Category: Dreamwork

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Dream Program Doubles Confidence in Working with Dreams

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The reviews are in! Those who just completed the year-long Embodied Experiential Dreamwork program last year said their confidence in tending dreams is now at 8 out of 10 – up from a class average of 3.7 at the start of the program.

If you are considering taking this program, you may be interested in what our recent grads had to say about it. Here are some of the comments from our exit survey:

“Since taking this program, personally, I now pay more attention to my dreams because I am more fully at ease with them and  have various ways of being with them – many ways of opening the doors that can lead to possible meanings.

Professionally, I can offer clients these ways of helping them be with their dreams, particularly bad dreams and nightmares. For those considering taking this program: it is well worth the time, energy and effort. There is so much specifically and practically to learn about dreams and how to work with them.”

– Tom Larkin, Focusing Oriented Therapist and Certifying Coordinator

 

“I really liked both theoretical and experiential learning. I was needing a more structured and systematic knowledge about dreamwork, and this course really provided me with that. It’s a beautiful foundation. I also liked our group very much, so many beautiful people with different backgrounds and sensitivities, and I think that all of us being honest and engaged together really contributed to the richness of experience.”

– Ivana Kolakovic, Registered Psychotherapist

 

“My most loved aspects were witnessing Leslie working with dreams in a group setting, and the intimacy of the group itself. I also loved the spaciousness in the container and the levity Leslie brought to the group. Clinically, I loved the experiential aspects of focusing and dreamwork combined.  As a result of taking this program, I now move slower with my dreams and I feel more connected to figures and aspects that show up. I also feel more resourced in my work with dreams.

Something else I loved about this program is that it wasn’t formulaic, but process oriented, which really supported the individual finding their own way. It was a nice blend of clinical and personal exploration.

I would also say another benefit is the small group size, because you really get to be in a safe and intimate space. It also provides an opportunity to try on others’ dream images and expand figures within your own dreamscape.”

– Jaclyn Woods, LMFT

 

“If you’re interested in working with dreams this is a solid, inspiring, practical, evidence-based method that has empowered me to connect more deeply with my own dream life and work with my clients and their dreams with confidence.”

– Kate Tenni, Sensorimotor Art Therapist and Grief Counsellor

 

About the Instructor(s) – Here are a few comments, thank you so much

Leslie has so so much knowledge but also this beautiful talent for attunement and sensitivity to track the dreamer’s internal life

10+! Leslie was brilliant! She was clear, flexible, so empathic. She created a lovely virtual space in which to be and work, and held each of us preciously when we shared.

Leslie is thoroughly knowledgeable, extremely skilled and competent, open and welcoming, responsive, flexible, clear, articulate, tech savvy, approachable.

Robbyn is also incredibly gifted.  The sessions with her were such a helpful supplement and practice time. (Robbyn assists with the class and offers a bonus dream session between class meetings.)

For more information about the ‘EE’ program, here is the link.

 

 

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Jungian Dreamwork and Focusing: Delving Deeper in the Experience of Dreaming

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This article brings together my two favorite approaches in psychotherapy and personal growth: that of dreamwork and focusing. In my work, they are intertwined in ways that make it difficult to tease apart, so I am taking this opportunity to articulate the way they both differ and complement each other. I will highlight the work of Jungian dream workers who favor experiential processing, and will also summarize Eugene Gendlin’s ideas about how to work with dreams.

 

The Jungian approach to dreams

Although my interest in dreams is lifelong, I first formally studied dreamwork at Pacifica Graduate Institute, one of North America’s foremost schools for Jungian and depth psychology. While there are some branches of Jungian thought that can get quite theoretical, this is not the approach taken at Pacifica, where they stress the experiential aspects of depth psychology. There are strong parallels between the many dreamwork methods that I consider both Jungian and focusing-oriented. They key to both is the felt experience of the dreamer.

Carl Jung posited that there is not only a personal unconscious from which dream material arises, but also a collective unconscious common to all mankind and that truly numinous dreams have this kind of power. He called these universal forces archetypes, motifs familiar to us all: child, father, mother, lover, wise man/woman and so on.

Jung developed an extensive theory about the meaning of dreams, and believed dream workers should possess vast knowledge of myths, legends and symbols that could appear in any dream so as to amplify the personal aspect of the dream image into something more collective or archetypal. However, it is a mistake to assume that he was imposing all of this onto dreams from an academic pedestal. In fact, he was very interested in the lived experience of dreams, and developed a technique he called active imagination, suggesting that dreamers re-enter the dreamworld and continue where the dream left off, dreaming it onward in the therapy session and beyond. These experiential techniques are very like Gendlin’s focusing, an experiential method of inquiring into the body.

The beauty of dreamwork is that it can take many forms. One can work with a dream on a personal level and make great leaps forward in consciousness. One can also approach the dream in a sacred way that brings one closer to the universal source of dreaming and feel touched by its numinosity. I think the reason dreams are so fascinating is that they are truly magical, truly other and if one enters the experience of the dreaming, one cannot help but be enlarged by it. In fact, many dream experts believe the main purpose of dreaming is just that: to enlarge our perspective; sometimes they do this gently, and sometimes in a shocking manner. At times, a shock can be just what’s needed to jolt us out of outmoded ways of being.

 

Approaches to dreams from depth psychologists

Jungian scholars whose interest is depth psychology focus on the experience of dreaming; they talk about less mining of the dream for personal insight, and more about tending the dream. They often use focusing extensively in the way they do dreamwork though they may not use that term. In the course of their work, they have developed a reverence for the dreamtime. They ask not, how can the dream serve me, but, how can I serve the dream? What does it ask of me?

James Hillman (1979) in The Dream and the Underworld took issue with the modern method of mining dreams for personal meaning. He is a thinker, a contrarian and likes to turn widely-accepted ideas on their heads. Hillman said he follows Freud and Jung in some of their ideas: “Freud by insisting that the dream has nothing to do with the waking world but is psyche speaking to itself in its own language: and Jung by insisting that the ego requires adjustment to the night world. I shall not be following them in bringing the dream into the dayworld in any other form than its own, implying that the dream may not be envisaged either as a message to be deciphered for the dayworld (Freud) or as a compensation to it (Jung)” (p. 13).

Hillman goes on to say that the only valid way to approach dreaming is to enter into its underworld realm, subjecting ourselves to the descent, not trying to use it for our own purposes. He does not think we need to add anything, or compensate from what’s not there. “Each dream has its own fulcrum and balance, compensates itself, is complete as it is… We cannot see the soul until we experience it, and we cannot understand the dream until we enter it “ (p. 80).

