Working With Dreams

We spend much of our time sleeping and we spend much of that time dreaming. Our dream life is not primarily random; it is always specific to the individual person and their life situation -- different people at different times have different dreams. They are always rich, full of surprises, and with great depth and significance at multiple levels simultaneously.

My approach is a holistic one. The human organism is homeostatic in nature; it has a tendency toward equilibrium. Just as, in most cases, physical illness is a sign of a movement toward healing and wholeness, which the physician treats by supporting the natural processes, something similar is happening with emotional or psychological difficulties. The mind is part of the body, and waking and dreaming are parts of the mind. By paying attention to dreams as well as to waking experiences, we can best see how to support the process of healing, growth, or development that is already underway.

When working with a dream, it is helpful to re-enter the dream to whatever extent possible. Together we can walk around inside it, taking a fresh look. Helpful questions to ask yourself to stay with the dream include: What do I see, hear, or touch there? Where does my attention go in the dream and what else is happening? Where in my life is this situation happening? What does this remind me of?

Many people find that, after a concerted effort to follow their dreams in a meaningful way, they start to feel that their dreams are leading somewhere -- that they are not meaningless, random side effects of sleep but rather that they are indications of the homeostatic process at work, a surprisingly intricate mechanism of healing and wholeness.