Working Therapeutically with DREAMS and Altered States of Consciousness

Testimonials:

"Insightful article."  Helen Macdonald, Psychologist, Johannesburg

"Eye opener on dreams."  Kingsley Nasando, Physiotherapist, Johannesburg

Testimonial:

"What an eye opener.  Fantastic revelations!"  Kingsley Nasando, Physiotherapist

This module introduces professionals to progressive thinking about working with dreams, introducing terminology and different perspectives.  As a therapeutic tool dream work can assist professionals in helping their clients to identify unconscious patterns and deeply held beliefs that limit them in their lives.  It provides avenues to unlock people’s potential and help clients to move towards living a meaningful life, taking guidance from their dreams and building a personal narrative that underlies our sense of self.

The value for professionals of this module is to increase their understanding of the dream as an embodied living story in the person’s psyche. They will gain knowledge of the different approaches in terms of working with dreams as well as the therapeutic considerations in regards to individual patients to determine how and when to use specific aspects of dream appreciation with each particular client.

The value of this module to professionals is that it will increase their understanding and recognition of the different types of dreams, such as compensatory and transference dreams.  Professionals will learn to differentiate between mundane and archetypal dreams as well as to distinguish anxiety dreams from nightmares.  They will be better informed concerning the structure of different types of dreams and the therapeutic considerations applicable to these different types of dreams.  They will also learn more about dream recall strategies. 

The value of this module to professionals is that it will increase their capacity to think about different dream figures in terms of aspects of the dreamer’s psyche.  Professionals will learn how dream metaphors and symbols may be a signal which issues need to be addressed, and how and when they should be addressed.  They will also learn what the different universal themes or patterns in dreams may represent in the dreamer’s psyche, especially if it is repetitive.

The value of this module for professionals is to become informed about ethical considerations in the medicinal use of psychedelics.  Professionals will learn to approach issues ethically including harm reduction; risk and benefit assessment; and, participants’ psychological and physical preparation.  They will also be better informed about ethical considerations in the necessary integration process as well as the application of dream work approaches to psychedelic experiences.