I Ching · Atlas

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Richard Wilhelm translation rendered into English by Cary F. Baynes, with C. G. Jung's foreword (Princeton University Press, Bollingen Series XIX; 3rd edition 1967, reprinted 1977; Zeng 2023 cites the 1950 English edition), because this is the edition most Western clients own and the one the Jungian clinical literature uses. Other translations (e.g. Richard John Lynn's Classic of Changes) are mentioned where relevant [uncertain: not verified]. [source: USI library catalogue record; Princeton/Ingram Academic listing; Zeng 2023]

The I Ching (Yijing, 易經, "Classic of Changes"; its core text is the Zhouyi, 周易) is a Chinese text that, in Paul Fendos's account, began nearly three millennia ago as a divinatory text and later gathered philosophical commentary, with its three most prominent surviving commentary traditions reflecting Confucianism and Daoism [source: Fendos 2018, pp. 1, xiv]. It is built from sixty-four hexagrams (six-line figures of solid and broken lines) with their texts, plus the Ten Wings (Shi yi), supplementary commentaries traditionally ascribed to Confucius, including the Tuan, Xiang, Great Treatise (Xici), Wenyan, Shuogua, Xugua and Zagua [source: Princeton/Ingram listing; Fendos 2018, p. vii]. Richard J. Smith's history traces how the text moved from a divination manual towards a work with philosophical implications while keeping its divinatory character, and how it travelled through East Asia and then Europe and the Americas [source: Steed 2013, review of Smith 2012].

This is a divination system, not a therapy. Practitioners hold that the hexagram obtained in a consultation speaks meaningfully to the question asked. Jung, who used the I Ching from 1919 and befriended Wilhelm, framed this through synchronicity, a meaningful coincidence of inner and outer events that, in the definition Fendos cites, amounts to more than chance [source: Merritt 2020; Zeng 2023; Fendos 2018, p. 3]. In Zeng's paraphrase of the foreword, Jung consulted the I Ching about presenting it to English-speaking readers, read the answer (hexagram 50, the Cauldron) as an offer of spiritual nourishment, warned that uncritical speculation about the text could lead one astray, and held that only practice shows how well a reading fits one's psychological situation [source: Zeng 2023, pp. 6–8]. For the psychotherapist the core idea of change is different and is your own frame [synthesis]: when a client brings a reading, the hexagram's images can work like any evocative text, drawing out what the client already fears, hopes or knows. The work is to understand what consulting means in the client's life, to keep decisions with the client, and to notice when consulting has become compulsive, costly or a substitute for grieving or choosing.

Evidence status in one line: a small series of parapsychology experiments from one research group reports mixed results (from chance to modest above-chance "hit" rates when people pick hexagram descriptors), with an instrument whose inter-rater reliability was not significant; no independent body of evidence establishes predictive validity [source: Storm & Thalbourne 2001; Storm 2009] [uncertain: no systematic review cited].

2. Framework

How a consultation is structured, as texts describe it (outline only)

The question. The consulter frames a question. Merritt, a Jungian analyst, asks for a single question, ideally "eight words or less" [source: Merritt 2020].
Casting. A hexagram is produced either by sorting yarrow stalks (shi) or by throwing coins; readers today "toss coins or count out yarrow stalks" [source: Fendos 2018, p. 1]. In the three-coin method used in parapsychology studies, three coins are thrown six times, one throw per line [source: Storm & Thalbourne 2001]; lines are built from the bottom up [uncertain: not verified]. Zhu Xi (Song dynasty) played a central role in standardising the divination procedure [source: Fendos 2018, index p. 169]. The full stalk-counting sequence of the Great Treatise is not reproduced here.
Moving (changing) lines. Some throws produce a changing line (in the three-coin method, three matching coins) [source: Cottrell, coins page; Storm & Thalbourne 2001]. The two methods give different odds: in both, changing lines make up a quarter of lines, but yarrow favours yin over yang and changing yang over changing yin, while coins treat them evenly [source: Cottrell, coins page]. Changing lines are read as line texts and turn the first hexagram into a second, "relating" hexagram [uncertain: not verified].
Reading. The consulter reads the hexagram's judgment and image texts, the texts of any changing lines, and the commentary of the chosen translation [source: Princeton/Ingram listing: hexagrams with commentaries; Merritt 2020]. Translations differ a great deal in tone, so which one the client uses matters clinically: Merritt reads Wilhelm/Baynes for its symbolism, R. L. Wing's I Ching Workbook for directness and Carol Anthony's A Guide to the I Ching for psychological framing, which he sometimes finds "too anti-action" [source: Merritt 2020].

