Month: May 2020

A Brief Introduction to Experiential Dreamwork

Have you noticed that your dreams are more dynamic and intense during these uncertain times? You are not alone. Many people are reporting increased nightmares and disturbed dreaming, and want to know what this means and what to do with their dreams.

This introductory course in experiential dreamwork will give participants several simple yet powerful ideas about how to engage with dreams in a way that helps regulate emotion and constructively process the difficult feelings arising in the world right now. The course will include self-help exercises you can try on your own, and methods that will help inform your dreamwork with clients. It will include live demonstrations of the experiential dreamwork methods discussed, including finding and embodying help in a dream, entering into the subjective experience of dream characters and elements, and dreaming the dream onward.

Clinically relevant. There will also be information about how to use dreams as diagnostic, as indicators of clinical progress, and as a safe way to work with trauma. 4.5 CE credits offered.

Join dream expert Dr. Leslie Ellis for 3 Tuesday afternoon dreamwork sessions in July. During these 90-minute zoom sessions, she will introduce some fun and fascinating information about dreams, answer your questions and show you how to engage with your dreams in an experiential way. Sessions will include a brief talk about dreams, a chance to ask questions, and a live dreamwork demonstration.

This course will be of interest to mental health professionals who want to incorporate dreamwork in their practice, and to anyone interested in deepening their relationship with dreams. It is also an opportunity to try out a short version of Dr. Ellis’ courses. For those who want to continue on to the year-long Embodied Experiential Dreamwork Certification program starting in Fall 2020, this course fee will be credited.

Dates:              July 7, 14 and 21, 2:00 pm to 3:30 PDT (5:00-6:30 PM EDT)

Location:         Zoom

Cost:                $127 USD (or $87 for those needing a discount, no questions asked!)

Recordings:     Available to registrants

Questions?      Ask Leslie lae2317@gmail.com

Register here.  And bring your dreams…

Dr. Leslie Ellis is an author, teacher, speaker and clinical dreamworker. Her book, A Clinician’s Guide to Dream Therapy (Routledge, 2019) offers therapists a primer in modern, experiential dreamwork. She has written numerous book chapters and articles on experiential focusing and dreamwork. Her award-winning PhD research developed a nightmare treatment process for refugees. She developed her somatic, experiential focus through extensive study of focusing. She is currently president of The International Focusing Institute. She studied depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute and her practice is a hybrid of Jungian and focusing-oriented approaches. She is also an expert in treatment of complex trauma and post-traumatic stress injury and developed and taught trauma theory at Adler University in Vancouver.

What former dreams students say about Leslie’s online dreamwork courses:

Leslie presents in a well-modulated, soothing voice that carries the recorded commentary sessions and the live interaction sessions very well.  She is a calmly-confident and organized teacher who is clear and concise in her outlining of concepts.  She demonstrates an excellent grasp of the broad swathe of dream literature her clinical training and work has taken her through…from Carl Jung to contemporary neuroscience.  Leslie is skillful in her facilitation of the live dream-work sessions, ensuring a sense of participant safety while encouraging and containing the group’s participation with an attitude of openness and respect.

I can highly recommend both Leslie’s book and this online course.  I have come away enriched and expanded by this learning opportunity.”

Catherine Johnson, Clinical Psychologist, Trauma and Focusing Oriented therapist; Cape Town, South Africa

“Dreaming is a fascinating but hard field to explore. Leslie is an enthusiastic and experienced pioneer. Her book and course help me find a torch and a map. As a therapist, I use these tools to help my clients go into their experiences and hearts. Highly recommended.” – Sicong Cao, psychotherapist, Wuhan, China