Hillman eschews the gestalt tradition of having dreamers enter into the experience of various dream figures as though they are parts of one’s own psyche. “This mode of dream interpretation becomes just one more modern way of inflating the ego” (p. 99).

Still, entering into the consciousness of various dream figures remains an accepted means of working a dream. Robert Bosnak (1996) is one modern dream worker who relies heavily on this Gestalt method. He says that,  “While dreaming, there are several different carriers of consciousness.”  We most often experience our dreams from the point of view of our dream ego, but Bosnak believes “one of the purposes of dreamwork is to experience the dream from as many facets as possible.”

He talks about making transits into the experience of other dream figures, to relinquish briefly our habitual point of view and enter into something that is other. In fact, one can enter into not just the people and animals in a dreamscape, but any significant feature. He offers an example of a man who enters into a deep freeze. “This brings about a change of attitude, a different sense of being alive” (p. 54).

Bosnak believes we can work only with living dreams, ones in which we are still able to re-enter the dreaming experience. Fresh dreams can be from years past, but most are recent. They are dreams where we can still sense in a bodily way. Bosnak asks dreamers to go very slowly back into the dream recalling as much detail as possible, paying particular attention to the others in the dream. He suggests you drop down into a liminal state and then enter into the consciousness of the other in your dream through sensing into your body. He calls is making a “transit” (p. 44) into the dream other. This is very similar to the focusing move of entering the felt sense from its point of view.

The attitude is a focusing one of curiosity, acceptance, and a sense that there is autonomy in what we are encountering, something to resonate with, not something we try to bend to our will.  Both focusing and dreamwork take place in the imaginal world, the world of image. There is a sense of autonomy about the image, as in working with the felt sense. We can experience it but we do not control its movements.

Pacifica founder Stephen Aizenstat (2009) does believe in talking to the animals and other figures in dreams, but respectfully and only once one has built a relationship to the dream figure. His favorite approach to a dream is the question, “Who’s visiting now?” This, followed by  a receptive, clear space in which the dream itself can respond, in the present, in a living, embodied way.

Aizenstat suggests a way of working with dreams beyond the Freudian idea of association, or the Jungian idea of amplification, to that of animation. Aizenstat calls his practice dream tending — working with the living image. Although it is not a felt sense, the interaction with the dream figure has many qualities similar to focusing: the act of bringing your open, curious attention to it. Its autonomy. The need to stay with it even when it might appear scary — that with our loving attention to it, from an observing, safe distance, it will transform, as will what it represents in our life.

 

Eugene Gendlin on Focusing and Dreams

Gendlin (1986) offers a similar perspective in his approach to working with dreams. Although he posits his methods of dreamwork as a long series of potential questions to ask of the dream, the attitude he suggests one should bring to these questions is not one of interrogation. Like Aizenstat, he suggests that one should “love and enjoy the dream whether you interpret it or not” (p. 27).

He sees great value in dreamwork, and even suggests it is as a shortcut to learning how to do focusing. He says the hardest part of learning how to focusing is letting a felt sense come. “With a dream, that is often easy. A dream usually brings you a felt sense. If not, it soon comes if you attend your body while pondering the dream” (p. 3). Gendlin sees dreamwork as having two stages: the breakthrough, where you discover what the dream is about and a second stage, where you get something new from the dream.

He also introduces a technique he calls bias control to help someone working with their own dreams overcome the natural tendency to interpret a dream based on what one already knows. This basically entails entertaining the opposite of what we might be drawn to, entering into the consciousness of a dream figure we dislike, for example. “A new growth direction is often the opposite of what we value most. That doesn’t mean we change our value to the opposite, not at all. We merely expand them a little” (p. 61).

 

Completing the dream process: Carrying forward

If you go through the experiential process of fully tending a dream, it will require not just a widening of perspective, but some sort of concrete action or ritual to ground and symbolize the change in you. An even better way to look at it might be: what are you going to offer in response to this dream? These lines of dreamwork practice we have been following ask that we ponder how we will serve the dream, rather than how it will serve us.

In Gendlin’s model, this may come in the form of an action step, some small but concrete step we can take in response to the dream. He gives an example where a man’s “dream points to a small action step he might not otherwise have thought of. This may seem a tiny step when compared with the whole regime this dreamer might need… As you will see if you try them, small action steps have a lot of power. They are hard to do. They let you encounter and work through what is in your way. They change you… Only action ultimately resolves more problems. Therefore action steps are needed as an integral part of what dreams mean… and only in actions does your body get to live the new way for more than a few symbolic moments!” (p. 114).

 

Dreaming from the Source

Dreams and the felt sense in focusing come from the same source, what Whitmont calls the Guiding Self, or Jung’s Self, a “superior, if archaic intelligence, bent on offering meaningful new attitudes,” (Whitmont Perera, p. 17).

Both focusing and dreamwork are difficult to do alone because of this — because they offer a viewpoint different from our customary one. Dreams are perhaps further from the ego’s standpoint because they often originate from deeper in the unconscious. Or, they may originate entirely outside of our realm of consciousness in a realm all their own. Either way, they are a stretch for us to grapple with. They offer growth potential, but also the potential to be disruptive or disturbing. Focusing is more of a middle ground between dreams and ego, and focusing on dreams is yet another intermediate step, bridging the gap between dream and ego, making dreams more accessible and potentially accelerating change.

Dreams are a product of the life force within us, as is the felt sense we contact through focusing. There are no bad dreams. The question is how to come into relationship with them, as you would a felt sense, to gain ‘life-forward’ momentum. And then, how do you embody this shift in the world?

 

References

Aizenstat, S. (2009) Dream Tending, New Orleans, Louisiana: Spring Journal Inc.

Boa, F. (1988) The Way of the Dream, Boston, Mass., Shambhala Publications.

Bosnak, R. (1996) Tracks in the Wilderness of Dreaming, New York: Delta Publishing  a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell.

Freud, S. (1909) The Interpretation of Dreams, New York: Modern Library, Random House (1950 edition).

Hillman, J. (1979) The Dream and the Underworld, New York: Harper and Row.

Gendlin, E.T. (1986) Let Your Body Interpret Your Dreams, Wilmette, Illinois: Chiron Publications.

Jung, C.J. Collected Works. Bollingen Series, Princeton University Press.

Jung, C.J. (1961) Memories, Dreams, Reflections, New York: Random House.

Whitmont, E. and Perera, S. (1989) Dreams, A Portal to the Source, London: Routledge.

 

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Why Do We Dream? Maybe We Should Ask Our Bodies

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Mark Blumberg, a University of Iowa researcher, has a new idea about why we dream – it’s our body mapping itself while we sleep. His research, recently featured in the New Yorker magazine, is a departure from existing theories that suggest in dreaming, we are making sense of our experiences, consolidating memories, processing emotions, possibly imagining things we fear or wish for – no one can yet say for sure.