The psychotherapist's framework [synthesis unless tagged]

There is no manualised protocol. The stages below organise the work; move between them by the criteria given, not by session count.

Assessment of the practice. Goal: know what the client does, how often, with which text, from which tradition, at what cost, and what it means to them. The Cultural Formulation Interview helps, especially its supplementary module 5, Spirituality, Religion, and Moral Traditions [source: APA, CFI Supplementary Modules]. Move on when you can say in one sentence what consulting does for this client.
Meaning work. Goal: use any reading the client brings as reflective material, in the client's own words. Move on when the client links the images to their own situation without needing you to interpret.
Function and risk. Goal: find out whether consulting supports agency or replaces it (decisions handed over, repeated casting for certainty, money to paid readers, avoidance of grief). Move to targeted work if any of these are present; otherwise stay in meaning work.
Targeted work. Goal: reassurance-seeking reduction, decisional work, grief work, financial protection, or referral, as indicated.
Review. Goal: the client consults (or not) by choice, and decisions stay with them.

Published variant (Jungian analysis). Merritt describes a three-hour sequence inside analysis: hour one to clarify the core issue, frame one question and review recent dreams; hour two to teach the yarrow method (about fifteen minutes to cast once practised); hour three to go through the answer using three translations; he discourages consulting when the person wants to skip reflection or has not gathered enough information [source: Merritt 2020]. This is one analyst's practice, not a standard for psychotherapists, and it involves the clinician teaching the method; see principle 3.

3. Guiding principles

Describe the practice in its own terms. Use "hexagram", "changing line", "judgment" as the client does, with no comment on whether it works. Practical meaning: ask about it as you would ask about prayer. [synthesis]
Neither endorse nor debunk. Synchronicity and predictive claims are the client's and Jung's framing, attributed; evidence status is one line, not a debate. Practical meaning: never say "it's just chance" or "the I Ching knows". [synthesis]
The therapist does not perform readings. You do not cast, choose a hexagram, interpret as an authority or suggest a consultation. Practical meaning: if a client asks you to cast with them, decline warmly and offer to explore the reading they bring. Merritt's published practice differs (the analysand casts after he teaches the method); if you work as he does, do so only within Jungian training and with explicit consent. [synthesis; source for the contrast: Merritt 2020]
Decisions stay with the client. Practical meaning: whenever a reading points to an action, ask what the client themselves wants and what their reasons are. [synthesis]
Supplement, never replace, the therapeutic work. Merritt warns that premature or "unintelligent" use short-circuits self-exploration and that the I Ching should supplement analysis [source: Merritt 2020]. Practical meaning: if readings start substituting for the client's own reflection, name it.
Respect a living Chinese tradition. The Changes is a classic of Confucian and Daoist learning and of family and folk practice, not only a Western self-help tool [source: Fendos 2018; Steed 2013]. Practical meaning: ask whether the client's use comes from family, scholarship, religious practice or Western popular books, and do not exoticise it. [synthesis]
Some clients will find the topic strange or objectionable. Merritt notes it may seem too unusual to some and objectionable to others on religious grounds, and that careless suggestion can undermine trust [source: Merritt 2020]. Practical meaning: never raise it first; follow the client.
Assess function, not belief. Practical meaning: the question is whether consulting helps or harms this client's life, not whether the I Ching is true. Differential assessment (OCD, anxiety, psychosis, mania, grief) is triggered by function and distress, not by the belief itself. [synthesis]
Keep roles separate. A therapist who personally uses or teaches the I Ching keeps that outside therapy and avoids dual roles [synthesis]. A client who also joined your I Ching classes or paid you for readings would be a multiple relationship, to be assessed under APA Ethics Code standard 3.05 [source: APA Ethics Code].
Name the version. Different translations give different tones of advice. Practical meaning: always ask which book or app the client used. [synthesis; source for the variation: Merritt 2020]

4. Intervention inventory

All interventions below are the psychotherapist's own work with a client who uses the I Ching. Except where tagged to Merritt or Osborne and Williams, they are [synthesis]. No hexagram meaning tables are given.

