Decoding Dreams for Beginners
Layne Dalfen, author of
Dreams Do Come True: Decoding Your Dreams To Discover Your Full
Potential, founded The Dream Interpretation Center in
Montreal. She appears on radio shows and lectures. Layne has a
Certificate in Gestalt Counseling, is a member of the C. G. Jung
Society and is a Board Member of IASD.
Abstract
Attempting to understand a
dream's meaning is exactly like trying to do a puzzle. You try one
piece. It doesn't fit, so you try another. I call these attempts
points of entry. Using the methods of Perls, Freud, Jung and
Adler, I will explain different points of entry, with the goal of
better understanding the dream's meaning. Participants will learn
how to discover what point of entry works best for a particular
dream, or is the most comfortable for the dreamer. I will teach
ways to look at and work with symbols, emotions, and noticing the
atmosphere in the dream space.
The
workshop will run for two hours and begins with a 45-minute
lecture. I will pass out notes on the lecture
portion so participants can relax and focus on the discussion
rather than on note taking. Once the current issue the dream is
addressing is uncovered, solutions to the problem as they may be
presented in the dream become the focus of discussion. In this
section, I have two goals. One is to show participants how to
recognize and apply the strength in the dream. Very often the
dream actually discloses the solution to a problem. I will also
look at polarities that present themselves and how we might
benefit from noticing and working with them. My second goal is to
help dreamers see the solutions our unconscious introduces before
our conscious mind catches the message. Often, our dreams allow us
to pinpoint what is missing in our response to a given situation,
so we can learn new ways of behaving. Our dreams shine a spotlight
on those parts of ourselves that we aren’t using to their fullest
extent. Sometimes dreams reveal aspects of ourselves we are not
using at all.
In
our dreams, we try out new reactions to current or impending
issues. Our dreams provide a safe place to practice, until we feel
ready to take our new behaviors or emotions out into the conscious
world. And with this newfound comfort, we gain flexibility and
adaptability to the different situations we face. We become less
predictable in our approach to solving life's problems. We
increase our potential. This will be the main theme of the
workshop.
We will
then attempt to understand the dream of a volunteer from the group
with the participants using an “If this were my dream” format. I
will reserve 15-20 minutes at the end of the workshop to reexamine
the process and answer questions or engage in discussion.
