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Hello ,
It’s hard to believe I am sitting down to write the newsletter for September, marking the end of summer and what I always feel is the true beginning of the year – because for so much of my life, it marked the start of school and so many new beginnings.
It seems this rhythm still continues, as I prepare to welcome a new cohort
to my Embodied Experiential (‘EE’) Dreamwork program this month, and prepare for a number of upcoming offerings including a new focusing partnership program with the Jung Platform, and a talk in Vancouver on dreams and mental health.
Following up on growing interest in the intersection of psychedelic medicine and dreamwork, I have interviewed a veteran in this area, Dr. Katherine Lawson, for this issue of the newsletter. And I’m offering a talk on this topic with TheraPsil, a leader in educating mental health professionals on the therapeutic use of psychedelics.
On the writing front, I am getting closer to completing the second edition of A Clinician’s Guide to Dream Therapy – although the publication process will take time. And I’m enjoying the fascinating research into all forms
of strange and disturbing dream states for my next book – you can access some of this on my substack: https://dreamsdemystified.substack.com/
Upcoming Events
Oct. 8 – Proficiency in Focusing Partnership Program begins
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Become An Exquisite Listening Partner with Focusing
Psychedelic Medicine and Dreams: A conversation with Katherine Lawson
Update on Nightmare-Suicide Research
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Become An Exquisite Listening Partner with Focusing
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Are you interested in deepening your ability to listen in a way that enables another person to touch into their body’s wisdom? Whether you are a mental health professional, partner, coach, parent, friend (or all of these!), focusing is a gift you can bring to every relationship – including your connection with your own self.
In this live, 8-week course, you will learn and practice focusing with master teacher Dr. Leslie Ellis. Join before Sept. 15 for a significant
discount for the Proficiency in Focusing Partnership award program (aka How to Become an Exquisite Listener).
For those not familiar with Focusing, it is an amazing method for discovering what the body knows about your life and world. It’s a profound yet gentle way of getting a sense of yourself from the inside.
Focusing is not designed to do alone – it is inherently a relational listening process – and in this course you will not only learn focusing, but also how to listen in a focusing-oriented way. That is, you will learn to attune in a way that naturally deepens your listening partner’s relationship with their inner world.
In my first course for the Jung Platform, I offered the basics of focusing as a way of Accessing the Body's Wisdom, mainly as a form of self-inquiry. This course takes you a step further so you can both listen to your own embodied wisdom and guide a partner in this process.
Focusing founder Eugene Gendlin
said that the intangible magic of human connection is what makes focusing so effective at moving us toward new understandings. When we, as a listener, absorb and reflect back what the focuser is saying, our receptive presence adds more to the equation. This is felt by the person focusing, and allows them to say something further, to take a step they may not have arrived at on their own. There is a beautiful rhythm that is created, a conversation that is greater than the sum of its parts.
In this live course, we will meet for eight experiential sessions. In each, I will teach you an aspect of focusing, and will demonstrate it. Then you will have the chance to practice in small groups, one skill at a time.
You will learn how to deepen your listening partner’s experience of their own depths, but in a way that is safe and guided by the focuser. I will offer suggestions to help keep the process moving, but also manageable. For example, in one session, we
will work with the inner critic, that derogatory voice that often pipes up when we first turn our attention inside. Continue reading...
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Psychedelic Medicine and Dreams: A conversation with Katherine Lawson
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The use of psychedelic substances as therapeutic agents is a trend with great promise, and a work in progress. There is an exciting but nascent body of research on efficacy and best practices, and there remains many legal and ethical obstacles. In the meantime, the use of plant medicines is growing like a weed – quickly,
organically and not always in the most desirable way.
“It’s the wild West,” says Dr. Katherine Lawson, a pioneer in using embodied dreamwork practices to facilitate integration of psychedelic experiences. She notes that since people are using plant medicines anyway, and have been for ages, there is a need to help facilitators offer safe, constructive and respectful ways to help clients prepare for and integrate their experiences. This is why she founded Awake in the Dream School.