4.1 Assessing the client's I Ching practice

Purpose / when: Early, whenever a client mentions the I Ching, an app or a reading; and when a decision or symptom seems tied to consulting.
Steps: (1) Ask what they use: which translation, book, app or reader, and how they cast (coins, yarrow, app). (2) Ask where the practice comes from: family, Chinese heritage, scholarship, a spiritual path, Western popular books. (3) Ask about frequency, typical questions, and what happens after a reading. (4) Ask about cost (paid readers, subscriptions). (5) Use the CFI's Spirituality, Religion, and Moral Traditions module to place the practice in the client's cultural identity: affiliation and community ties, its role in daily and family life, how often and how much it matters, how it helps with coping, and any tradition-related stress, conflict or discrimination [source: APA, CFI Supplementary Modules]. (6) Summarise the function back to the client.
Example language (illustrative): "When you consult the I Ching, what are you hoping it will do for you?" / "Which version do you use? Different books can sound very different." / "Is this something your family did, or something you found yourself?"
Watch for: Shame or guardedness (the client expecting ridicule); a practice embedded in family or community meaning; signs of high frequency, distress before casting, or large spending, which point to 4.6 and 4.9. It is working when the client talks about the practice freely and you can name its function.

4.2 Working with a reading the client brings (reflective or projective use)

Purpose / when: The client brings a hexagram or line text that struck them. The aim is reflection in the client's own language, not interpretation by you.
Steps: (1) Ask the client to say the question they asked and the result in their own words. (2) Ask which image or phrase stood out, and what it stirred. (3) Ask how that connects with their situation now. (4) Ask what they make of it, and what they would do with or without the reading. (5) If they ask what you think it means, return the question, or offer a tentative reflection about them, never about the text's authority. (6) Close by separating what the client now knows about themselves from what the text "says".
Example language (illustrative): "Of everything in that passage, what line stayed with you?" / "You read 'standstill' and felt relieved. What does relief tell you?" / "If you had never cast it, what would you be leaning towards?"
Watch for: The client treating your comment as a second reading; an image that triggers rumination or fear ("it said misfortune"), which needs grounding and checking for OCD-type doubt (4.6). Working when the client generates their own meaning and links it to choices they own.

4.3 Published Jungian use: the I Ching in the analytic setting (Merritt)

Purpose / when: Attributed to Dennis Merritt, a Jungian analyst, writing from his own practice; described for analysts trained in Jungian methods, not as a general psychotherapy technique [source: Merritt 2020; first given as a paper in Guangzhou, 1998, published in Quadrant 2001]. Zeng (2023) reports that contemporary Jungian analysts use I Ching divination to gain insight into therapeutic relationships and personal development [source: Zeng 2023 abstract].
Steps (as Merritt describes, paraphrased): (1) Hour one: identify the core issue, frame one short question, review recent dreams; discourage consulting if the person wants to bypass reflection or lacks information. (2) Hour two: the analysand casts with yarrow stalks after the analyst teaches the method. (3) Hour three: go through the answer using three translations; give copies so the person can reread and underline. (4) Treat the answer "as if it were a Big Dream"; revisit it over time with journaling, meditation and active imagination. (5) Later, the person may cast between sessions and review the answer at the next meeting. (6) Not needed when dreams show steady development. Merritt also reports using it in his own decisions about analysis (choosing an analyst, accepting an analysand) and suggesting a question about the therapy at difficult moments [source: Merritt 2020].
Example language (illustrative): "You've brought a cast you made at home. Shall we read it the way we read your dreams, slowly, image by image?"
Watch for: Merritt's own cautions: premature or careless use, the method seeming strange or objectionable, and the need to treat the text as input, not authority [source: Merritt 2020]. Further cautions [synthesis]: teaching and suggesting consultations, or consulting about whether to accept a client, places the clinician in a reader-like role and can shape transference, dependency and consent; this guide's default (principle 3) is that the therapist works only with readings the client chooses to bring. Working when the material deepens the client's own reflection and dreams.

4.4 Linking readings with dreams and imagery (Jungian amplification)

Purpose / when: For clients already doing dream work who connect a reading with a dream. Merritt links dream images with hexagram images and structural features and asks about dreams after a consultation [source: Merritt 2020].
Steps: (1) Ask for the dream and the reading separately, in the client's words. (2) Ask which images echo each other. (3) Stay with the client's associations first; amplify (cultural or mythic parallels) only if the client wants it. (4) Ask what the pairing suggests about their situation, not about the future.
Example language (illustrative): "You noticed the well in your dream and the Well in the reading. What does a well mean to you?"
Watch for: Mounting ideas of reference, a sense that everything is a message, or grandiosity (see 4.11). Working when associations remain the client's and stay grounded in their life.

