What does my dream mean?
What does my dream mean? “For ten years I’ve had a recurring dream of a plane plummeting to the ground and exploding,” said Jenny, calling into a radio segment I did earlier this week. “What does it mean?” When you wake up from a dream, what questions spring to your mind? What does it mean?…
Nightmares and lost sleep
Nightmares and lost sleep. In my work as a dream therapist, I’ve noticed that more than half of first time appointments are booked by people suffering nightmares and lost sleep, or on behalf of their children who are plagued by scary dreams and fear of going to bed. Sometimes all it takes is one chilling…
This dreaming business
This dreaming business. Whenever I’m asked what I do for a living, my answer seems to surprise, or confuse. “I’m a dream analyst,” I might say, or “I’m a dream therapist”, or sometimes, to keep things easy, “I’m an author”, but that only invites the question, “What do you write about?” Then curiosity kicks in,…
Watery dreams
Watery dreams. We all have watery dreams from time to time, like facing a looming tsunami, drowning, discovering we can breathe underwater, swimming, floating, or being lashed by a heavy storm. What can these, and other watery dreams, teach us? When we dream, we’re processing our experiences of the last 1-2 days, both our conscious…
Dream therapy Ancient Greek style
Dream therapy Ancient Greek style. How well do you think you would sleep if there were snakes slithering around the floor of your room? Even if they were assuredly non-venomous, would you sleep enough to dream? If you lived in Ancient Greece around the fourth and fifth centuries BC, and felt in need of healing,…
The Dream Reader and the Dream Therapist
The Dream Reader and the Dream Therapist. Now, there’s a job title, Dream Reader. There’s also Dream Interpreter, Dream Analyst, Dream Alchemist, and Dream Therapist. I’m often asked about the differences between these job descriptions, and while the boundaries may overlap or blur, let’s get down to some definitions. People who choose to be in…
Past, present, and future
Past, present, and future. “Why dig up the past? Isn’t that what you do when you explore your unconscious mind through your dreams?” It’s a common perception that the unconscious mind is a minefield of explosive repressed emotions and bad memories buried in a vault of trash and long discarded mental clutter. To some extent…
Why do you do that?
Why do you do that? I was sitting in ‘hair and makeup’ at the television studios earlier this week, being made up to go on Today Extra. In everyday life the only make up I wear is red lipstick. In television life much more is required to survive and look alive in the bright lights,…
From little things
From little things. The Dream Academy is about to launch with its first course, the first of many, and we’re currently checking that everything’s shipshape and ready for our first visitors and students to come on board. Last night, my dream took up the theme. I was on board a brand new ferry, having a…
The train
The train. I had a recurring dream when I was a university student back in the early seventies in Glasgow, Scotland. In my dream, I would arrive at the train station to see my train leaving, or I would miss my train because I was on the wrong platform, or because the stairs to the…