‘Bridging’ Dreamwork and Energy Psychology
Robert Hoss, MS, USA,
author of Dream Language and Executive Officer and Past
President and Chairman of the International Association for the
Study of Dreams. He has been teaching dreamwork for over 30 years
and is presently on the faculty of the Haden Institute for dream
leadership training, and the adjunct faculty at Scottsdale College
in Arizona.
Lynne Hoss,
MA, received her MA in Clinical Psychology from Radford
University in Virginia. She is the Energy Psychology Program
Director for Innersource in Ashland, Oregon, and a former
counselor, journalist and communications director. As a member of
the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology, she is
trained in various energy psychology protocols.
Abstract
There are many
approaches to dreamwork that effectively put us in touch with
emotional issues that may be standing in the way of personal
progress. According to many researchers and theorists, the very
nature of dreams is to focus on the most important unfinished
emotional processing of the day. Thus dreamwork can be an
important means of very effectively identifying a critical issue,
as opposed to peeling away at surface-level problems and emotional
layers until the critical issue surfaces. Typically dreamwork by
itself, unless part of a more encompassing therapeutic process, is
useful for identifying or experiencing inner emotions, but not
necessarily for dealing with the emotions or reducing the barriers
to progress that they impose. The field of Energy Psychology, on
the other hand, provides some relatively simple approaches for
reducing emotional conditions and stress once the condition is
identified. By “bridging” the two disciplines, using specific
approaches which complement each other, both the identification
and reduction of emotional barriers and stress can be affected.
This bridging of disciplines may
also have a natural synergy in the biology of the brain. While
dreams appear to reflect the nocturnal processing of unresolved
emotional issues, involving the limbic system among others, energy
psychology targets similar centers in the brain with methods
intended to reduce emotional stress and anxiety. Neural plasticity
theory and clinical reports indicate that energy psychology is
able to produce neurological shifts which neutralize emotional
patterns in the limbic system, formed when the amygdala responds
to waking life experiences.
In this workshop, participants will
learn specific means for identifying and addressing emotional and
psychological issue through: 1. an effective 6-step Gestalt-based
dreamwork method for easily identifying current unresolved
emotional/psychological issues; 2. a unique new application of
energy psychology and the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to the
dreamwork process and outcomes; and 3. electively practicing the
integration of EFT with personal dream image work. A brief
discussion and some exercises, to illustrate the theoretical basis
of the combined methodologies, is provided in the first half hour
of the workshop. This includes research findings that support
these approaches and an introduction to the scripted 6-question
Gestalt technique and the EFT method. The method will be
demonstrated on a subject familiar with the approach. While this
subject will be the only one which we will directly work with on
an emotional issue, all attendees will be invited to practice the
approaches with their own dream as the demonstration proceeds, and
share any experiences or questions they may have.
The
Dreamwork:
The dreamwork
begins with the subject (and all who wish to participate)
recalling a short dream segment and selecting one important dream
image that felt particularly important, a “defining” image. Each
participant is then engaged in a scripted role-play technique with
that dream image. After a brief relaxation exercise the dreamer
moves into and “becomes” the image. As the image the dreamer is
asked to respond to six questions: 1. What are you, how would you
describe yourself? 2. What is your purpose of function as that
image? 3. What do you like about being that dream image? 4. What
do you dislike about being that dream image? 5. What do you fear
most as that dream image? 6. What do you desire most as that dream
image? These statements are specifically scripted to reveal
potential emotional barriers (impasses), conflicts and fears that
the dream is dealing with. The dreamer is then asked to reflect on
the statements they evoked during role-play and identify any
similarity with waking life feelings or a situation they are in.
Defining the
Emotional Conflict and Setup Statement:
In order to
pursue the reduction of emotional barriers that may be
contributing to the situation that was revealed in the dream, they
must be defined in the subjects own words. They also need to be
defined in terms of a meaningful affirmation or “set-up statement”
to which the EFT can be applied. Image Activation dreamwork is
designed to specifically support these definitions. Questions 3
and 4 target the conflicting emotions, and questions 5 and 6
target the fears and desires that create the emotional barriers
that drive the conflict. The subject is asked to focus on the
conflicting sides of their responses (the I Like/I Desire versus
the I Dislike/I Fear) and recall any waking life conflicts that
these seem to reflect. The subject then states the conflicting
emotions in their own words (for example something like: “I desire
X – BUT – if I did X then I fear Y would happen”). Next they are
asked to reflect on one specific emotionally charged situation in
waking life that the conflict brings to mind. The subject is asked
to rate the emotional intensity of that situation or feelings on a
scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest emotional stress.
The subject is asked to restate the conflicting emotions in terms
of an affirmation, in the following terms: “even though I feel or
fear Y, I know that I can X” (where Y is based on the I dislike/I
fear statements, and X is based on the I like/I desire
statements).
The
Emotional Freedom Technique:
The subject
then uses the affirmation statement, in conjunction with the EFT
procedure. This involves an acupressure tapping sequence and some
eye and verbal exercises, as the affirmation is stated in whole or
part. After each sequence the subject is asked to recall the
emotional event and rate the emotional intensity. The sequence may
be repeated in order to further reduce the rated intensity as
appropriate.