Blumberg got curious about why newborn babies need 8 hours of dream-rich rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, while most adult humans need about one-quarter of that. He also wondered what babies have to dream about since they have not yet had any experiences to process. He also noticed that all animals, from sleeping dogs to the rat pups in his lab, twitch and jerk when in REM.

Are the dogs’ paws twitching because they are chasing imaginary rabbits in their dreams? Blumberg severed the connection between rat brain and body, and the twitching continued – suggesting these movements are not related to what we dream in our minds. He wondered if the reverse was true: that the movements were sending messages from body to brain.

Blumberg wired electrodes to the areas of the rat’s brain associated with movement, and assigned a different sound to each selected neuron. The amazing result was that each time the rat’s paw twitched, sounds would reverberate from the brain. Based on this, Blumberg articulated a theory that the brain uses REM sleep to map out the body, one muscle at a time.

During REM sleep, neuroscientists have long understood that the body is paralyzed from the neck down, presumably to keep us from acting out our dreams. Blumberg’s research suggests another possibility – that sleep paralysis allows our bodies to move a single, discrete muscle at a time, which enables discrete sensorimotor connections to form.

 

The body is implicated more deeply in dreaming than we thought

When people ask me how to better recall their dreams, I suggest they lie still upon waking, as this seems to make it easier to remember what they were just dreaming. This may be related to what Blumberg has discovered, a connection from the body that feeds the dreaming brain.

For the New Yorker article, Amanda Gefter interviewed Jennifer Windt, a professor of philosophy of mind and author of Dreaming, a book that explores what dreams can tell us about consciousness. Windt suggests the brain is not the centre of consciousness, mediating all that we experience, because what’s happening in our bodies shapes our dreams – for example through body positions that prompt memories, which are woven into our dreams. She told the New Yorker, “It’s through recognizing the contributions of the body that we can begin to understand why dreams feel the way they do.”

 

Reference

Gefter, A. What Are Dreams For? New Yorker, August 31, 2023.

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Dreamweaving: Introducing a Method for Collective Dream Experiencing

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Dream groups are a beautiful way to deepen into a dream, gathering a wider range of impressions and perspectives than we receive when we dive into our dream material alone or with a partner. I have led dream groups in many forms for decades, and love how the universality of dream images ultimately hold meaning and depth for all. Still, there is typically just one or two dreamers whose material is explored in any given session. I have been wanting to develop an experience that is more collective, where every member feels like an equal participant. With the help of my long-term Dream Circle of graduates from my embodied experiential dreamwork program, I recently created just such a method: Dreamweaving. The following is a brief account of the method, a process to invoke dream images to share, experience and weave into a tapestry.

Dreamweaving in Brief

Briefly, the method begins with an invocation, an internal experiential process for each group member to invite a short dream or fragment that seems to want attention. For example, if a group member has a big dream they want to share, the process invites them to find the particular image from the dream that intrigues them most. Once we have all been visited by a dream image, each member shares it, and we have a brief clarification process in which group members can ask the dreamer to say a little more about their image. This is not interpretation, but a deepening of the collective experience of the image, and an invitation to follow our curiosity.

Once all the dream pieces are offered and briefly explored, the group is invited to take a step back and take the entire dream collage in. Then, one by one, each dream member in turn can offer a prompt that invites an experiential exploration of any aspect of the collective dream that feels the most generative and intriguing to them. All members are invited to participate in the experiencing process, which could be a re-entry into a dreamscape, character or element, a dreaming forward from any image or dreamscape, or a conversation with a dream element. Then participants are invited to briefly offer a sense of what they experienced. Over the course of the session, the dream images come alive, and interweave until it really does begin to feel like a single, collective dream experience.

Here are the steps in brief:

  • Invocation
  • Dream sharing and deepening
  • A round of experiential prompts, with a brief sharing of experiences after each prompt

 

The Invocation

I always start my dreamwork sessions with an experiential inward journey to invite group members to find, embody and explore a dream or daydream image that is alive for them in the moment. The following is the transcript of the first Dreamweaving invocation, slightly edited (ellipses… indicate a long pause):

We’ll start with our usual way by just getting comfortable in your body, in your chair. Settle in, feel the ground underneath you, and do what you normally do with your body to prepare to go inward… Start by clearing some space, setting aside any distractions and opening yourself to the world of dreaming. As you’re clearing space, broaden your perception a little bit. Rather than being just with your own inner landscape, see if you can broaden it and feel into the group. We’re trying to expand our awareness and pick up what we can of the group dreaming…

When you feel settled, clear and connected, I’m going to ask you to invite an image or a dream snippet. You’re welcome to have an image arrive spontaneously right now. Or you can bring in an image from a dream that wants to visit. It could be a fresh one, a dream you’ve had recently or one from the past. Just invite what wants to come forward right in this moment. And welcome whatever arrives… You’re going to spend a bit of time with what came. First, start to notice the setting or the dreamscape that this image is situated in. Go ahead and flesh out the environment… Notice the temperature, the weather, what’s on the ground, what’s in the sky… Now begin to situate yourself in the dreamscape at whatever distance or wherever in this dream feels like the right place to be… And when you feel yourself there in the dreamscape, let this image play forward a little by finely observing the image that you’re with or letting it carry forward if it’s in motion or has a story that’s unfolding. Again, just see what the image wants…

Notice as you do this, as you’re following this image, what it brings up in your body. Feel into what kind of a felt sense arises as you interact with this dream image. Don’t do anything except notice what the felt sense is like, be friendly and curious with it… and before we turn away from this, just take a minute with your dream image and ask in a very open ended, invitational way if there’s anything this particular image wants to share, or wants you to share with this group. Just if it comes easily, don’t force it…

So we’re going to start to take our leave. Although we can keep the image with us if it feels good to do that, but start to come back to the dreamscape… and then back into your body sitting in the chair. Feel yourself back in the room. And when you’re ready, you can bring your attention to the screen… but take whatever time you need to exit. Don’t rush this. If you want, I’ll just give you a couple of minutes to jot anything down you want to record. We’re going to hear a lot of dream images. And so if you want to solidify what just came, feel free to write it down…

 

Tapestry of Dream Images

Some of the images that were offered by the group included a woman wearing a green sweater and holding the group safely; a sad little boy in blue pajamas; a forest bath; a beautiful and well-worn leather saddle; a violin on a table and a door to a stage; and dolphins shape-shifting into moose. I asked the group members to feel into the dream images and invited us all to experience where our curiosity would lead. By way of example, I started us off as follows:

What I noticed was that there are a lot of images of support, and invitations to go somewhere, move somewhere, do something. So I’m tempted to gather up the supportive image, like the support at the back of my neck in the forest bath, sitting on the horse in the saddle, and inviting the woman who is a safe guide for all of us… just kind of feeling into those supportive images and then going forward. Interestingly, of all the invitations, the place that calls to me is the open door to the stage with the violin. There’s an orchestra waiting… so I’m just going to give us all a few minutes to share this experience of gathering up the supportive images and then going forward onto the orchestra stage with the violin… we’ll have a few people offer what they experienced, but starting with the person who offered the prompt (me in this case).

