A Clinician's Guide to Dream Therapy (2nd Edition)

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Dr. Leslie Ellis

Dream engineers work on promising ways to improve nightmare treatment

A group of dream researchers I met with this past month are focused on using technology and engineering to tackle big questions about dreams. February’s session was focused on improving treatment for nightmares. Consistent themes were: adding sensory triggers during dreaming to augment existing treatments; and the clear need for effective nightmare treatments to be

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Dr. Leslie Ellis

There is no hurry

Speed is the enemy of depth This January, I was in stormy Santa Barbara at a 3-day dream tending retreat at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Midday of the first class, we were informed of flood and landslide warnings right in our location! So we hastily gathered our things and dashed to our cars in the pouring

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Dr. Leslie Ellis

Nightmares exacerbate mental illness, but treatment helps

In clinical settings, nightmares are rarely inquired about, and even less often treated directly. Evidence that this needs to change is mounting. On a more positive note, nightmare treatment research continues to advance – and a new method shows that adding sensory triggers can strengthen treatment effects. Review finds nightmares may contribute broadly to mental

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Dr. Leslie Ellis

Dream changes help clinicians predict suicidal behaviors

There is a well-established link between frequent nightmares and a greater risk of suicide, but until now, there has been no sense of specifically what to watch for in a client’s dream life to signal that their risk is escalating. However, a group of researchers has just published an article on how dreams change prior

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Dr. Leslie Ellis

Focusing and Nature: Restoring connection within and without

In focusing with dreams, I usually begin by facilitating a search for helpful elements. One of the most consistently supportive places comes from the natural world: trees, beautiful landscapes, animals, ocean… all of these images seem to call us back into a sense of connection we knew about instinctively as children, but may have lost

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Dr. Leslie Ellis

Dreams as Doorways to Possibility

Dreams as Doorways to Possibility: Four ways to open up even the smallest of dreams Have you ever been stumped by a dream? Likely all of us have experienced genuine puzzlement when we wake up with a dream image that seems utterly mysterious, too wispy to follow or simply nonsensical. We are apt to dismiss

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Dr. Leslie Ellis

Dreams as a picture of the nervous system

Dreams as a picture of the nervous system, and an avenue for state shifts It’s beginning to dawn on me that not just nightmares, but all dreams can be seen as an expression of the nervous system. They are images direct from the body, far less filtered by our internal censor than waking thoughts —

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