The Importance of Working With Dreams in Therapy Sessions
The origin of the word “psychotherapy” comes from the Greek word “psyche”, which means soul. When we are doing psychotherapeutic work, we are tending directly to matters of the soul; understanding mysteries of the human psyche, how we make sense of the world, how we feel, and how we are shaped by experience.
Famed psychotherapist Carl Jung said that "the dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul.” Working with dreams in a therapeutic context is like taking a secret side door into the deepest parts of the human soul; parts that are not always necessarily available through regular cognitive processes.
Dreamwork is particularly helpful to those who have experienced trauma, who struggle with PTSD, or have recurrent nightmares. It might feel scary to talk about the frightening or confusing images we see in our dreams, but the simple act of talking about them and working through the messages they are sharing can help to dramatically decrease traumatic triggers, nightmare frequency, while fostering healing and integration.
Why we dream
Even though some dreams may be frightening or upsetting, all dreams are here to help us along in our healing process. Dreams are like picture metaphors for our most salient emotions, highlighting what matters most to us. Dreamwork can both accelerate and deepen the psychotherapeutic process towards the integration of self.
Dreams are not just arbitrary images shown to us while we sleep. They are living, breathing, representations of our deepest emotions and experiences. While we sleep, dreams help us with:
Emotional regulation
The consolidation of memories
Meaning-making
The abatement of loneliness
Spiritual connection and exploration
Working with dreams presents a powerful therapeutic opportunity that is often overlooked. When we know how to work with dreams and the symbols, metaphors, archetypes, and messages they share with us, we are able to move through traumatic experiences in a way that is safe, accessible, and effective.
Why we dismiss our dreams
In our waking lives, we are largely guided by the top part of the human psyche, known as the ego. The ego gets a bad rap as something entirely selfish or overly narcissistic, but the ego is a necessary part of every human psyche that regulates our awareness of who we are in the world.
This conscious part of the psyche does not like mystery or the unknown. When we dream, we dwell in the unconscious. And when we wake and our conscious mind begins to come back online, it begins to dismiss or filter out things that don’t make sense — like dreams filled with confusing metaphors, images, or people from our past.
Doing dreamwork, and showing the unconscious or shadow parts of the psyche respect for the ways in which they are trying to help us heal, can be a transformative part of the healing process.
Working with dreams in a therapy session
During a psychotherapy or dreamwork session, it is helpful to explore dreams not as literal messages, but as an active, intuitive and highly expressive representation of our psyches. By examining dream elements as parts of self, we can embody and explore each one to better understand its inherent healing capacities.
When working with dreams, I lean on several evidence-based psychotherapeutic approaches including Jungian, narrative, relational, and somatic therapy.
Interested in learning more?