Wood, and Jeffrey Brantley's The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook, or ACT-focused titles like Russ Harris's The Happiness Trap, offer more extensive coverage of individual frameworks. For broader group facilitation tools, resources from the PESI Publishing catalog that focus on evidence-based group interventions would also complement this deck.
- Who should read this?
- The deck is designed for two overlapping audiences: mental health professionals facilitating group therapy sessions and self-help readers seeking structured psychological tools. Among practitioners, it best serves eclectic facilitators who draw from multiple therapeutic frameworks — CBT, DBT, ACT, and Positive Psychology — rather than specialists in a single modality. Dedicated DBT or ACT clinicians running advanced groups will likely need to supplement the deck with modality-specific materials, and individual therapists whose practice focuses on one-on-one sessions will find its group-dynamics structure largely misaligned with their work.
- Is this better for eclectic or specialist clinicians?
- The deck is explicitly designed for eclectic practitioners — those who draw from multiple therapeutic frameworks rather than working exclusively within one model. Its five sections covering CBT, DBT, ACT, Positive Psychology, and team-building in a single resource make it a natural fit for facilitators who want flexibility across modalities. Specialists in a single approach, such as dedicated DBT clinicians, receive only 19–20 cards on their modality out of 99 total, which the review identifies as a natural constraint for deep, ongoing work.
- What makes the team-building section distinct?
- The team-building section is the only part of the deck not tied to a specific therapeutic modality. Its 19–20 cards are designed to increase cohesion among group members, addressing group dynamics and shared social skills separately from the CBT, DBT, ACT, and Positive Psychology content. This makes it a practical add-on for facilitators who want to strengthen the group's relational foundation independent of any particular clinical framework, and it adds a layer of utility that extends the deck beyond pure modality delivery.
- What is Belmont's psychoeducational philosophy?
- Judith Belmont's design intent, as reflected across the source material, is to make evidence-based concepts experiential rather than didactic — the goal is group members learning through doing rather than through lecture. Each card is framed as a self-contained prompt offering 'practical hands-on tips and activities' that build personal development and social skills while reinforcing group cohesiveness. This philosophy, consistent across her Tips and Tools for the Therapeutic Toolbox series, positions the deck as a facilitation tool rather than a curriculum, prioritizing active engagement over passive instruction.
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Age & Reading Level
Recommended age
Adult
Reading level
Adult
Skip if you are a specialist clinician looking for deep, single-modality coverage of CBT, DBT, or ACT rather than a broad multi-framework facilitation tool.
Editorial Review
Judith Belmont's *The Group Therapy Card Deck: CBT, DBT, ACT and Positive Psychology Tips and Tools*, published by PESI Publishing in September 2020, is a 99-card professional resource designed to support mental health practitioners running group therapy sessions. Organized across five color-coded sections covering CBT, DBT, ACT, Positive Psychology, and team-building, it positions itself as a ready-to-use facilitation tool that brings evidence-based frameworks directly into the group room. This review covers the deck's content and structure as described by its publisher and available sources, not hands-on clinical use.
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