4.5 Decisions made by divination

Purpose / when: The client is making, or has made, a significant decision (job, move, relationship, treatment) by casting.
Steps: (1) Ask what the decision is and what the reading said. (2) Ask what the client wanted before casting. (3) List the client's own reasons for and against, separate from the reading. (4) Ask how they would feel if the outcome were bad having followed the reading, or having ignored it. (5) Explore what handing the choice to the text protects them from (blame, conflict, responsibility, fear of regret). (6) Agree that the client decides, using the reading as one input if they wish. (7) For medical, legal or financial decisions, route to the relevant professional; never let a reading stand in for treatment advice.
Example language (illustrative): "The reading said to wait. Setting it aside for a moment, what do you want?" / "If this goes badly, who do you want to have made the decision?"
Watch for: Abdication of responsibility; family members using readings to pressure the client; health decisions made by casting (urgent medical routing). Working when the client can state their own reasons and owns the decision.

4.6 Compulsive consulting and reassurance-seeking

Purpose / when: The client casts repeatedly, at moments of anxiety, to get certainty, or recasts until the answer feels "right". Excessive reassurance-seeking gives quick, short-lived relief and keeps fear going because no evidence against the feared outcome ever builds up; it appears across anxiety, mood and OCD presentations [source: Osborne & Williams 2013].
Steps: (1) Map the cycle: trigger, doubt, cast, brief relief, return of doubt; count casts per day or week. (2) Assess for OCD (including scrupulosity and "just right" doubt, see 4.14) and generalised anxiety; consider referral to an OCD specialist. (3) Educate with a vicious-circle model, separating helpful from unhelpful consulting. (4) Use the label / leave / stand up steps Osborne and Williams describe: name the urge, do not act on it, withhold the response and observe [source: Osborne & Williams 2013]. (5) With consent, plan graded exposure and response prevention: delay casting, reduce frequency, stop recasting, stop consulting on a chosen topic, in agreed steps the client finds manageable but challenging [source: Osborne & Williams 2013]. The IOCDF describes ERP as a hierarchy of triggers built together, gradual exposure, resisting compulsions during and after exposure, and practice between sessions; the client is never forced or deceived into exposure [source: IOCDF, ERP]. (6) Involve family or partners who are giving reassurance, with consent. (7) If progress stalls, review maintaining factors (others' behaviour, low mood, medication) [source: Osborne & Williams 2013] and refer to the prescriber for any medication question; do not advise on medicines.
Example language (illustrative): "Each cast seems to buy you an hour of calm, then the doubt comes back. Shall we look at that loop together?" / "This week, could you delay casting a little longer than usual and notice what the anxiety does?"
Watch for: Covert substitutes (mental re-reading, searching apps, asking others to cast); exposure that overwhelms (slow down, re-consent); clients whose faith practice includes consulting, where the target is the compulsive pattern, not the practice. Working when casting frequency falls, recasting stops and the client tolerates uncertainty longer.

4.7 Costs and exploitation by paid readers

Purpose / when: The client pays a reader, hotline, app or online service for I Ching or other readings, especially with escalating spending, "free" offers or pressure.
Steps: (1) Ask plainly about spending and who receives it. (2) Look for known pressure tactics: "free" readings that turn out to be billed, misstatements about cost, billing for services not ordered, threats about debts and credit records, repeated unwanted calls. These are the practices the US Federal Trade Commission alleged in its 2002 complaint against the companies behind the "Miss Cleo" psychic hotline (the complaint was an allegation, for the court to decide) [source: FTC 2002]. (3) Help the client set a budget or stop, cancel subscriptions and dispute charges with their bank or card issuer. (4) Point to consumer-protection routes. In the US, report to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, which takes reports of scams and bad business practices even when no money was lost [source: FTC 2020]. In the UK, Trading Standards advise stopping payments, calling the bank (159) if financial details were shared, and contacting Citizens Advice and Action Fraud [source: Bromley Trading Standards 2024]. (5) If the client is older, cognitively impaired or recently bereaved, consider safeguarding routes.
Example language (illustrative): "Can we look at what the readings have cost this month? Not to judge it, just to see it clearly."
Watch for: Shame that blocks disclosure; readers who discourage the client from other help or claim the client's problems need more paid sessions. Working when spending is visible, chosen and within the client's means.