Psychedelic Therapies Show Promise
Anecdotally, Lawson has witnessed dramatic changes in her clients as a result of the use of plant medicine, and in a much shorter time frame than is typical with more traditional talk therapy. “One of the main reasons for that, is that while you are under the influence of the medicine (in this
example, MDMA), you do not have much access to shame, fear and guilt. And if you are a skilled facilitator, you can help your client go back and heal things that are not approachable in normal waking consciousness, with all the layers of protective mechanisms. Those are gone. Your clients can see things so differently -- from a loving, empathic perspective. That’s the gift of these medicines.”
Research backs this up and is demonstrating the efficacy of these substances in addressing conditions like depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addiction (Carhart-Harris & Goodwin, 2017; Mithoefer et al., 2018; Palhano-Fontes et al., 2019). The proposed mechanisms of action for psychedelics in therapeutic settings include their ability to reduce negative cognitive biases, enhance emotional processing, and promote neuroplasticity (Rucker et al., 2018).
Studies have shown that a single dose of psilocybin can produce rapid and sustained reductions in depressive and
anxiety symptoms in patients with life-threatening cancer (Griffiths et al., 2016). MDMA-assisted psychotherapy has demonstrated promising results in the treatment of PTSD, with participants experiencing significant and lasting improvements in symptoms (Mithoefer et al., 2018). Psychedelics may also facilitate mystical-type experiences that can lead to profound personal insights and shifts in worldview, which some researchers believe can catalyze lasting positive changes in attitudes, mood, and behavior (Carhart-Harris & Goodwin, 2017).
The research on psychedelics is still in its early stages, and more large-scale, rigorous clinical trials are needed to establish their efficacy and safety profiles. The specialized nature of psychedelic-assisted therapy, which often involves extensive preparation, guidance during the experience, and integration support, can also limit accessibility and scalability. Continue reading...
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Quick Update on Nightmare-Suicide Research
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For those who follow my work on nightmare treatment, I want to impart some recent information to inform the way you work. One study shows that it is only trauma-related nightmares that are linked with suicide risk while another suggests pre-sleep calming rituals are key to helping
prevent such nightmares.
Two recent studies, both by Youngren and colleagues, offer important new information for clinicians treating nightmares. The most recent study (Youngren et al., 2024) examined the relationships between different nightmare types, suicide attempts, and mental health treatment utilization in veterans with a history of suicide attempts. The researchers found that only trauma-related nightmares predicted suicide attempts. This study highlights an important distinction between trauma-related and idiopathic nightmares, suggesting that clinicians should pay particular attention to trauma-related nightmares when assessing suicide risk. (Idiopathic nightmares are distinguished from trauma-related dreams in that they have no clear cause or origin.)
The second study (Youngren et al., 2020) investigated predictors of trauma-related nightmares in female college students with a
history of sexual trauma. The researchers found that both pre-sleep cognitive arousal and sleep latency (the time it takes to fall asleep) predicted post-trauma nightmares. These findings suggest that the time immediately before sleep is a crucial time for either triggering or preventing nightmares.
These studies provide valuable insights for clinicians treating nightmares and suicide risk. The distinction between trauma-related and idiopathic nightmares is particularly important, as it may help clinicians better assess and treat patients at risk for suicide. The findings on pre-sleep conditions suggest that one way to help reduce these nightmares is to encourage clients to manage their pre-sleep habits and adopt a calming bedtime routine.
References:
Youngren, W. A., Bishop, T., Carr, M., Mattera, E., &
Pigeon, W. (2024). Nightmare types and suicide. Dreaming, 34(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000261
Youngren, W. A., Hamilton, N. A., & Preacher, K. J. (2020). Assessing triggers of posttrauma nightmares. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 33, 511–520.
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Thanks so much for reading to the end. I am so grateful for your continuing interest and support for all that I’m doing to bring attention to the wisdom of dreams – in clinical practice and in life.
Sweet dreams,
Leslie
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