Being in a saddle is a comfort zone for me. And I felt into the woman in the forest bath with the support at the back of my neck. Then I picked up this beautiful violin which was alive. I don’t play the violin but I just knew how to play it. As I went into the room with the orchestra, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. I wasn’t playing the violin, it was playing through me, a beautiful solo. And then when I stopped and said something to the group, it was like everybody knew that now we’re going to play together. The orchestra starts and it just flows. It was a really beautiful experience.

This chiming in of the orchestra feels like an apt metaphor for the way the dream group members joined in the process of weaving these images and carrying them forward. The invocation brought a beautiful mix of dream images. Then the experiential prompts deepened our collective sense of these images, and the whole experience seemed to be carried along by our collective imagination. Here are a couple of comments from group members:

“I loved how this process gave us more permission to take each other’s dreams and try them on.  If I view it entirely from a personal perspective, I had the feeling that each person’s dream offered me a reflection of a different aspect of myself.  Although these aspects may be conscious (and of course some may be unconscious) I may not normally spend as much time experiencing them as this process allowed me to do.”

“As somebody who has a really rich and detailed imaginal world, both in waking and dreaming life, it feels beautifully intimate to weave our dream images together, to be impacted by other people’s imaginal content, and to hear the ways that the imagery I share is impacting others. I know we do an element of that in all dream groups, but it feels like there’s something different that happened today… it feels like more of a weaving of a shared tapestry.

 

Dreamweaving is one of the methods I will be teaching in the class I am offering early in 2024 on Leading Dream Groups. As I fine this method, there will be more offerings, so stay tuned!

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Daydreaming is Our Baseline State, Not Something to Avoid

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We spend half of our waking lives daydreaming. This may or may not be a good thing – it depends what your daydreams are like.

A Harvard study on daydreaming entitled ‘A Wandering Mind is an Unhappy Mind’ may be giving daydreaming a bad rap. In a culture dominated by a drive for productivity, there is a sense that allowing our minds to wander freely hampers focus and the ability to get things done. This is why derogatory terms such as ‘spacing out’, ‘intrusive’ or ‘non-relevant’ thinking and ‘cognitive control failure’ are used to describe this normal human activity.

Naomi Kimmelman presented these ideas at the recent conference for the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD). She suggested that it is the kind of wandering your mind does that determines whether it’s helpful or not. Renowned daydream researcher Jerome Singer differentiated three styles of daydreaming: positive-constructive, guilty-dysphoric and poor attentional control. Cleary, the first category is a helpful state to be in, while the latter two are not.

Much of the research into daydreaming has focused on its negative attributes, but one study (McMillan, Kaufman & Singer, 2013) examined the question, how can something we spend half our time doing be so bad for us? In fact, their review of the research shows that in the brain’s ‘default mode’ we are consolidating memories, planning, problem solving, being creative and making meaning of the events of our lives. The authors highlight a review by Immordino-Yang et al. (2012) that stresses the importance of ‘constructive internal reflection’ for the development of a range of social and emotional skills such as moral reasoning, empathy, compassion and meaning-making.

The main thing to note from the plethora of daydream research in the past decade is that daydreaming is not inherently bad or good, but rather, it depends on how you daydream. For example, one study (Mar, 2012) found that daydreaming about close friends promoted a sense of social support, while daydreaming about strangers emphasized feelings of loneliness. The ‘guilty-dysphoric’ type of rumination identified by Singer is associated with depression.

It is a paradox that how you allow your mind to wander matters, when by definition, it’s a state of mind we don’t control. However, awareness of such states and deliberate active imagination practices may allow our wandering minds to stay in the creative states that are so helpful. Of course, we need to strike a balance between daydream and focused attention so we are able to rein in our meandering thoughts when we truly need to focus on the task at hand.

It helps to know that we can only focus part of the time. In another conference presentation about dreaming in the context of work life, Dr. Rubin Naiman noted that our minds naturally go through an oscillation between basic rest and activity (BRAC), even when we are working. During a work day, we will spend perhaps 70% of the time in a left-brain-dominant task-oriented mode and the rest of the time in a more right-hemispheric dreamy state. There is no point or reason to fight this or to think of ourselves as ‘lazy’ or ‘unfocused’ if our attention drifts off about a third of the time. It is normal, and impossible not to daydream, even while at work.

Both presentations underscore the importance of and ubiquity of daydreaming – it gives us a mental break, fosters creativity and allows us to view the world with a larger perspective. It slips us into a state of being rather than doing, a state that as a culture, we might want to value more.  I will close with a quote by Cheri Huber that Naiman shared: Please don’t do yourself the disservice of thinking there is anything you can do that is more important than just being.

Want to learn more about how to ensure your mind wanders along creative and helpful paths, rather than down the spiral of rumination and worry? We are offering a free (pay-what-you-can) seminar on Sept. 6, 2023 at 10am PACIFIC – and it will available as a recording if you miss it or can’t attend live. 

References

Killingsworth, M. A., & Gilbert, D. T. (2010). A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science, 330(6006), 932-932.

Mar, R. A., Mason, M. F., & Litvack, A. (2012). How daydreaming relates to life satisfaction, loneliness, and social support: The importance of gender and daydream content. Consciousness and cognition, 21(1), 401-407.

McMillan, R. L., Kaufman, S. B., & Singer, J. L. (2013). Ode to positive constructive daydreaming. Frontiers in psychology, 4, 626.

Singer, J. L. (1975). The inner world of daydreaming. Harper & Row.

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Dream Wisdom from Montague Ullman, Master of Dream Group Process

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Montague Ullman developed what is likely the most popular and democratic method of working with dreams in groups. Working with dreams in a group can open multiple avenues in a dream, deepen our capacity for empathy and illustrate how all dreams have archetypal dimensions that speak to us all.

(Sign up here if you want to hear more about joining a dream group this fall.)

The Ullman method is explained in considerable detail, with examples, in his book, Appreciating Dreams, a group approach (2006, Cosimo Publications, New York). I have gathered a sampling of some my favorite words of wisdom about dreams from Ullman to share with you.

