Processing dreams during therapy sessions is often a rich and rewarding experience. Many believe that our dreams come to us to teach about ourselves, and if we listen to their messages, we can learn about our deepest desires, fears, and even receive answers to why we are here and how to best move forward in our lives.

Dream messages often provide us with information in the form of symbols, metaphors, and even puns.  They are truly messages from our souls. It is a fun and creative process to “solve the puzzle” of the way in which dreams communicate with us.  For example, a dream about missing car keys could represent the loss of awareness of how to move forward in one’s life, or awareness of one’s “next steps.” Or, the dream may be using the pun of car “keys” to tell us something about a “key” thing to recognize.

A therapist can creatively help clients work with dreams, using methods like having a client imagine that s/he is each of the characters of the dream, and looking at how each character represents a part of her/himself. It can also be valuable to dialogue with the characters in the dream during therapy or on your own, and to ask them what they are trying to show you.

As author Reverend Jeremy Taylor has said, dreams always have more to teach us. We could conceivably work on a dream for many hours, even days, and revisit months later and see additional meaning in the dream.

A good way to work with your dreams at home is to have a notepad or journal and a pen light next to your bed.  When you wake from a dream during the night, write down the main points of the dream, and when you get up in the morning, fill out the dream in as much detail as you can, writing it in present tense and feeling back into the dream. Then give the dream a title that summarizes it.

There may be “themes” to your dreams, and the themes may be a way your deeper wisdom is trying to get you to pay attention to something in your waking life.  The same applies to dreams that recur –they recur for a reason, and the reason may be that you aren’t getting the message the dream is trying to send.  Another great thing to do with dreams is to draw or paint aspects of the dream you are drawn to, or to create a mandala that represents the dream. Then ask your depiction of the dream what it has to tell you and gaze at it for awhile until answers come.

Rev. Taylor has written a number of very good dream books, such as The Wisdom of Your Dreams: Using Dreams to Tap Into Your Unconscious and Dream Work. His books give you more ideas for working with your dreams.  Also, Patricia Garfield’s book Creative Dreaming is very helpful.

Rev. Taylor has said, “dreams come to us for our healing and wholeness.”  Our own deeper soul wisdom has so much to teach us if we would just listen and reflect.

(Image by ScienceFreak)