How I use dreams in therapy by
Dr Elizabeth McCardell, M. of Counselling, PhD, Dip Clin Hypnotherapy
May 2013
Are dreams just the
random by-product of rapid eye movement sleep? Is their function to fulfil our
wishes? Don’t they just reflect the ordinary mundane things of everyday life
expressed in bizarre form? Aren’t dreams the royal road to the unconscious? Are
they ways in which the subconscious mind communicates with us? Maybe they are a
self-portrayal of the health of the organism through symbolic language, or a
way the organism regulates itself through imagery, sensations, and memories?
There are many ideas about dreams and the function of dreaming for sure, but
how can dreams be useful in therapy? This is what I wish to explore here.
Psychoanalysts, of
which I am not one, look upon dreams as keys to unlocking the unconscious mind.
They go about doing this by interpreting dreams, allocating meanings to symbols
apparently depicted in the dreams. Everyday objects, people and situations that
arise in dreams are viewed as having psychic significance. This is useful, to a
degree, but it too readily leads to the idea that everything is a symbol of
something else, other than the thing itself, as well as to the notion that the
thing has a greater and more universal significance than it might to the
individual dreamer. The proliferation of dictionaries of dreams attest to this
notion. A simple door can, in this way, be imbued with meanings irrelevant to
that dreamer: vagina, opening to the temple, door to the soul, the Great
Mother, door to the unknown, etc, etc. Maybe, however, it is simply a door, and
maybe the dreamer’s interest is not on the door, but what is inside or outside.
It is the dreamer’s
dream and the meaning of the dream is theirs. Interestingly, C. G. Jung
(1875-1961) said virtually the same thing. He wrote ‘Never
apply any theory, but always ask the patient how he feels about his dream images.’ Analytical Psychology: Its Theory and Practice: The Tavistock Lectures.
(1935), and yet more generalizations about the meaning of dreams have come
about by those reading Jung than by those caught up with Freud. Freudian
analysis is less popular these days than Jungian analysis, and more books are
written about Jungian perspectives on dreams than Freudian ones.
Dreams and dreaming are wonderful resources
and I use them in my own psychotherapeutic practice quite a lot. I ask my
clients to record their dreams and to bring them to sessions where we can use
them in the work we do together. How, though? I am sometimes asked by new clients.
This question, I admit, flummoxes me sometimes, because I use dreams in many
ways, and some of them very subtle. I don’t interpret them, that’s the one true
thing.
Sometimes when a client reads a dream aloud
they respond with an “aha,” suddenly understanding their problem. Sometimes
they’ll say, “I don’t know what all this means,” and so we’ll explore the
scenario presented. I might ask how they felt in the dream, or how they feel
now while reading the dream, and we’ll explore what memories arise from that
feeling, memories that can elucidate the how, why, and what of the problem
they’re seeing me about. I might explore the bodily sensations the person has
as we explore the dream. These tell me, and them, a lot about the feeling
quality of the message of the dream, a feeling quality that can be usefully
worked with, in that, or later sessions. Sometimes an image stands out and gets
repeated in various forms in a night of dreams, and so I’ll ask the client to
address it as though the image was a person. Sometimes, using a technique
developed by a therapist mentor of mine, I’ll ask the client a series of
questions in written form to respond as a personified entity representing that
image or object, thus giving them a perspective that would have been very elusive
otherwise. This latter technique brings into awareness the very something that
has been out of consciousness, for whatever reason (fear, rejection, denial,
for instance). The images of dreams may be drawn or painted, written about, or
even sung to. I might ask the client to write letters to the parts of a dream
that seem to have a lot of unrealized power. Or we might role play some bits of
a dream. There are other
techniques I might employ, but each is tailored to the uniqueness of the person
with me. All the techniques are used to bring conscious awareness to their
prevailing problem, for it is here the client can begin to choose options that
were previously hidden.
A problem is not the problem, but the
beginning place of new insights, new ways of being, and positive change in that
person’s life. Working with dreams fills out the psychic landscape of old
conundrums and new possibilities in a really creative way. Opening to
creativity is one of the greatest benefits of working with dreams, which is wonderful
not only for artists but for all of us wanting a greater abundance in our
lives. I find it enormously fulfilling participating in this process as clients
rediscover this resource and become increasingly self confident, happy and able
to leave their previous difficulties behind.
Copyright @ 2013 Dr Elizabeth McCardell
Copyright @ 2013 Dr Elizabeth McCardell
