[Newsletter] Delving Deeper in the Experience of Dreaming

Hello dreamers,

This is a month of endings and beginnings. One year-long experiential dreamwork program ended, and what a beautiful journey it was! There was such a collective desire to continue that I am considering some advanced dream class options for grads. We also had a highly popular course introducing Focusing with the Jung Platform. Here again, the response was so great, I am planning a more in-depth focusing program later this year, so stay tuned.

SEPTEMBER EE COHORT OPEN
There is a new cohort of dreamers beginning the flagship Embodied Experiential Dreamwork program this month. The class filled up fast, and there is already a long list of dreamers interested in the next cohort in September, so I am opening up registration. Check out this link for course content, pricing and dates.

FOCUSING, JUNG AND DREAMS
I also get asked a lot about the intersection of Jung and Focusing approaches to dreamwork. I am including a piece I wrote a few years ago about this – a full article, rather than a short blog.

More news: I’m writing again! I plan to complete an update of my Clinician’s Guide to Dream Therapy by the end of the year, and also to write a short e-book with the working title, Disturbing Dreams and What They Mean. If you have questions about any challenges in your dream life, do let me know and I will address them.

It is an honour to be part of the faculty on the Jung Platform, and even better to be chosen as a celebrated teacher. For this week only (until March 22), they are offering all of my courses at 25% off.

I have put some of my best ideas and examples into these courses. If you are interested in working with dreams in clinical practice, learning the basics of focusing, and also how to use focusing for working with dreams, have a look at these courses.

Focusing is a method of inner exploration championed by Dr. Eugene Gendlin. With roots dating back to the 1960s and 1970s, this transformative technique empowers individuals to delve into their own directly-felt experiences. This gets people quickly and effectively in touch with the intelligence and wisdom from within. When focusing paired with dream exploration, it makes for a potent combination for inner exploration.

You can check all the courses out here: https://jungplatform.com/teacher/leslie-ellis

What’s the single most important factor in a successful dream group?

Safety.

This may be why the method of Dream Appreciation by Montague Ullman is the most popular dream group method. Every step of the way, the dreamer’s safety is considered.

What maintains the dreamer’s sense of trust in the process? Confidentiality of course, and the ability of the dreamer to stop the process at any time. Beyond the obvious, the main consideration is the deepest respect for the dreamer and their dream.

This means no leading questions or imposition of ideas from the group, however brilliant they may seem. Ullman said, “The goal is to lead the dreamer into a dialogue with their own dream.” Anything else “shifts the dreamer’s attention from the dream to the motives of the questioner.”

He uses the analogy of curling to help us understand this concept. In curling, the skip (aka dreamer) sends the rock towards its target. The sweepers clear the path for the rock, help it on its intended journey, but do not change its course. “We respect the importance of the dreamer, Continue reading...

This article brings together my two favorite approaches in psychotherapy and personal growth: that of dreamwork and focusing. In my work, they are intertwined in ways that make it difficult to tease apart, so I am taking this opportunity to articulate the way they both differ and complement each other. I will highlight the work of Jungian dream workers who favor experiential processing, and will also summarize Eugene Gendlin’s ideas about how to work with dreams.

The Jungian approach to dreams

Although my interest in dreams is lifelong, I first formally studied dreamwork at Pacifica Graduate Institute, one of North America’s foremost schools for Jungian and depth psychology. While there are some branches of Jungian thought that can get quite theoretical, this is not the approach taken at Pacifica, where they stress the experiential aspects of depth psychology. There are strong parallels between the many dreamwork methods that I consider both Jungian and focusing-oriented. They key to both is the felt experience of the dreamer.

Carl Jung posited that there is not only a personal unconscious from which dream material arises, but also a collective unconscious common to all mankind and that truly numinous dreams have this kind of power. He called these universal forces archetypes, motifs familiar to us all: child, father, mother, lover, wise man/woman and so on.

Jung developed an extensive theory about the meaning of dreams, and believed dream workers should possess vast knowledge of myths, legends and symbols that could appear in any dream so as to amplify the personal aspect of the dream image into something more collective or archetypal. Continue reading...

In this delightful conversation for The Dream Boat podcast, I explain why nightmares might be shouting for your attention, showing what is unmetabolized in your psyche and maybe even telling you what is needed to help that process.

The antidote is often within the dream itself.

Borrowing from the work of Jung and Gendlin, I have developed an embodied dreamwork method for imagining the dream forward to discover a new way through the dream, allowing it to complete in a way that doesn’t disturb your sleep.

As part of my mission to de-mystify nightmare treatment and dreamwork in general, I spoke with Dave and Laura about my long experience in working with dreams and nightmares, including my doctoral research on treating the trauma-related dreams of refugees. I hope you enjoy it!
https://sites.libsyn.com/459600/dreamboatpodcast/series-3-episode-5-befriend-your-nightmares-befriend-your-dreams-with-dr-leslie-ellis

Why do we dream? Is lucid dreaming real? How can dreams be used for therapy? Does cheese really give us nightmares?

These are some of the questions explored by Drs. Ayesha and Dean Sherzai in their recent podcast episode: Your Brain On… Dreams (The neuroscience of everything).

Some of things I spoke with them about are how I incorporate dreamwork into therapeutic practices, and why dreaming is so difficult to study.

They also spoke with author, dreamworker, and poet Rodger Kamenetz about why, even if lucid dreaming is real, we might not want to achieve it. He says the practice can interrupt the problem-solving, memory-consolidating work our brains undertake when we dream.

https://thebraindocs.com/your-brain-on/dreams/
Or listen on apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-brain-on-dreams/id1730984252?i=1000646222532