4.8 Grief and readings

Purpose / when: A bereaved client consults about the dead, about blame ("could I have prevented it?"), or to keep a sense of contact.
Steps: (1) Ask what the consultation gave them: comfort, permission, connection, fear. (2) Welcome comforting meanings without confirming or denying them. (3) Notice when readings keep the client stuck (repeatedly asking whether the death was their fault, or postponing life decisions). (4) Bring the grief itself into the room: the relationship, the loss, the regrets. (5) Screen for prolonged grief, depression and suicidal thinking with current standard risk assessment. (6) Watch for paid readers targeting the bereaved (4.7).
Example language (illustrative): "It sounds as if the reading let you feel close to her for a moment. What do you miss most?"
Watch for: Readings that fuel guilt; reluctance to talk about the death directly; signs of risk, which take priority over any discussion of the practice. Working when the client can grieve with or without consulting.

4.9 Cultural and family context: respecting a living Chinese tradition

Purpose / when: The client's use belongs to Chinese family, folk, Confucian or Daoist practice, or to Chinese diaspora identity; or a Western client's use borrows from it.
Steps: (1) Ask how the Changes is used in the client's family and community, and by whom. (2) Ask what the text means to them beyond divination (a classic, a moral teaching, a link to elders). (3) Use the client's own terms, in Chinese if they prefer. (4) Where family use creates pressure (a decision imposed by a relative's reading), work with the conflict, not against the tradition. (5) If the client wishes, involve a respected elder, teacher or community figure they choose. (6) Avoid exoticising or reducing the text to a Western self-help tool.
Example language (illustrative): "In your family, is the Yijing something you consult, something you study, or both?" / "Would it help to talk with someone in your community who knows the tradition well?"
Watch for: Your own assumptions about Chinese clients and the I Ching (many have no connection to it); intergenerational conflict framed as "superstition". Working when the client feels their tradition is respected and their own choices are supported.

4.10 Differential assessment without pathologising belief

Purpose / when: Distress, impairment or unusual experience around consulting.
Steps: (1) Hold the belief as cultural and personal; assess the pattern. (2) OCD and anxiety: repeated casting to neutralise doubt, fear of a "bad" hexagram, rituals around casting (see 4.6 and 4.14). (3) Psychosis or mania: hexagrams experienced as personal messages beyond the client's cultural norm, ideas of reference spreading to everyday events, grandiose missions, reduced sleep and pressured speech; ask family or community members, with consent, whether this is new or unusual for the client. (4) Depression: readings read only as doom. (5) Grief: see 4.8. (6) Where the focus of care is spiritual or religious distress rather than a disorder, the relevant code is ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances (includes 'Religious or spiritual problem') [source: Unbound Medicine]; DSM-5-TR wording [uncertain: not verified]. (7) Refer for psychiatric assessment where psychosis or mania is suspected.
Example language (illustrative): "Lots of people consult the I Ching. What I'd like to understand is how it's been for you lately: has it felt different?"
Watch for: Over-pathologising a normal cultural practice; missing early psychosis because the content is spiritual. Working when your formulation separates the practice from any disorder.

4.11 Keeping the therapist out of the reader role

Purpose / when: The client asks you to cast, interpret, "tell me what it means", or asks whether you use the I Ching; or you yourself practise it.
Steps: (1) Decline to cast or interpret, warmly, and explain why (it's their practice; your role is to help them think). (2) Offer to explore the reading together on their terms (4.2). (3) Decide on self-disclosure by whether it serves the client; keep it brief. (4) If you practise or teach the I Ching outside work, keep it entirely separate: no readings for clients, no referrals to your own practice, no dual roles (APA Ethics Code standard 3.05 on multiple relationships) [source: APA Ethics Code]. (5) Take boundary questions to supervision. (6) Build spiritual and religious competence: Vieten et al. (2013) propose 16 basic competencies, framed as attitudes, knowledge and skills, for all licensed psychologists [source: IONS publication page].
Example language (illustrative): "I won't cast for you, because I'd become the one with the answer, and I'd rather help you find yours. But I'd really like to hear what came up when you cast."
Watch for: Pressure to become an oracle; idealisation of the therapist as wise reader; your own curiosity or enthusiasm leading the session. Working when the client brings readings as material and keeps authorship of decisions.