 

On ‘Day Residue’

Ullman said the that events from the day that trigger our dreams are often not that important in their own right, but rather because, by association, they bring deeper emotional concerns closer to consciousness: “All of us are continually reworking unfinished emotional business from the past. Our dreams seem to be way stations along which these concerns pass, creating the possibility for recognition and exploration” (p. 21).

 

Do Not Dismiss Short Dreams

“A dream cannot be too short for the group to work on. This includes dreams that may consist of a single image. Even when only a small bit of a longer dream is recalled, it can have a holographic quality and touch on many aspects of the dreamer’s life” (p. 25).

 

Why Dreams Need to be Worked Through

Do not judge dreams from the point of view of the waking state as dull or unimportant. “Only when a dream is worked through its connection to the underlying emotional streams that enter into it, can its value be assessed. Its importance is seen not to lie in its appearance but in the channel it opens to the larger dimension of our being, seeking to make its presence felt” (p. 26, emphasis added).

 

On Metaphor and Bridging Waking and Dreaming Thoughts

“Awake, we do not think in the same metaphorical fashion as we do asleep. We do not ordinarily view our waking experience from the point of view of its potential for translation into visual metaphors” (p. 68) Ullman says the emotion that comes with dream images can help bridge the large gap between waking and dreaming thought. “It takes investigative effort to bring the dreamer close enough to the living feeling context of the period just before the dream.”

 

Dreams As a Direct Path to the Truth

“We all know what the truth feels like. Whether we embrace it with relief or recoil from it in pain, it feels real. Its very reality provides us with the opportunity to engage with it and grow in our struggle to come to terms with something new about ourselves. Dream work is a very direct way to provide us with such opportunities” (p. 95).

 

On Offering “Orchestrations” to the Dreamer

In the final stage of his dream group process, Ullman asks group members to take in all that has been said about the dream and offer comments that ‘harmonize image and reality’ as a way to ‘separate the melody from the cacophony of sounds that have filled the air’.

“Coming to an orchestrating idea that really moves the dreamer is an interplay of intuition, the ability to listen to a dreamer and discern the appearance and flow of feelings, openness to that material the dreamer has shared and all that has been shared, and finally, sensitivity to metaphor” (p. 95).

 

‘Stumbling blocks in the path of our evolving maturity’ that often show up in dreams:

  • How well do we handle feelings such as anger on the one hand and tenderness on the other?
  • How susceptible are we to feelings of guilt, self-depreciation and self-denial?
  • How aware are we of our own need for nurturing and support?
  • To what extent are we oriented to the needs of others at the expense of our own needs?
  • To what extent do we blindly accept personal, social, and institutional arrangements that limit or do violence to our own humanity?
  • To what extent do we deny or suppress what it truly alive in us?
  • To what extent are we being carried along passively by the tide of our life? (p. 97)

 

What’s notable about this list is that it suggests dreams encourage us to advocate for our own self in various ways: accepting one’s value, finding what is ‘truly alive in us’ and becoming active agents of our own lives. It might be in interesting line of inquiry for your next dream: how is this dream encouraging me to advocate for myself and to live a life that is in keeping with my deepest desires?

 

Are you interested in further dream group study with Dr. Leslie Ellis? Do you want to be part of a small, dedicated dream group starting in fall 2023? There will be limited space, so please add your name to this list if you want to hear more about this opportunity.

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Experiential Dreamwork: Adding depth, creativity and transformation of trauma memory for you and your clients

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Over time, dreams appear to help take the emotional charge out of challenging memories while enabling us to retain the information we need to make more adaptive decisions in the future. Engaging with dreams can augment and strengthen this process.

By Dr. Leslie Ellis

Paying attention to dreams adds richness, creativity and depth to inner process. Bringing experiential dreamwork into clinical practice also increases the likelihood that clients will experience deep and lasting change. In my recently-published book, A Clinician’s Guide to Dream Therapy (Routledge, 2020), I offer many reasons for therapists to engage in dreamwork, both for themselves, and with clients. I close the book with a chapter on how neuroscience and dreamwork can combine to bring about transformation of core emotional patterns and beliefs. In this article, I offer a summary of these highlights from my book.

 

Why work with dreams?

“Clinicians who do not pay attention to their clients’ dreams are missing an opportunity to add a compelling dimension of depth, meaning and emotional authenticity to the therapy process. Because dreams often speak the language of metaphor, even the most seemingly-mundane content may carry important meaning that is outside of the dreamer’s immediate awareness. For example, a client who regularly brings dreams to therapy told me in one session that she had lots of dreams the previous night, but nothing important. Her dogs were in the dream, doing what they always do: the younger one pestering the older one who was, in the dream, getting to the point where she simply couldn’t take it anymore and was ready to snap. While acknowledging the dream snippet was literally true, the simple query: “Is there anything in your life like that, anything that you are completely fed up with?” opened up a whole avenue of process for her that was aptly represented by the dogs and may well have been left unexplored had she not mentioned her dream.

 

In addition to turning our attention to deeper matters, the benefits of working with dreams in clinical practice include the fact that dreams are creative and engage clients in the therapy process. They point to our most salient emotional concerns. They bypass our internal editing process and normal defenses, and so are unflinchingly honest representations of our life situation. Dreams can bring a new and wider perspective on a situation that seems otherwise stuck. They provide diagnostic information and can be indicators of clinical progress. They help to regulate our emotions, and working directly with the feelings dreams engender may strengthen this positive effect. They can be a safe pathway to working with trauma. The ‘big’ dreams we occasionally experience can literally change our lives, and dream therapy can facilitate and integrate this transformation.

 

Much of what we know about how clinicians use dreams in their practice is captured in a handful of studies that were reviewed by Pesant and Zadra (2004) with the goal of making clinicians aware that integrating dream work into their practice is both beneficial and accessible. The researchers found that while most therapists do work with dreams at least occasionally in their practice, the majority are not comfortable doing so because they feel they lack expertise or the necessary specialized training. In fact, it is most often the clients, not the therapists, who initiate dream work. The review also found evidence that dream work helps increase clients’ self-knowledge and insight, and increases their commitment to therapy, which can be a predictor of good therapy outcomes” (from chapter 1, A Clinician’s Guide to Dream Therapy).

 

Dreamwork informed by neuroscience can lead to transformation

We will now skip ahead to the final chapter which brings much of the preceding information together. I map a process that touches on how dreams are implicated in the updating of our emotional memories. The following is an abbreviated version of the last chapter: Transformation: Applying neuroscience to dreamwork.

