Tell me your dreams... Working with Dreams in Therapy

Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious, said Sigmund Freud. And while Freud's work on dreams opened up a completely new pathway to accessing the unconscious, it seems that it made dream work inaccessible to psychologists who are not trained in the psychoanalytic or a psychodynamic approach.

When I started working as a counselling psychologist, my supervisor encouraged me to bring in dreams to the session. And in my own personal analysis, my analyst, being a Jungian analyst, worked collaboratively with me on dreams. And yet, if a client brought a dream into our therapy session, I would panic. A part of me wanted to delve right into the dream, uncovering nuggets of gold. And yet I felt unprepared. That started a personal journey of learning about how dreams can be approached in therapy.

Before Freud revolutionised the psychological understanding of dreams, they were largely

viewed through spiritual, religious and cultural lenses. Ancient civilisations had very different

relationships with dreams. For example, in ancient Egypt dreams were seen as divine

messages. In ancient Greece, in fact, we have found evidence of temple incubation. People

visited temples and slept in them in hopes of receiving healing dreams.

As Psychologists, many of us follow an eclectic approach, while still being rooted in a specific

school of thought. There are many ways of approaching dreams in therapy, and of course, this is also influenced by your training and approach. Freud saw dreams as disguised wish

fulfilment. Jungian dream work views dreams as an expression of the unconscious aimed at

balancing the psyche and promoting individuation. A lot of Jungian dream work involves growth oriented interpretation of dreams. One engages with symbols within the brain to integrate the conscious and unconscious self, allowing for deeper symbolism.

Gestalt dreamwork as introduced by Fritz Perls brings the focus on the present moment

experience. The client will retell the dream in the present tense, as if it’s happening now. All the dream elements are parts of the self. When the psychologist works on the dream with the client, the client will take on roles of all the different elements in the dream, including the objects, the people and the emotions. There is a dialogue between parts to explore inner conflict or needs. Body sensations are also noticed and integrated into present awareness.

And then there is Gendlin’s felt sense approach. Here the emphasis is on inner experiencing

rather than external interpretation. Psychologists who work primarily from the somatic lens

would be able to relate to this as dreams are felt somatically. Psychologists would most likely

ask, where in the body, do you feel this dream image? For example, if a person dreams of a

locked door, instead of analysing the symbol, the focus would be inward -what does this lock

feel like in my body? They may notice a tightness in the chest. As they stay with the feeling or a memory it evokes, something may surface, such as a deep rooted fear of change for example.

I used to think that dreams belonged to the psychodynamic approach only. However, when I

read about Clara Hill’s Cognitive- Experiential Model of dream work, I realised that there was an approach to working with dreams that blended cognitive, behavioural, psychodynamic, and experiential schools. Here the therapist helps the client explore emotions, generate meanings, action, and identify how the dream connects to waking life issues.

Dream sharing is also a part of group activities. For example, the Ullman experiential dream

group method involves a small group working collaboratively to explore one member's dream, with the focus on experiencing rather than analysing. The dreamer shares their dream, and group members discuss their own projections and feelings, thereby helping the dreamer gain new perspectives without pressure or judgement.

Lastly, as far as techniques go, there has been a lot of research done on Lucid dreaming. This

is the state of being aware that you are dreaming while still in the dream, and often being able to influence or control the dream's content. Its therapeutic uses include helping individuals confront, and change, distressing scenarios, especially in PTSD or recurring nightmares.

Using dreams as a therapeutic tool

The word dream work seems more apt than dream analysis. The latter implies that the

psychologist is the expert who is analysing and providing a meaning for the dream of the client. However, dream work implies that we are taking the dream as material presented in therapy and looking at it with curiosity. It could help us access unconscious or repressed material. It could hold a symbolic representation of issues that plague the life of the client. It could point to processing fears that are too much to articulate in real life. Working on dreams promotes behavioural change as well as leads to unique insights that enlarge and broaden our understanding and perspective on the presenting concerns.

Training to work with dreams

As a practitioner, how could you work with dreams in therapy? It would be best to start working with one’s own dreams in personal therapy and supervision to begin with. If you’ve had training in dreamwork, you could build on that. If not, you could start off by reading books on dreamwork (Inner work by Robert Johnson, Dreams: Hidden Meaning and Practical Applications by Jane Teresa Anderson and Clara Hill’s Dream Work in Therapy: Facilitating Exploration, Insight, and Action, Let Your Body Interpret Your Dreams by Eugene Gendlin). These are just a few books to start off with.

Dream work in action

It is important to maintain a dream journal and record any remembered dreams if you are

serious about working with dreams. Remember, dreams are metaphorical and hence meanings should not be taken literally. It is important to stay with the images that the dream presents. Try and look for associations in real life, intuitively look at what clicks. Sometimes drawing and mapping dreams also helps a lot. One could identify symbols or themes. One sit with the question – what is this dream asking of me? However, don’t consult dream dictionaries and general meanings. Each dream must have the unique interpretation of the dreamer.

For me, as a practitioner, working with dreams has been a wonderful tool to access rich

symbolic information and emotional material that is difficult to articulate. I have found that one really does not always need to look for meaning, and sometimes just bringing the dream out and giving it a voice is healing in itself. Since the process has necessitated that I work on my own dreams, it has been a true blessing to uncover a rich inner world that I never knew I had!

Dreamwork is a tool that I find valuable, and over time I have become more confident in asking the client, “Tell me your dreams!”.

About the author

Dhanishta Shah is a Counselling Psychologist working with adolescents, adults and older

adults. Her work is grounded in a depth-oriented approach and how personal history, childhood, relationships, dreams, and recurring life themes can become meaningful pathways toward insight and transformation. She values long-term therapy, believing that lasting change emerges through a reflective and trusting therapeutic relationship that allows space for deeper exploration, emotional integration, and personal growth. Alongside her clinical work, she loves writing and sees it as a way of making sense of experience.