4.12 Referral

Purpose / when: The need exceeds your remit or competence.
Steps: (1) OCD specialist or ERP-trained clinician for compulsive consulting (4.6). (2) Psychiatric assessment for suspected psychosis or mania (4.10). (3) Medical care for any health decision made by casting, or any health "reading". (4) Financial, consumer-protection or safeguarding routes for exploitation (4.7). (5) Grief services for prolonged grief (4.8). (6) A community or tradition figure, if the client wishes, for questions of practice or interpretation within the tradition (4.9). (7) A Jungian analyst for clients who want depth work with the text (4.3).
Example language (illustrative): "I think someone who specialises in this pattern of doubt and checking could help us both. Can I tell you what that would look like?"
Watch for: The client hearing referral as rejection of their practice. Working when the client takes up the referral and stays connected to you.

4.13 Working with synchronicity experiences (Jung's framing, attributed)

Purpose / when: The client describes a reading, or a coincidence around one, as "synchronicity", often citing Jung, and it carries strong meaning for them. In Zeng's account of Jung's foreword, Jung asked the I Ching whether to present it to English-speaking readers, received hexagram 50, Ding (the Cauldron), and read it as an offer of spiritual nourishment. While writing the foreword he received K'an, which he took to match his own state of mind, and he warned that uncritical speculation about the text could lead a reader astray. He also held that only practice shows how well a reading fits one's psychological situation [source: Zeng 2023, pp. 6–8, paraphrasing the 1950 foreword]. Zeng also reports the Jungian analyst Kirsch casting coins to reflect on her own countertransference while leaving the client to make his own decision [source: Zeng 2023, pp. 8–10].
Steps [synthesis]: (1) Ask the client to describe the coincidence and what made it feel like more than chance. (2) Explore what it means to them now: what it confirms, permits or warns against. (3) Hold the synchronicity frame as the client's, or Jung's, attributed. Neither confirm an acausal link nor call it chance. (4) Ask what the client wants to do with that meaning, keeping meaning separate from instruction (4.5). (5) Track frequency and intensity: occasional, bounded experiences of meaningful coincidence differ from a growing sense that everything is a message, which calls for 4.10. (6) For a client who wants depth work on synchronicity, consider a Jungian analyst (4.12).
Example language (illustrative): "What was it about that hexagram arriving that day that felt like more than coincidence?" / "If we take the meaning seriously without deciding what caused it, what does it say about where you are right now?"
Watch for: Rising ideas of reference, lost sleep or grandiosity. "Synchronicity" used to override other people's wishes or the client's own doubts. Your own enthusiasm for, or scepticism about, Jung leading the session. Working when: the client draws meaning that informs choices they own, and stays grounded in everyday life.

4.14 Faith conflict and scrupulosity about consulting

Purpose / when: The client's religion, or the religion they grew up in, forbids divination, and they feel guilt or fear after consulting; or OCD has fastened on the practice (praying or confessing repeatedly to undo a cast, seeking reassurance that they have not sinned). Merritt notes that some people find the I Ching objectionable on religious grounds [source: Merritt 2020]. The IOCDF describes scrupulosity as a subtype of OCD with religious or moral obsessions; compulsions include excessive confession, repeated reassurance-seeking from clergy and loved ones, and praying until it feels "just right". ERP is the primary psychological treatment, and treatment may involve faith leaders, if the person wishes, to separate OCD from their values [source: IOCDF, What is OCD & Scrupulosity?]. Applying this to the I Ching is [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Distinguish a values conflict (weighing two commitments) from scrupulosity (doubt, ritual, brief relief, renewed doubt, as mapped in 4.6) [synthesis]. (2) For a values conflict, use the stress-and-conflict questions of the CFI's Spirituality, Religion, and Moral Traditions module [source: APA, CFI Supplementary Modules]; do not rule on whether consulting is permitted. (3) For scrupulosity, agree that the targets are the compulsions, not the faith or the decision about the I Ching, and plan ERP as the IOCDF describes it: a hierarchy built together, gradual exposure, resisting compulsions, practice between sessions, never forced or deceived [source: IOCDF, ERP]. (4) If the client wishes, involve a faith leader they trust to clarify their tradition's teaching [source: IOCDF, What is OCD & Scrupulosity?]. (5) Where the fear comes from a high-control religious upbringing, work with religious trauma at the client's pace, and refer if it exceeds your competence [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "There seem to be two things here: a real question about what your faith asks of you, and a fear that comes back however often you pray about it. Can we look at them one at a time?"
Watch for: You taking a side in the theological question. Exposures the client experiences as attacks on their faith: choose steps they accept [synthesis]. Fear of evil or punishment that comes with loss of insight or command experiences, which calls for 4.10. Working when: guilt and rituals decline, and the client's choice about consulting fits their own values.

