Creating Innovative Dream Groups:
Leadership at Its Best
Justina Lasley, MA, USA,
is Director of the Institute for Dream Studies. She recently
published Honoring the Dream: A Handbook for Dream Group
Leaders and In My Dream…, a dream journal.
Justina’s special interest is in using dreams as a spiritual
source for personal growth. She has led groups, presented lectures
and workshops for over fifteen years.
www.dreamswork.us
Abstract
In a workshop setting, I will
share what I have learned through leading dream groups for over
fifteen years, writing Honoring the Dream: A Handbook for Dream
Group Leaders, and creating the Institute for Dream Studies, a
certification course for dreamwork leadership.
As a
dream group leader, you will be rewarded as a volunteer,
professional, or trained therapist. You are given the privilege of
hearing others share their dreams and watch them learn to trust
themselves and the group. You will witness their development into
the authentic person they were created to be.
Group
work magnifies the impact of the individual’s dream and enhances
the personal growth of the dreamer. Group dreamwork not only
affects the dreamer, but also his or her family and friends –
through the ripple effect of personal growth.
It is
important that a leader be well prepared for the role. The success
of the group depends on the leader’s ability and training.
We
will look at the following areas of group dreamwork:
-
Benefits of dream groups
-
The
role of leadership
-
Commitment to one’s own work
-
Organizing the dream group
-
Finding and screening members
-
Developing group guidelines
-
Agendas
-
Why
and how people change
-
Creative methods of dreamwork
-
Nurturing group members
-
Group problem solving / Challenges of group work
-
Creating a bond and safety in group work
-
Using inspiration, intuition and innovation
-
Effects of energy and emotions in dreams and waking life
-
Resources to enhance leadership
There are many techniques one can
use to open the dream to the members of the group, moving the
unconscious to consciousness – ideas for listening, observing,
experiencing, and honoring the dream. Through a workshop, I will
provide examples of dream work that will help the leaders
understand new ways of working with dreams, encouraging them to be
creative, to follow their intuition, and develop their own ideas
for inviting the dream to speak to the members in a language they
can best understand.
There
are many styles of leadership and types of groups. I will express
my thoughts and experiences, while incorporating the work of many
people who have shared with me. I will give you references to
information that will expand your knowledge, as well as allow time
for group sharing.
If
you are a group leader, I want to inspire you to enhance your
work. If you are not a leader, I want to encourage you and give
you the support you need to take the leap to leadership.
