What is Dreamwork?
“The dream is an involuntary act of poetry.”
- Jean Paul Richter (quoted in Darwin, The Descent of Man, 1879/2004, p. 95)
Working with dreams in psychotherapy is exciting, enlivening and enlightening. There are many techniques. One is associative: the client associates to the themes or images in the dream and the therapist and client together create meaning. Conflicts can be highlighted, new or innovative ideas may arise, solutions may occur.
However, without fully realizing it, I had been searching for a new method that would help both my patients and myself transform, that is, help move the process of change forward. I wanted to work even more deeply with the unconscious and the body, as sometimes psychotherapy can get lost in ‘talk’. I have been using the dream work technique Embodied Imagination (EI) to help me address this need. In this work the patient enters the landscape of her dream by embodying select images that eventually help her transform her habitual way of seeing the world.
First, we help the patient loosen up by inviting her into a hypnogogic state. This helps prepare the patient. Then the therapist helps the patient enter into the dream and embody images, that is, feel them in his or her body. The dream worker first goes to a “safe” image, with which the dreamer can easily identify. The dream worker also chooses some alien images including, when possible, the most alien. This allows the dreamer to leave his habitual consciousness and try on new personas.
A composite, a “dream body,” is now formed from the chosen images. This “dream body,” if practiced can precipitate change. The dreamer repeats the images over and over until they coalesce into one image. This is done for 20 minutes a day for a few weeks. Research supports that 20-minute daily practice is required to change a habit or develop a new one. After this practice, it is likely that new patterns, possibly new neurological networks, are formed from the sustained practice.
Through case histories, Robert Bosnak, the creator of EI, suggests how Embodied Imagination stimulates and intensifies the endogenous healing response. The client is in a placebo-like experience, ideally enveloped by an expectation of cure. The placebo response causes significant changes in brain chemistry and can have powerful effects. For example, studies have reported recovery from Major Depression, relief from the pain of osteoarthritis, and alleviating certain symptoms of Parkinson’s disease as a result of placebo.
I have undertaken a great deal of EI dream work myself, as the ‘dreamer’ or client. I have wanted to expand my writing repertoire beyond academic writing and have done so in a number of forms: playwriting, poetry and a new graphic novel and Deck of Cards created with Terry Marks-Tarlow. I was able to break through blocks and credit my work in EI directly for this productivity.