 

“It used to be thought that emotional memories were not malleable, but the discovery of the processes behind emotional memory reconsolidation (Lane et al., 2015) has changed this view. Current evidence suggests the brain is more resilient and capable of changing and healing than previously thought, even later in life. This is a cause for optimism because now that we know something about the specific mechanisms of change, we can attempt to engineer our therapy processes to engender such changes. The beauty of this kind of change, which can take place in basic neural structures (at the synaptic level), is that once it has taken root, the test of success is that clients maintain the changed behavior automatically and without effort. This is not the white-knuckling kind of change that reverts back to its former patterns under stress.

 

Implicit emotional patterns are malleable, and can permanently transform into more up-to-date responses, but only under the right circumstances. It used to be thought that long-term emotional memory was indelible because it was stored in synapses, in the basic structures of the brain. But Lee and colleagues (2004) have shown that if certain conditions are met, the synapses will destabilize, making revision of fear memory possible without reinforcing the original memory. According to Ecker, Ticic and Hulley (2012), the keys to unlocking the emotional brain involve clear, repeatable steps that involve juxtaposing a deeply-felt experience of an outdated emotional belief with something that feels true in current life, but opposite. This creates instability in the memory, and if the new experience is reinforced in a timely way, it will not just cover over or compete with the old information, but will actually replace it. Ecker and colleagues state that the resulting change will be transformational, rather than incremental. In my experience, this can be the case, but when beliefs arose in different contexts, transformation may take place over time, with repetitive experience of how the new experience contradicts the older paradigm.

 

Do not treat the trauma itself, but the beliefs that arise from it

This research highlights something important to keep in mind when working with trauma. The traumatic events themselves are not the important focus. The process, and an open curiosity should be directed to the beliefs that arose out of the traumatic events with the understanding that fear generalizes. For example, people who suffered from chronic neglect in childhood often develop the belief that no one is ever there for them. Feeling deeply into the experience of having even one person consistently show up for them has the potential to shift this long-standing emotional pattern. This is why falling in love can be transformational. Implicit emotional beliefs are not generic, however, but quite specific. They must be experienced in the body rather than speculated about with the mind for the change process to initiate.

 

Such beliefs and their opposites are often referred to in dreams. Jung was the first to notice this pattern. He found it so pervasive that he developed his theory of dreams as compensation around this idea. Although many early theories about dreams have been successfully challenged, this one persists and is incorporated into many current theories that suggest dreams bring new information and have the potential to transform our long-held emotional beliefs based on current experience. Therefore, dream material can be a rich source of experiential information to use as a base for facilitating memory reconsolidation.

 

Doing what dreams do, only better

This section describes how we can take a dream and by focusing on it, assist in the very processes that dreams are implicated in – those of emotional memory reconsolidation and emotional regulation. Over time, dreams appear to help take the emotional charge out of challenging memories while enabling us to retain the information we need to make more adaptive decisions in the future. Dreamwork can augment and strengthen this process. And it can kick-start a ‘failed’ dreaming process that is not working as it should, as is the case with recurrent nightmares of those suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

 

One of the challenges of trying to engender emotional memory reconsolidation is that it can take quite a bit of detective work to uncover an outdated emotional belief that was formed implicitly. Ideas about the nature of the world are often formed in childhood based on experiences from one’s family of origin, and early beliefs are rarely explicit or called into question. Having no other frame of reference as very young children, we see our environment as simply how the world works, and the beliefs we pick up are a way of adapting to the emotional and relational world we found ourselves in. Dreams, however, can bring our emotional beliefs to life as metaphorical images we experience directly. They often represent novel information that contradicts what we believe. Such images are the keys that can unlock the process of emotional memory reconsolidation, updating and transforming how we respond to life situations in light of current experience.

 

Those who consistently work with dreams as part of their practice of psychotherapy already have an intuitive understanding of how to work with dreams to bring about therapeutic change. Most invite their clients into a deeply experiential sense of the dream, a critical ingredient in the process. Dreams often have within them contrary elements that can be juxtaposed. Inviting the dreamer to deliberately hold this ‘tension of the opposites’ (Jung) can bring about deep and durable emotional shifts.

 

In my book’s final chapter, I am suggesting that armed with a basic understanding of the role of dreaming in emotional memory consolidation, we may be able to explore the dreams that clients bring to therapy in a way that facilitates or strengthens the helpful processes that dreams are already a part of. Well-considered current theories suggest that: dreams are implicated in the process of reducing the emotional charge of memories that have current relevance; and dreams play a part in updating our store of memories to include current experience, better preparing us for what’s next. This could also serve as a definition of what happens in psychotherapy. Not just the dreams themselves, but the dreamwork process within therapy can facilitate these emotional and memory updating processes. In addition, nightmare treatment research has shown that by using what we know about dreams in specific and thoughtful ways, we can repair sleep-dream-memory processes that are not working well, helping healthy dreaming to resume.

Clinical examples of transformational dreamwork

What I have noticed about the process of memory reconsolidation is that theories of psychotherapy incorporated its basic elements well before the neuroscience underlying the process was discovered. The trend in dreamwork toward greater experiential practices is an example of how therapists intuit and/or learn by experience to use methods that engender change. In addition, Jung’s notion that dreams are compensatory, and Gendlin’s bias control are two ways dreamwork brings about an experiential juxtaposition that can cause significant shifts in the dreamer’s store of emotional memory.

 

An example of memory reconsolidation at work is shown in the dreamwork with the Grateful Dead dream earlier in this book. Initially, the dreamer is terrified of being shot by ‘Jack’, the man who in waking life had been abusive and was now aware of where the dreamer worked. In the dreamwork, this fear was juxtaposed by the feelings of safety I encouraged her to sink into very deeply. There were at least two safe places in the dream to draw from: memories of her first love, and also being with a group of like-minded people on the bus who prevent Jack from harming her. In a later part of the session, I ask the dreamer to ‘be’ Jack for a minute, another form of juxtaposition; she feels how hollow and sick he is, before we move on to the part of the dream where she is safe on the bus.

 

There is a palpable release of tension in the course of working with the dream, and this is sustained, which is the hallmark of a successful memory reconsolidation process. The dreamer reported that prior to the dreamwork, she felt very anxious in general, and especially going to work. After the dreamwork, the fear was no longer present. She said, “I’m not holding the charge anymore.” She could walk into work without her usual worried pausing at the threshold, and this was not a conscious, but an effortless, automatic action reflective of a structural change in the nature of her fear memories. Interestingly, in her subsequent dream, she confronts Jack and he apologizes, which is further evidence of change. I believe such dream changes are significant and authentic reflections of clinical change because they happen without conscious volition.  The dreamwork also shifted the way the dreamer holds the memories about Jack, with more of a focus on her friends coming to her rescue and her desire to cultivate community in her life.