4.15 App-based and online consulting

Purpose / when: The client casts with an app or website, which gives a hexagram instantly and at any hour, or follows online I Ching readers. Excessive reassurance-seeking brings quick, short-lived relief and keeps fear going [source: Osborne & Williams 2013]; how much instant casting adds to this is [synthesis]. Some practitioners deliberately slow the process: Merritt encourages a ritual, meditative yarrow-stalk method and an hour of clarifying the question before casting [source: Zeng 2023, pp. 12–13; Merritt 2020].
Steps [synthesis]: (1) Ask which app or site, how often, at what times, and whether there are subscriptions or paid readings. (2) Compare app use with the client's own sense of a considered consultation: ask what is lost or gained when casting is instant. (3) Where use is compulsive, apply 4.6: delay before casting, notifications off, one cast per question, app-free periods, as steps the client chooses. (4) Check paid services against the tactics in 4.7, and point to the reporting routes there. (5) If the client starts to experience app results as messages aimed at them personally, beyond their usual practice, assess under 4.10.
Example language (illustrative): "When you cast on your phone, how long do you spend with the question first?" / "What would it be like to wait until the evening and cast once?"
Watch for: Casting during the night and lost sleep. Recasting through several apps until the answer feels "right". Hidden small payments. Working when: consulting is deliberate, infrequent enough for the client, and no longer needed to calm each wave of doubt.

4.16 Children and adolescents

Purpose / when: A young client uses the I Ching or an app, or family members make decisions about a child's schooling, health or relationships by consulting.
Steps: (1) Explore the practice as in 4.1, with the young person's assent and parental consent as your setting requires [synthesis]. (2) The CFI has a supplementary module for school-age children and adolescents, and one for caregivers, which can help place the practice in the family's culture [source: APA, CFI Supplementary Modules]. (3) Assess for reassurance cycles (4.6), and with consent work with parents who give reassurance or cast on the child's behalf [synthesis]. (4) Where care, schooling or safety decisions are made by divination in place of assessment or treatment, follow local safeguarding procedures [synthesis]. (5) Respect the family's tradition (4.9) while keeping the child's needs central [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Lots of people in your family use the Yijing. What do you like about it, and is there anything about it that worries you?"
Watch for: Fear of a "bad" hexagram in a child with anxiety or OCD. Paid online services reaching minors. A child's assessment or treatment postponed because of a reading. Working when: the practice is safe for the child, and decisions about their care rest on assessment.

4.17 Ending, consolidation and relapse prevention

Purpose / when: Therapy is ending, or the client has changed how they consult: less often, without recasting, without paid readers, or with renewed meaning in the tradition.
Steps [synthesis]: (1) Review, in the client's words, what place the I Ching now has in their life. (2) For clients who did response prevention, write a relapse plan: early signs (recasting, several apps, secrecy, rising spending) and first responses (delay, return to the last step they managed, contact their therapist or ERP clinician), keeping up the between-session practice the IOCDF describes [source: IOCDF, ERP]. (3) For clients who left an exploitative reader, review financial safeguards (4.7). (4) For clients whose practice is part of their heritage or spiritual life, name the people and communities that sustain it (4.9). (5) Agree how the client can return if needed.
Example language (illustrative): "If you find yourself casting again and again on the same worry, what will you do first?"
Watch for: The client hearing the ending as a verdict on their tradition. You becoming the last reassurance source. Working when: the client has a plan in their own words and keeps authorship of their decisions.

5. Handling problems

The sources say little about problems in therapy with I Ching users beyond Merritt's cautions and the reassurance-seeking literature; most of this section is [synthesis].

