Dream Tending

While it can be useful to observe the associations we have to our dreams and to interpret them intellectually, stopping there means missing out on the true gold that our dreams yield.

The figures that appear in our dreams are living metaphors, surfacing into our awareness from the unconscious soul. They deliver deep wisdom, beckon us to lost or neglected parts of ourselves, and guide us to wholehearted existence. Tending the figures indigenous to the soul centers and nourishes us at the deepest level.

Throughout history, traditions have emerged which recognize the rich potential dreams hold. I work from a model called Dream Tending, developed by Dr. Stephen Aizenstat. Grounded in Depth Psychology, Dream Tending integrates practices from many indigenous approaches to working with dream.

Dream Tending is a holistic model: it calls upon wisdom from mind, body, and soul. Even our most frightening nightmares usually offer up medicine for our inner wounds, and illumination for our uncertain path.

I love this poem by Linda Pastan, which conveys the way our dreams carefully preserve our deepest longings, until invited to unfurl themselves into our waking life:

What We Want

What we want
is never simple.
We move among the things
we thought we wanted:
a face, a room, an open book
and these things bear our names—
now they want us.
But what we want appears
in dreams, wearing disguises.
We fall past,
holding out our arms
and in the morning
our arms ache.
We don’t remember the dream,
but the dream remembers us.
It is there all day
as an animal is there
under the table,
as the stars are there
even in full sun.

To learn more about the services I offer, each of which can include Dream Tending, click below: