Compassionate
Dreamwork: Working with Highly Resistant Adolescent Sexual
Offenders
Dani Vedros, LCSW, CSOTP,
is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Certified Sex Offender
Treatment Provider from Norfolk, VA. She is currently in
private practice and is the co-director of the Studio for the
Healing Arts and the Dreamwork Institute in Norfolk, Virginia. She
facilitates dream groups and workshops on a regular basis.
Abstract
In this paper I will share the
case histories and dreams of three juvenile sexual offenders that
had been referred to my treatment program subsequent to having
been deemed severely treatment resistant or treatment failures.
Using these three case examples, I will show how the use of
dreamwork was highly effective in transcending their resistance
and how it enabled these clients to fully engage in therapy and
access healing. I will also discuss the reasons why dreamwork was
so effective with this group as well as discuss how the variables
that made this approach effective in these specific cases would
also be relevant with other resistant clients.
In
the paper I will discuss the five variables most relevant to
breaking through resistance. The first is that the use of
dreamwork changes the therapist. Often juvenile sexual offenders
are approached with judgment and fear from the people who intend
to provide healing. When therapists use dreamwork, it enhances
their capacity to release judgment and approach difficult and
resistant clients with more spaciousness and compassion. The
second reason is that dreamwork helps to alleviate tension related
to issues with authority and hierarchy because the therapist and
the client mutually recognize the dream as the authority in the
therapeutic work and the dream is of course sourced from the
client’s deepest self. Third, dreamwork provides a shared language
of metaphor to be used by the client and therapist that is
idiosyncratic and highly relevant to the client’s experience.
Fourth, dreamwork can provide a ground of direct experience that
transcends the frequent difficulties in verbal communication.
Finally, the practice of dreamwork creates a therapeutic space
rich with deep and authentic compassion that transcends the
boundaries of the relationship and facilitates trust and the
potential for deep and lasting healing.
