Dreamwork with Depressed Latino Men
Christine Dresp, LICSW, is
a senior staff social worker at Massachusetts General Hospital’s
Community Health Center in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Besides
English-speaking clients, she serves Spanish-speaking adults and
children, immigrants and refugees, who suffer from depression,
post traumatic stress disorder, physical illnesses, and from other
inner-city, low-income problems.
Abstract
I will present a case-study of a
middle aged, depressed Latino man to illustrate the usefulness of
incorporating dreamwork in psychotherapy with this population.
More specifically, I will show how Carl Jung’s idea of
amplification, and Robert Bosnak’s method of body centered
dream-work helped move the therapeutic process of this chronically
depressed, suicidal man. He had presented with daily nightmares
that he experienced as real. He often would wake up bruised,
sometimes on the floor, after having wrestled with the dream
monsters. These nightmares plagued this man to the extent that he
could think of no other solution than death. He blocked himself in
his small apartment and would not let anybody come into his house.
Only occasionally would he let in one relative who helped him get
food. He had no telephone since he did not want to be bothered by
people. He had lost touch with his adult son and showed no overt
feelings regarding that separation. He had no explanation as to
why he had lost contact with him. He spoke in hesitant, short
phrases.
In addition to his nightmares, he
also complained of frequent headaches and without much affect he
stated that his mother had abandoned him when he was a young
child. His mother had taken off for the US with some of his
siblings without my client’s knowledge while he was at school.
Since his abusive father could not care for him, he had to go live
with an aunt and uncle. As the outsider in his relatives’ home, he
reported without any affect that he had to stay home and take care
of household chores, while his cousins were encouraged to attend
school. He eventually returned to live with his father and during
his late adolescence he came to the US.
I
will show how we worked with his nightmares which gradually became
less frequent, and then stopped. He then began to report different
kinds of dreams. I will demonstrate how these dreams helped him
connect with feelings and memories of deceased and of still alive
loved ones in his country of origin. I will also mention how
paying attention to his dreams gave him access to joyful memories
of his childhood. By gaining access to memories and associated
feelings of his past with the help of his dreams, he developed a
wider view of himself, of his parents, of his relatives, and of
his country of origin. He is becoming more expressive as he
continues to focus on some of his dreams during his psychotherapy
sessions as well as at home.
I
have chosen this case in order to illustrate the usefulness of
dream-work with depressed immigrants and refugees, since many of
our clients present with similar concerns.