 

The ‘new was’

In the preceding example, the client arrives at a new vantage point. From there, she views the past differently, but also, paradoxically, with a sense that it has always been that way.  Gendlin (1984), called this the “new was.” He viewed feelings, thinking, actions and words all primarily as lived experience in the body, and each bodily event as implying what comes next. He called this ‘carrying forward’ and said, “In therapy we change not into something else, but into more truly ourselves. Therapeutic change is into what that person really ‘was’ all along… it is a second past, read retroactively from now. It is a new ‘was’ made from now.”  From this new was, steps come that change one’s conception of the past entirely. The change is not just a current one, but a shift that ripples through our entire store of memory, revising many things accordingly.

 

There is room here to think about state-dependent memory, something I encounter frequently in working as a psychotherapist. To play with the above example, when the client feels afraid, the memories of Jack feel much more ominous and she recalls the worst ones. When she is less afraid, she may recall better times, such as her earlier relationship with her first love.  This fear bias colors her perception of the world in general, and of relationships specifically. I believe that the elements of this dream were particularly salient and powerful tools for engendering lasting change in her sense of relational safety. It can be a challenge in psychotherapy to create deeply-felt juxtapositions necessary to revise emotional memory, but dreams provide ready-made and highly relevant material for this powerful transformation process.

 

 

Dr. Leslie Ellis is an author, teacher, researcher and therapist with an abiding interest in inner life. She teaches therapists how to work with embodied experience, trauma and dreams, and offers on-line courses in dreamwork and focusing. She has a PhD in Clinical Psychology with a somatic specialization. Shen has conducted award-winning research in treating nightmares of refugees using embodied dreamwork techniques. For more information, go to https://www.drleslieellis.com or contact her at leslie@drleslieellis.com.

 

References

Ecker, B., Ticic, R. & Hulley, L. (2012). Unlocking the emotional brain: Eliminating symptoms at their roots using memory reconsolidation. New York: Routledge.

Ellis, L. (2019). A Clinician’s Guide to Dream Therapy: Implementing Simple and Effective Dreamwork. New York & London: Routledge.

Gendlin, E. T. (1984). The client’s client: The edge of awareness. In R. L. Levant & J. M. Shlien (Eds.), Client-centered therapy and the person-centered approach. New directions in theory, research and practice, pp. 76-107. New York: Praeger.

Lane, R. D., Ryan, L., Nadel, L., & Greenberg, L. (2015). Memory reconsolidation, emotional arousal, and the process of change in psychotherapy. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 38.

Lee, J. L., Everitt, B. J., & Thomas, K. L. (2004). Independent cellular processes for hippocampal memory consolidation and reconsolidation. Science, 304, 839-843.

Pesant, N. & Zadra, A. (2004). Working with dreams in therapy: What do we know and what should we do? Clinical Psychology Review, 24, 489–512.

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Dreams as a picture of the nervous system

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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 — they are more image-based, more visceral and fluid. Spending time with our dream images in a calm and curious way can be inherently regulating, and I am beginning to suspect why this is so.

The late Ernest Hartmann, a celebrated dreamworker and researcher, said two things that I want to follow up on in this context. The first is, “The nightmare is the most useful dream.” This is not meant to dismiss the real distress and terror that our worst dreams can bring. It’s that nightmares represent an extreme state, and as such, one that we can learn the most from.

Linking nightmares and the nervous system

I’ve spent the last couple of years investigating the link between nightmares and the autonomic nervous system (ANS) through the lens of polyvagal theory. Although I think the implications of this for nightmare formation and treatment are still largely unexplored, I started this ball rolling with the recent publication of an article with the optimistic title, Solving the Nightmare Mystery in which I imply that the role of the nervous system is a missing link in our understanding of how to treat nightmares (Ellis, 2022).

I have been sitting with those who experience deeply disturbing dreams for many years now, one of the main things I do to help is facilitate the search for, and embodiment of, cues of safety that help alter their perception and experience of these dreams. They tell me this embodied process of dreaming their dreams forward (called ‘rescripting’ in modern nightmare treatment literature), changes how they hold the dream in their body. Typically, the memory remains, but the charge dissipates, after a successful session.

Nightmares are dramatic, and there is clear autonomic activation during sleep state shifts for those who experience them frequently. Nightmares are easily recalled and their impact is tangibly felt, as is the relief one experiences when they begin to fade or shift into a more benign form. This is useful because when a phenomenon is loud and colorful, we can more easily see it.

Dream images as nervous system state and shifts

However, in a recent class I teach on the clinical use of dreams, a dreamer brought an image of a dark, still woman in a tub that had sat so long the water had gone cold. Her impulse, in dreaming this forward, was to turn on the hot water faucet, to bring some warmth to the bath and to the woman’s body. Entering the dream further, she noticed the tub itself, and it was older, more ornate and beautiful than the one is her current bathroom, where the dream was set. Her own demeanor changed in this process or warming the bath, her face coloring and smiling as she described making the bath a sanctuary, adding scent and oil and dipping into the enjoyment of it. Later, she told me the shifts continued in the coming days: “I continued to experience “mini shifts” in the following days and was able to access and carry the felt sense of the warmth and beauty of the bath into many areas of my daily life. I noticed I feel more present when I bring a sense of aesthetics, in the form of a little beautifying and warming detail, when I have to tackle some of the mundane daily tasks and responsibilities, which were weighing me down lately.”

This entire dream process could be seen as an image of the nervous system as it shifted from a cold, immobilized (dorsal vagal) state, into one of connection and animation that was clearly visible on her face. Her fellow classmates remarked on the change, as her physiology demonstrated a clear shift into a state of social engagement and warmth (ventral vagal). This kind of shift is typical in working with dreams. The images from nightmares are clear representations of autonomic states. Activation or fight/flight – being chased or engaged in a battle – are some of the most prevalent nightmare themes. The leap I have made is simply that nightmares are the most obvious expression of what happens in all dreams. They are our bodies expressing in image and sensation our fluctuating internal state. They are doorway into its expression, particularly valuable for those who have trouble hearing what’s going inside.

Dreamwork as a way to metabolize and regulate emotion

This brings me to another of Hartmann’s famous statements: that dreams are a ‘picture-metaphors’ for our most salient emotional concerns. Sometimes our most pressing feelings are repressed, historic or fleeting enough that we don’t think about them during the day. But our dreams have an uncanny way of picturing what matters most, even if we have repressed it. Our bodies carry the charge of feelings and memories that are unmetabolized, and these find expression in our dreams.

My sense, which is shared with many dreamworkers and researchers, is that a purpose of dreaming about emotion is not to upset us but to help us process and shift such feelings. Sometimes, the dreams do this all on their own, like a nocturnal therapist, and sometimes it really helps to have another person process the dreams with us. One idea that attention to the nervous system and polyvagal theory has taught us is that we humans (and all mammals) function better together than alone. Sharing our dreams and bringing them into company and the light of day helps them do their job better. And more and more, I’m beginning to think that a large part of their job is expressing and regulating the state of our nervous system.

