Dream Therapy For Overcoming Nightmares

As a Dream Therapist and Analyst, I have been specialising in trauma-based nightmares for over 6 years now and interpreted and worked through thousands of nightmares as part of helping people overcome them. Dream Therapy is highly effective for treating the source of nightmares and we can usually see positive results within the first 1 to 2 sessions.

THE PERSONAL BURDEN OF NIGHTMARES

Unless you have experienced repeated nightmares, it is difficult for people to understand just how terrifying and isolating they can be as well as how harmful they can be to one’s own wellbeing. For the sake of clarity, I will mention that some people may refer to nightmares as "bad dreams," "night terrors," "vivid dreams," or, more informally, just "scary dreams". 

As A Dream Therapist & Analyst, I have been working in the dream-space for over 10 years. During the last 6 years, one of the areas I specialise in is helping people overcome their nightmares. Some people experience nightmares periodically, perhaps once a week or perhaps two or three times a year, while others have to endure them most nights. The severity of nightmares can differ significantly as well; from nightmares that do not wake the dreamer but leave a strong feeling of fear or foreboding upon waking, to nightmares that wake the dreamer in a genuine state of terror & fear and can include night terrors.

With my work as a Dream Therapist, most of my work is with adults who have experienced trauma, particularly violence and sexual abuse. Most often, this trauma is experienced in childhood (relational trauma), but I also work with people who have experienced trauma in their adult years. So, most of the information on this page relates to trauma nightmares as a result of physical trauma. If you are experiencing nightmares relating to other forms of trauma, you are welcome to contact me via my Contact Page. 

For people who are enduring nightmares, trying to overcome them can be immensely challenging with many giving up after trying multiple strategies. But there is genuine hope for overcoming nightmares. The hope begins firstly and most importantly with an accurate interpretation of the symbols and narratives contained within the nightmares. Secondly, is understanding the complexities of how trauma is stored in the mind/psyche/body.

NIGHTMARES ARE A SYMPTOM OF TRAUMA - SO WE MUST UNDERSTAND AND HEAL THE TRAUMA

When working with nightmares, it is vital for people to understand that they occur because past trauma that is stored within the mind/body/psyche, has not been adequately healed even if many courageous attempts have been made. When significant trauma is experienced by a person/child, the core of that trauma is stored in what we call the archetypal memory that is located deep within the mind, with interconnected fragments also stored in the body/soma. Jungian Psychology is a profound psychology that allows a therapist to navigate the inner world of trauma; this begins firstly with accurate interpretations of the dreams and nightmares that are being experienced.

There are several important reasons why the core of the trauma is stored in archetypal memory which I explain during sessions. What is important here to understand is that archetypal memory is not part of our conscious memories, but rather it resides deep within the subconscious or what we call in Jungian Psychology – the Unconscious. This makes the core of the trauma inaccessible to most conscious strategies and therefore unable to be healed/overcome by strategies including willpower (thinking we need to toughen-up), positive affirmations and most hypnotherapy techniques.

SO HOW CAN WE HELP HEAL THE TRAUMA THAT IS LOCATED DEEP WITHIN THE UNCONSCIOUS?

The short answer is by learning to work effectively with our dreams and nightmares. When we fall asleep, the conscious/awake mind switches off and this, among other changes in the brain/psyche, allows the dreaming process to activate. Whether we remember our dreams or not, science has confirmed that most people dream somewhere between 3 to 6 times per night.

Dreams originate from the deepest layers of the mind/psyche within the Unconscious. This is within the same layers where archetypal memory holds trauma. What this means is that if a person is carrying unhealed trauma, the archetypal trauma will at times intrude on the dreaming process, resulting in nightmares / night terrors. The more severe the unhealed trauma, the more severe the nightmares can be.

With this understanding, if we can understand the symbols and narratives contained within the nightmares through authentic dream interpretation, this then allows the Dream Therapist to understand the trauma more deeply and how it has affected the psychological/spiritual growth and development of the person experiencing the nightmares. This is all part of the vital work I do as a Dream Therapist. When this understanding has been achieved, then the therapeutic stage of Dream Therapy can begin which is how we can contact the trauma memory and begin the healing process.

THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF DREAM THERAPY IN OVERCOMING NIGHTMARES

There are two key stages in Dream Therapy. The first stage is the dream / nightmare interpretation. Without the correct understanding of the symbols and narratives, we will not be able to access the archetypal memory where the trauma is stored. The natural symbolic language of dreams and nightmares is difficult to learn. In Jungian Psychology it is called the archetypal-symbolic language and requires the study of archetypal symbols and their associated narratives. Jungian Psychology has been studying and tracking the symbols and narratives of trauma-based nightmares for over 120 years with thousands of nightmares journalised and published. As a Dream Therapist and Analyst, I have been researching trauma-based nightmares for over 6 years now and interpreted and worked through thousands of nightmares as part of helping people overcome them.

The second stage of Dream Therapy is the therapeutic part. The correct interpretation of the dream / nightmare directs the Dream Therapist as to how to approach the therapeutic process. We begin by working with the person to understand the trauma at a deeper level and how it has affected the individual’s life. This is often very sensitive and emotional work and if it is carried out with correctly, the archetypal memory of the trauma can be accessed within the session. In a very real way, this then allows the trauma memory to begin to be brought ‘into the light’ and made conscious. Over time, the archetypal trauma memory will lessen in its potential to harmfully activate during sleep and as a result, the healing of that archetypal memory can begin to take place.

One of the great things about Dream Therapy is that we can clearly track the progress of the healing of trauma by tracking and reviewing the person’s future dreams and nightmares. Overtime, we see the potency of nightmares begin to subside and eventually dreams replace them and those dreams will contain new symbols and narratives which confirm that healing is taking place. We can expect to see the first signs of positive change in the dreaming process within 1 to 2 sessions if the individual is committed to this healing work.

YOUR FIRST DREAM THERAPY SESSION

Trauma and nightmares are incredibly personal and often carry deep levels of pain and suffering. My role as Dream Therapist when meeting someone new who has experienced trauma, is to introduce myself and begin the process of creating a space of compassion and trust. This of course takes time and together we work out what we can achieve in a first session.

Before a first Dream Therapy session, I ask people to send through up to 5 nightmares that they have experienced – particularly recent ones. If the nightmares contain difficult personal moments, you can generalise them leaving out anything difficult and graphic. Receiving the nightmares ahead of the session allows me to review them thoroughly and prepare the session to ensure you get the most out of it.

In Dream Therapy, it is an important understanding that trauma and nightmares are deeply personal and while some people can open up and talk about their experiences within a first session, for some people, this is not possible and that is absolutely fine. In that case, we can keep the discussions general in the session and I can still provide deep insights and guidance as to the deeper meanings of the nightmares by keeping the insights and guidance general and non-personal to begin with.

I will briefly mention here a few things about using Zoom (a video conferencing program) for my Dream Therapy sessions. For the first three years of working as a Dream Therapist and Dream Analyst, I conducted all of my sessions in-person in my own consulting rooms. For the last 7 years, I have run my sessions using Zoom. Using Zoom for Dream Therapy works incredibly well, including the benefits of being a very secure program and being able to discuss deeply personal matters in the comfort of your own home.

In Dream Therapy, when working with trauma and nightmares, it’s very likely that we will see responses in the dreaming process within the first week or two after the session. I encourage everyone I work with to record all future dreams and nightmares so that in future sessions, I can review the dreams and nightmares and explain how the dreaming process has responded to the previous sessions. The first goal in working with nightmares is to start reducing their severity. Then gradually the nightmares will lessen and be replaced with dreams containing symbols and narratives that show meaningful healing has commenced.

An Introductory Dream Therapy Session is a 2 hours session and the cost is $140 AUD. Follow-up sessions go for 90 minutes and the cost is $120 AUD. To book a session or if you have any questions regarding Dream Therapy, please visit my Contact Page.