Values Vault is a values card sort: a deck of values, each with a short definition, that you sort by how important each one is to you. Step by step, you narrow the deck down to the handful of core values that matter most, giving you language and clarity for your decisions, goals, and relationships.

Values Vault was created by Aly Webster, LCPC, a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor. Aly was introduced to a personal values sort in graduate school and used it with countless clients over the years, but kept noticing values that were missing.

What began as a plan to add a few words became a two-year project. She more than doubled the number of values, rewrote every definition, and worked with her web-designer husband on a design to match. Read Aly’s story.

• Core Edition: a curated 64-card deck of personal values. A focused, approachable starting point, and easy to use again and again.
• Career Edition: 63 cards built around one question: what matters to you at work? For job decisions, career changes, and career counseling.
• Complete Edition: 208 values in three decks (Core, Career, and Expanded), five sorting cards, a Reflection Questions card, and a Getting Started guide. The broadest vocabulary and the most nuance, and a favorite of therapists and group facilitators.
• EMDR Cognition Cards: a 50-card deck for therapists and clients working in EMDR, with a negative cognition on one side of each card and the matching positive cognition on the other. It’s a separate tool, not a values sort.

Not sure? Start with Core if you want a simpler sort, Career if your question is about work, and Complete if you want the widest range of values to choose from. Compare editions in the shop.

• Three decks of values: Core, Career, and Expanded (208 values total)
• Five gray sorting cards, from Not Important To Me to Most Important To Me
• A Reflection Questions card
• A Getting Started guide

Orders placed on our website also include a Core Values Record card for writing down your final five.

The Core Deck covers personal values, and it’s the best place to start. The Career Deck focuses on what matters to you at work. The Expanded Deck adds more nuanced values for a deeper sort. Use it on its own or after a Core Deck sort. The Core and Career decks are also sold on their own as the Core and Career Editions. The deck name is printed on the back of every card.

After years of using a smaller deck (around 80 cards), Aly gathered feedback from clients about values that were missing. She set out to make Values Vault as complete as possible, because sorting what isn’t important to you is just as insightful as sorting what is.

The three decks also mean you never have to sort everything at once. Start with one deck, and add more whenever you’re ready. If 208 values feels like more than you need, the 64-card Core Edition is a focused place to start.

Every value belongs to one of 17 categories, shown by the card’s color, graphic, and category label. When people narrow down to their top five, they naturally group similar cards and choose one to represent the theme. The categories make that quicker, and help you notice the patterns in what you value.

1. Choose a deck. If you’re not sure, start with the Core Deck.
2. Lay out the sorting cards (five in the Complete and Core Editions, three in the Career Edition) and place each value under the one that fits best. Ask yourself, “How important is this to me?”
3. Focus on your Most Important pile and narrow it down to five.
4. Take a photo or write your values down somewhere you’ll see them often.

Our Quick Start Guide walks through every step, with tips along the way.

The Core Deck. It’s the best foundation for anyone. Choose the Career Deck if you’re focused on work questions like a job change, burnout, or an upcoming review. Save the Expanded Deck for a deeper second sort.

Yes. Mixing decks makes for a more comprehensive sort. Each card has its deck name on the back, so they’re easy to separate again afterward.

Set it aside and come back to it later. Trust your first instinct, and remember there are no wrong answers. The difficult choices are often where the greatest insights happen.

Yes. Keep up to 10 if that works better for you. To go further, compare similar values and keep the card that encompasses the others.

Take a photo or write them down somewhere you’ll revisit often. Then explore what each value means to you, where it already shows up in your life, and where your choices don’t line up with it yet. The Complete Edition includes a Reflection Questions card for this, and our free My Core Values Reflection and Values Into Action worksheets work with any edition. Core Values Records make a lovely keepsake, for you or for clients.

Yes. Our free online values card sort lets you sort 30 values, narrow them to your top 10, and rank your five core values. It takes about 10 minutes, with no signup. It’s a good way to try the process. The physical decks have many more values to choose from.

Plenty. Draw a card each morning as a journaling or reflection prompt. Use them as conversation starters with a partner or friends. Or try a family guessing game: everyone completes a sort, the top fives go on sticky notes with no names, and everyone guesses whose values are whose.

Flip them over to separate them by deck, then sort each deck by the number on the front. That returns them to their rainbow order.

Your values can evolve over time. Revisit your sort during life transitions, career changes, or every few years to see what has changed.

Not at all. Values Vault is designed for anyone who wants to understand their values. Therapists use it in their practice, but the cards work just as well on your own, with a partner, or for career planning.

Clinicians use the cards to help clients identify and explore their core values, then connect those values to goals, decisions, and behavior change. The cards fit naturally into approaches like ACT, Motivational Interviewing, CBT, EMDR, Relational Cultural Therapy, and career counseling.

See how values work fits different modalities and our free worksheets and session guide for therapists.

Absolutely. Sorting side by side helps people identify shared values, understand each other’s priorities, and talk about what matters. Coaches, facilitators, and teams use them for workshops, team building, goal setting, and conversations about culture.

Yes. We offer bulk pricing for teams, organizations, classrooms, group programs, and resale. Contact us with the quantity you need and we’ll send pricing and shipping details.

Yes. Core Values Records are 6×4 cards printed on heavy card stock for recording core values. They make a meaningful takeaway from a session, and come in packs of 10, 25, 50, and 100.

US orders over $30 ship free. Orders under $30 ship for a flat $5.95, and stickers always ship free.

We ship US orders with USPS Ground Advantage. Once your order has been processed, most packages arrive within 3–5 business days, not counting weekends or holidays. You’ll get an email with tracking information as soon as your order ships. Shipping policy.

We don’t offer international shipping through the website yet, but we’re happy to help. Contact us with your location and we’ll put together a custom quote.

Returns are accepted within 30 days of purchase for products that are unused and still in their original shrink-wrapped packaging. Email support@valuesvaultcards.com with your order number and reason for the return. Refunds go back to your original payment method within 5–7 business days of the return being received.

Return shipping is paid by the buyer unless the item arrived damaged or defective. We don’t offer exchanges, but you’re welcome to return an item and place a new order. Return policy.

We’re sorry! Email support@valuesvaultcards.com right away with photos of the item and packaging, and we’ll gladly send a replacement or give you a full refund.

Flip a card over. In the original Complete Edition, each card is labeled on the back with one of four decks: Base Deck (green), Personal Deck (blue), Career Deck (orange), or Expanded Deck (pink). The current Complete Edition has three decks: Core, Career, and Expanded.

• Base Deck: values that apply to every area of life, personal and professional.
• Personal Deck: values related to your personal life, relationships, and growth.
• Career Deck: values related to your work, career decisions, and workplace.
• Expanded Deck: additional, more nuanced values for the most comprehensive sort.

The Base Deck is designed to be combined with the others. For a personal values sort, combine Base + Personal. For a career values sort, combine Base + Career. The Expanded Deck is a deeper dive: sort it on its own, add it to either combination, or mix all four decks for the most comprehensive sort.

The sorting steps are the same as in the Quick Start Guide: place each value under a sorting card, narrow your Most Important pile to five, and write them down.

Separate the cards by the deck label on the back, then sort each deck by the number on the front.