Archetype Cards Offer An Exciting New Tool To Connect With Teens

CHICAGO, March 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- A Teenage Archetype Card Deck designed by a variety of artists is helping therapists and educators connect with teens by evoking dialogue and expression to help them better communicate their thoughts and emotions. Award-winning Art Professor, Jennifer Hereth, recently began offering the collection of 88 cards to therapists, guidance counselors and educators to be used as a tool to work with youth and young adults. The cards are intended for use in a classroom or therapeutic setting.

The Teenage Archetype Card Deck consists of 88 4''x6'' cards created by more than 50 talented art students. Each card showcases an image of a person, personality or behavior. The cards were crafted specifically for teenage clientele and use both classic and contemporary teenage language for archetypes. For example, one card may say "mother" with an image of a mother and daughter while another card says and shows a "besty" – a new term used by teens to identify a good friend. Other cards showcase powerful messages like "achiever," "addict," "player," "loner," "confused" and "failure."

The mix of old and new terminology helps to identify standard roles and behaviors as well as more modern identifiers that relate to teens today.

"The unique visuals on the cards are not simply illustrations of a term, but instead they are meant to evoke dialogue," Jennifer Hereth, creator of the Teenage Archetype Card Deck, said. "Some teens need help communicating their thoughts and feelings about important issues, people in their lives or even themselves. These cards help them to do that."

Hereth was inspired to create the cards after learning about a mall shooting by a 19-year old male in Omaha in 2007. The teenage perpetrator entered a department store and shot and killed eight people and himself. His text messages sent to family and friends prior to the shootings included, "I'm a loser. I'm a burden. I'm a burden but now I'm famous." After hearing the story, Hereth was stunned. She knew she wanted to give teens a way to open up to those around them and get their message out in more than just three or four words in a text message.

Following the incident in Omaha and other similar violence acted out by teens, Hereth and a team of student artists produced a deck of archetype cards as a way to help teens articulate their feelings. Hereth acknowledges that while she is not a therapist, she is a painter, teacher and mother to a teenage boy. She also has spent a great deal of time communicating with teenagers as she instructs more than 100 art students in her classes. She knows that teens don't like to feel "lectured" by adults, and she feels that having the cards be designed by so many different people helps them to better identify with certain archetypes.

The Teenage Archetype Card Deck is not just for troubled youth. It is also used by educators to create engaging dialogue and imaginative assignments based on the images depicted in the cards. Included with the card deck are suggestions for both therapists and teachers on how to use it. With 88 unique and thought-provoking cards and the encouragement of open-ended dialogue, the possibilities for discussion and activities are endless.

Sheryl Palicki, M.S., uses the cards regularly as the Career Counselor at the Technology Center of DuPage, a regional career and technical education high school.

"The Archetype Card Deck can be utilized for multiple classroom activities," Palicki said. "Each card artistically portrays an individual personality or behavior. When we use the cards at school, the synergy in the room becomes stimulating and invigorating. Students immediately are comforted in knowing other teens feel the same way they do."

Hereth has also recently released a new collection of Archetype Motivational Posters which feature images of select cards along with an individual that identifies with each one in order to show how teens connect with the archetypes. For example, one poster depicts a student completing studies to be a paramedic. He chose the "Rescuer" card to describe himself.

For more information or to purchase a Teenage Archetype Card Deck or Archetype Motivational Poster, visit http://jenniferhereth.com. You can also check out the Facebook page at http://facebook.com/ArchetypeCards.

About Jennifer Hereth
Jennifer Hereth, creator of the Teenage Archetype Card Deck, is an award-winning painter and art teacher. She holds Bachelor and Master Degrees in Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and has completed additional graduate work and certificates abroad. She has served as an advisor and professor at numerous highly-regarded educational institutions and is currently a professor at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Ill. She was one of 20 recipients in North America chosen by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation for the Fellowship for International Studies, and she was one of the Today's Chicago Women "100 Women Who Make a Difference." In 2010, with the collaboration of more than 50 different art students, she compiled a deck of 88 archetype cards which are now used by top therapists, guidance counselors and educators around the world to help teens and youth evoke dialogue and identify their emotions. For more information, visit http://jenniferhereth.com.

SOURCE Teenage Archetype Card Deck