Product review: Karuna cards
Claudia Coenen’s Karuna Cards are a creative grief activity deck designed for people who are living through loss, trauma, or major life transitions—and want a way to stay close to what hurts while also moving toward integration, resilience, and a more meaningful future. The deck is built around reflection prompts and suggested actions (not just “thoughts,” but small practices), with the tone feeling both gentle and purposeful. The actions piece feels particularly useful, as in my experience, grief is often looking for “the right thing to do.” (Of course we know intellectually that there is no one right thing, but it’s so nice to have a starting place.)
What the deck is for
These cards are aimed at post-loss emotional processing and post-traumatic growth: making room for grief, noticing patterns, and beginning to build a life that can hold this massive change. Coenen frames the deck as usable both personally and professionally—written so it can support self-help work while also fitting therapy, coaching, or counseling contexts. I can even see how we might use the deck in a group context, perhaps engaging with the activity individually and circling back to share reflections together. In other words: it’s not only “for grieving,” but for learning how to live with what grief changes inside of us.
The feel and approach
The deck reads like compassion in card form—small “portals” into reflection, each prompt inviting the reader to slow down and explore. Coenen also emphasizes that grief can be caused by different kinds of losses and life-quakes, which matters because not all grief is the same, and not all grief looks like the same narrative.
What stands out is the combination of:
reflection (open-ended questions that don’t rush you)
expression (writing prompts, prompts for creative processing)
actionable practices (suggestions like collage, energy drawing, walking in nature, and reflection)
This makes the deck feel well-suited to the reality of grief: you can’t always think your way out of pain, but you might be able to relate to it differently—through naming it, expressing it, and taking small steps toward meaning.
How it supports grieving
If you like tools that give you permission to engage with grief in a structured-but-not-formulaic way, these cards could fit well. The deck encourages exploration and integration—helping you express grief, deepen self-understanding, and begin to imagine living fully again. I also like the practical “use it your way” invitation: shuffle, choose a card, respond; if it doesn’t land, pick again. That simplicity reduces the pressure to “get it right” and keeps the experience responsive rather than performative.
Karuna as “compassion in action”
The meaning behind the name carries through the deck’s intent. Coenen connects “Karuna” to her late husband’s letters and to her own ongoing relationship to compassion through grief. That personal origin isn’t presented as the only authority, but it does inform the deck’s emotional atmosphere: it feels like it was made to be used with care, not consumed like content.
Bottom line
Karuna Cards for Thriving After Loss are an inviting, creative grief tool for people who want gentle structure: prompts for reflection, plus activities that help grief move through the body and into meaning. It supports both solo grieving work and professional therapeutic use, and its core aim—compassionate processing paired with growth—lands clearly in how the deck is designed to be used.