The client wants you to cast or interpret. Decline, give the reason, redirect to their own reading (4.11). If they press, explore what having you decide would relieve them of. [synthesis]
The client fears ridicule and withholds the practice. Ask neutrally about any practices they use for decisions or comfort; when they mention the I Ching, respond with interest, not evaluation. [synthesis]
A "bad" hexagram triggers panic or rumination. Ground first; then ask what the client fears it means; check for OCD-type doubt; do not offer a counter-reading or reassurance that the text "didn't mean that", which becomes a new reassurance ritual [synthesis, informed by Osborne & Williams 2013].
Recasting until the answer is acceptable. Name the pattern (4.6); agree a one-cast rule as a first response-prevention step if the client wants it. [synthesis]
Non-adherence to response prevention. Re-check that the steps were agreed and manageable; review maintaining factors (others' reassurance, low mood, medication) and break steps down further [source: Osborne & Williams 2013].
Overwhelm during exposure. Slow down, return to the agreed hierarchy, re-consent; exposure stays voluntary, and acute risk, active psychosis or crisis take priority. [synthesis]
A decision you think is harmful (health, money, safety) rests on a reading. Say your concern directly and separately from the reading; route health questions to medical care; never advise on medicines; respect autonomy for lawful choices while assessing capacity and risk. [synthesis]
Rupture: the client feels you have dismissed their tradition. Acknowledge it, repair explicitly ("I came across as doubting something that matters to you"), and return to their meaning. [synthesis]
Stuck: readings replace reflection. Merritt names short-circuiting self-exploration as the main danger [source: Merritt 2020]. Ask for the client's own view before any reading is discussed; set aside a session to talk about the situation without the text. [synthesis]
Escalating spending or a pressuring reader. Use 4.7; consider safeguarding for vulnerable adults. [synthesis; FTC 2002 for the pattern of tactics]
Family conflict about the practice. Explore each side's meaning; avoid taking the role of judge between "superstition" and "tradition"; consider a family session with consent. [synthesis]
Children and adolescents. If a young person's care, schooling or safety decisions are being made by divination in place of assessment or treatment, follow local safeguarding procedures; work with parents about consent and the child's assent; never name or identify the child in records shared outside the service. [synthesis]
Signs of psychosis or mania in the content. Assess, involve the client's chosen supports, and refer (4.10); avoid arguing about the meaning of hexagrams. [synthesis]
The therapist practises the I Ching personally. Keep it out of sessions, avoid disclosure that shifts the frame, and seek supervision when tempted to share a view on a hexagram. [synthesis]
A client in Jungian-style work wants to cast in session. Decide in advance, with supervision, whether this fits your training and frame; if not, ask them to cast in their own time and bring it (4.2). [synthesis; contrast Merritt 2020]
The client says their faith forbids consulting but cannot stop. Separate a values conflict from scrupulosity (4.14); do not rule on the theology; involve a faith leader only if the client wishes [source: IOCDF, What is OCD & Scrupulosity?].
An app makes casting constant. Name the speed as part of the pattern, agree one cast per question and delays (4.15, 4.6). [synthesis]
"Synchronicity" spreads until everything feels like a sign. Slow down, check sleep and risk, and assess (4.10, 4.13). Do not argue about Jung's theory. [synthesis]
Consulting returns after a good period. Treat it as a lapse, not a failure; go back to the relapse plan (4.17) and the last step the client managed. [synthesis]

Sources

Online sources:

Books cited:

Wilhelm, R. (trans.), Baynes, C. F. (English trans.), foreword by C. G. Jung. The I Ching or Book of Changes. Princeton University Press, Bollingen Series XIX, 3rd ed. 1967.
The I Ching or Book of Changes, Wilhelm/Baynes translation. Princeton University Press, Bollingen paperback, 2026, new introduction by Eliot Weinberger (Ingram Academic listing).
Smith, R. J. (2012). The I Ching: A Biography. Princeton University Press (via Steed 2013).
Fendos, P. G., Jr. (2018). The Book of Changes: A Modern Adaptation & Interpretation. Vernon Press.
Wing, R. L. The I Ching Workbook; Anthony, C. A Guide to the I Ching (as named by Merritt 2020; editions [uncertain]).
Lynn, R. J. (trans.). The Classic of Changes [uncertain: not verified].
Vieten, C., Scammell, S., Pilato, R., Ammondson, I., Pargament, K. I., & Lukoff, D. (2013). Spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 5(3), 129–144.
American Psychiatric Association. DSM-5-TR, Cultural Formulation Interview and its supplementary modules (see Online sources).

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