DREAMS AND CREATIVITY

Gestalt Therapy

Gestalt Therapy is an approach to personal growth.
that focuses more on process (what is happening) than content (what is being discussed). It moves away from talk therapy into action through “experiments”, sometimes in the form of a role play. The therapist supports the client’s direct experience of something new, instead of talking about the possibility of something new.

Gestalt therapy acknowledges that a person’s sense of self is flexible rather than fixed.
When people identify with their current experience, the conditions of wholeness and growth support change. Put another way, change comes about as a result of acceptance of who we are, rather than how we want to be different.

There can be “unfinished business” from the past that a client needs to complete. This need is often met by working through a present-time experience, which refers back to an earlier time. In this kind of process, present and past can come together to create a new perspective, with new choices and the freedom to deal with the problematic situation in a new way.

In role play, a client may talk to an empty chair where they imagine that another person, associated with an unresolved issue, is seated.
As the client talks to the imagined person, they often receive deeper insight, access new or repressed feelings, and imagine that the person responds in a new way.

Although this technique may sound artificial and might make some people feel a little self-conscious, it can be a powerful way to approach buried feelings and gain new insight into themselves and the other person.

Other uses of role play:
A client can do the same kind of role-play with parts of their personality that have been denied or disowned. This is very effective in resolving long-standing conflicts within a person, that they often experience as different voices in their internal dialog.

Role play is also very effective in dreamwork. Enacting the parts of a dream can give a greater understanding of dreams than when they are interpreted. The reason for this is that all dreams have a feeling content that is inaccessible to intellectual interpretation. Gestalt dreamwork offers a completely personal experience of a dream that an outer interpretation can not provide.

In Gestalt, the therapist allows a client to interpret their own experiences, rather than imposing their own analysis or perspective.
The, therapist and client work together to foster the client’s self-awareness and change. Gestalt therapy begins with the first contact between the therapist and the client. Compatibility between the therapist and client is considered very important, and there is generally no separate diagnostic or assessment.

THE JUNGIAN APPROACH AND RELATED CREATIVE THERAPIES

Staying close to our dreams is a timeless, tried and true way of nourishing our souls.
We often don’t give enough credit to the people of the past, who were more in touch than we generally are, with the wisdom and healing that comes from staying close to one’s imaginations, visions and dreams.

Not to disavow rationality. The intellect and cognition of the left brain perform essential and valuable functions for everyone.

But, when we look back into the past, we can see the deep richness of our ancestors’ spiritual and creative lives stemming from their connection to imagination and emotion, as compared with the superficiality of our dominant culture’s exclusionary emphasis on rationality.

Our imagining (right) brains offer valuable gifts.
for grounding in life, support for the heart, feeling and body, support for our playfulness, and creativity, and support for meaning, joy and spirit in life.

As a person who has studied dreams and worked on personal dreams within the context of Jungian and other forms of dream interpretation, I know from personal experience the enrichment that anyone can derive from staying close to their’s dreams.

Everyone dreams, even though they may not remember their dreams. Dreams are so important that not sleeping, and therefore not dreaming, can cause a major crisis in a person’s mental health.

Although dreams may seem irrational, they offer valuable insights into our longings, current dilemmas, and inner conflicts. Dreams reflect back to us our outer lives and inner dynamics in ways that are useful and specific.

Then it’s up to us to take corrective action and create the lives we desire and are capable of living.

“My situation is mirrored in my dreams,” wrote Carl Jung in 1898.
Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist, and a master of dream interpretation. Over the 20th century he and his students contributed a vast body of work to the understanding of dreams and other products of the imagination.

His work is one of most important foundations for modern dream work.  Included in his work are tools for art therapy and other creative kinds of therapeutic practice.

He was an avid journal keeper, who kept wrote notes and did art on his dreams. He also carved and hauled stone, played in the sand and mused on the universal meanings he found in myths, fairy tales, artwork, and literature. He inspired many, many people with his insights into the value and meaning of dreams and the creative arts and their applications to emotional and spiritual well-being.

The Jungian approach offers many ways to create and care for an authentic relationship with your soul.
It is now believed by many that the soul’s language is the pictures and feelings expressed not only in dreams, but in every human art form. To practice Jungian dreamwork or any form of creative work, whether it is drawing, painting, writing, storytelling, dance or even music, a person can keep their fingers on the very pulse of their being. This is the inspiration and foundation for the emerging creative therapies.

As a therapist, in working with clients, I use my study and experience with dreams to guide them in connecting experientially with their dream images. I don’t interpret their dreams generally, but leave the meaning to the client as a part of their self-discovery. I work in the same way with other creative approaches to therapy, offering autonomy and independence to the client in a supportive and respectful way.