 

References

Ellis, L. A. (2022). Solving the nightmare mystery: The autonomic nervous system as missing link in the aetiology and treatment of nightmares. Dreaming.

Hartmann, E. (1999). The nightmare is the most useful dream. Sleep and Hypnosis, 1(4), 199-203.

Hartmann, E. (2010). The dream always makes new connections: the dream is a creation, not a replay. Sleep Medicine Clinics, 5(2), 241-248.

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Addictions recovery chaplain says dreamwork practice is ‘transformative’

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Dr. L.A. McRae offers impressions of their experience in the Embodied Experiential Dreamwork program

 

Sometimes a class can be truly transformative, and in this case Dr. L.A. McCrae, an addictions clinician and recovery chaplain feels this way after graduating from our year-long Embodied Experiential Dreamwork certification program. (A new cohort begins Sept. 21 and it’s not too late to join.)

L.A. noted that the dream program brought many helpful changes, both personally and professionally. “I am able to keep more of my dream content and really work through many underlying issues and concerns. Also, I have been able to integrate dreamwork with my individual clients and with my intensive outpatient groups. I now also keep a regular dream journal in my personal life. This has helped me to process trauma, grief, anxiety, and other uncertainties. I have found that I feel more alive in the non-waking life and am having meaningful connections and breakthroughs.”

I asked participants about the change in their comfort level in working with dreams. L.A. said, “At the beginning of the training, I felt that I was really in touch with my dreams. One of my spiritual gifts is dreaming and seeing beyond the veil. However, knowing what I now know, I would have put this competency at a 3. Since completing the program, I would say I am now an 8 and have a clear understanding of my growing edges.”

L.A. said their use of dreamwork in clinical practice has increased ten-fold and has shifted away from philosophical discussions to more experiential and focusing-oriented dreamwork. “With my individual clients, we always hold space for at least 15-minutes of dreamwork in every session. My clients really resonate with this practice and look forward to it. In my Anger Management outpatient group, we spend a significant amount of time with dreamwork and I have witnessed pretty amazing results. For instance, one participant was able to make the connections between the darkness he saw in his dream and the physical abuse from his father. This completely changed his demeanor and orientation towards healing. My Intensive Outpatient (IOP) group loves the opportunity to start the week with dream focusing in small groups. We went from no dreamwork to dreamwork almost every day.”

When asked what L.A. would say to those considering taking this program, they said, “DO IT! The experience in Dr. Ellis’ dreamwork course has changed both my personal and professional practice. The impact on/with my clients has been transformative. I have been able to access healing as an individual and hold space for healing with others. I am truly grateful for this experience and wish I could do it again! This dreamwork course was the best investment I made for professional development in the last decade.”

For more information about the program, visit https://drleslieellis.com/embodied-experiential-certification/.

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Experiential dreamwork program doubles student confidence in exploring dreams

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I am always trying to improve my programs, so I asked my most recent cohort how their comfort level and ways of working with dreams have changed over the past year as a result of participating in my Embodied Experiential Dreamwork program. It is so gratifying to hear how many deepened and freed up their relationship to dreams. On average students started with a comfort level of 3/10 in their dreamwork practice, and ended up at 7, more than doubling their collective confidence in working with dreams.

I have gathered some representative comments from the recent exit survey. These might be especially useful for those of you considering taking this program – the next cohort begins September 21, and there are still a few spaces.

One student, who prefers to remain anonymous said that as a result of taking the program: “I have been more motivated to dive deeply into my dreams, to spend extra time with them, to come back to them. It is now easier for me to explore a dream from the felt sense as opposed to analyzing and interpreting. Perhaps what I appreciate the most is the concept of how dreams have a life of their own, and that working with them changes them… Now it is easier for me to make space for whatever shows up.”

She continued: “The videos, podcasts, and articles were well organized and very clearly presented. The materials offered were very generous, over and above expectation. Class time was amazing, and it was good to have most of it be experiential. Leslie is a master at working with dreams and facilitating the group experience, in addition to having a solid basis from an academic perspective… This course was more than I hoped for, and I can’t imagine it being any better!”

Carrie Moy, a focuser in training, wrote: “This program teaches you a powerful way to work with your own dreams and those of others.  My connection to my dream life has deepened considerably as result of this program.  I have developed reverence for and love of my dreams, and I feel this has had the secondary impact of me increasing compassion and tenderness towards myself. I also have enjoyed working with others’ dreams in group processes.  It has brought heart-opening connection during these uncertain times.”

Michelle Carchrae, a registered clinical counsellor, said: “Now that I’ve had direct experience of doing dreamwork as a client, I know that it works and I have a sense of what it feels like when it does work. I have more trust in the process as well as an intellectual framework and steps in a process that can guide me when doing this work with clients.”

Markel Méndez, a Jungian oriented art and psychodrama therapist, said, “Now I am less worried about meaning or interpretation and more focused on experience and body sensations. In this new path, I found more creativity.”

Walter Smith, a retired minister and spiritual director, said: “This class gives particpants the ability to feel at ease in dealing with their own dreams while at the same time opens many different ways dream workers deal with dreams. It is an exciting way to become engaged with the larger dream world.”

Regarding quality of instruction, Smith wrote, “Leslie has a beautiful gift of creating an open and safe place for people to share dreams. Her presentation skills are top-notch. She never seems rushed, and presents in a clear and concise manner. This class was worth every penny. Not a single minute or dollar was wasted. Taking this class was one of the best decisions I ever made.”

Rocio Aguirre, a coach and meditation teacher tells prospective students: “You will increase your confidence to work with your own dreams and the dreams of others. You will have a greater understanding of trauma-related nightmares and how to work with them… and you will be in the hands of an expert in dreams and dreamwork. Leslie is always looking for new research and keeping us updated during the course.”

Head of PhD Studies at University of California, professor Anthony Kubiak summed it up by writing: “I would recommend this course without reserve. It gave much more confidence going forward with my own and others’ dreamwork.”

Spiritual director Nancy Finlayson commented on the extensive online materials that come with the course: “Loved it. I really appreciated the quality and content. It helped me grasp the concepts and bring them into practice… Leslie is an excellent instructor whose passion for dream work is contagious!”

There is more… and I am so humbled and pleased that everyone gave me the highest rating as an instructor. There were also some ideas for improvement, and I will be adopting these in the next cohort, which begins Sept. 21 and runs from 9:30 to noon on Wednesdays for the coming year (skipping December). Robbyn Peters Bennett will also be teaching the class with me. We do hope you will join our amazing dream study community.