Is your inner life getting lost in the fray? Are you feeling overwhelmed with information, tasks and all the shiny objects that bombard us from the online world? Yes, this is another invitation, but one with a difference. This is an invitation to slow down and look inward, an opportunity to come home to yourself through your dreams.
If you have ever been utterly transported by a dream, immersed in a startlingly-real other world that has set your mood and train of thought on an entirely different path than is usual, then you know the power of dreams to evoke transformation. Most people I talk to about dreams are curious about them, fascinated even. You can sense they are pregnant with deeper meaning, but often frustrated that you cannot penetrate their mysterious nature.
Maybe you don’t dream very much, at least not as much as you used to. You may wake with a sense of having dreamt something profound – having solved the world’s problems (or your own) in your sleep — only to have this remarkable insight slip away the moment you open your eyes. Or you could be someone who recalls your dreams vividly, but then remains mystified by them.
Letting a big dream pass by without reflection is a huge missed opportunity
All the dreams that pass by without you actively engaging with them are missed opportunities to tend your inner life and reconnect with your depths. Dreams are the most direct, creative and personalized path to connecting with what is most important and meaningful to you. Unlike other forms of inner work like meditation and mindfulness, dreams are speaking directly to you. They’ve been called the ‘poor (wo)man’s therapist’ because they help us process our most salient emotions and memories night after night. But they are even more helpful if we know how to tend and work with them.
Would you like to be able to recall, record and work with your own dreams? Would you like a clearer understanding of their nature, and why they are so important? Or are you already working with some of your dreams via a dream group or therapist, but want a reliable way to entertain the dreams you don’t get a chance to discuss?
Your questions answered in a free short video series
If you said yes to any of the questions above, I have some immediate answers for you. In three 10-minute instalments, I tell you:
- How to recall more dreams
- Why dreams are so important
- Three simple practices aimed at making sense of and deepening your connection to your own dreams.
If you like what you see, you may want to join me in my 6-month online course on how to work with your own dreams. If you are intrigued, but not sure, check out the videos to get a sense of my teaching style and the material we will cover. And read on as I explain more.
A leaisurely, guided inward journey in the company of others
This is not a typical online course, but more of a guided inward journey in the company of other dreamers. The pace will be leisurely, allowing time for you to gather dreams, to spend time with the practices offered, and to reflect on them with other like-minded dreamers. The course, starting in early March, will be uniquely collaborative because it is the first time I’m offering it. In return for your feedback and active participation, I am offering a discounted rate.
The initial cohort will be a kind of focus group for the book I am writing on the topic of personal dreamwork. The class is also the first step in a comprehensive dreamwork certification program, so you can continue to deepen your dreamwork practice beyond this course if you want to.
How did I come to value dreams so much?
I have always been a bit of a dreamer, both day and night. As a kid, one of my favorite activities when I came home from school was to sit backwards on the couch and stare at the huge maple in our front yard. I would lose time as I drifted into the world of my imagination. People could shout in my ear and I wouldn’t hear.
Fast-forward many years to my 20-year career as a psychotherapist. As part of my training, I worked with a Jungian analyst, and as we opened up my inner life, I began to dream prolifically. When I was pregnant with my beautiful daughter Grace, I dreamt of being immersed in a forested pool of frogs. As her birth approached, I began to dream about my own very premature birth, not an easy one, and in fact, I was lucky to survive. My dreams helped me access and process this dramatic and triumphant start in life, weaving images of myself in an incubator with another near-death experience in a frothy river. (See my TED-style talk on nightmares for more of the story.)
In my work with clients, with dream groups and in the many classes I have taught, I have consistently found dreams to offer healing images, ways forward where none seems possible, and strikingly apt and densely-packed vignettes that are perfect for the person who dreamt them. Consistently, dreams bring just what is needed in the moment.
But almost all of us need help unpacking the treasures in our dreams. I have written a book for therapists on how to do this for clients. Now I am writing a book and a course for everyone interested in their dreams, and how you can begin working with them on your own. You don’t have to be a therapist, all are welcome.