Client Reactions to Working With Dreams in Psychotherapy.

Abstract

A questionnaire about working with dreams was given to 95 clients in ongoing psychotherapy. Results indicated that clients who discussed dreams in therapy (68%) had more positive attitudes toward dreams, higher dream recall, and more therapist encouragement for talking about dreams than clients who did not. Clients reported that therapists used more exploratory than insight or action dream-related activities. The outcome of the dream session was positively related to the therapists' encouragement of dream work and dream-related activities used. Clients who had not discussed dreams in therapy indicated that they had not because there was not enough time in sessions to work on dreams or it had never occurred to them to talk about their dreams in therapy.

The Use Of Dreams In Modern Psychotherapy

“…Relatedly, clients who indicated having discussed dreams in therapy had higher dream recall, more positive attitudes toward dreams, and more encouragement from therapists to talk about their dreams than clients who did not discuss dreams in therapy (Crook-Lyon and Hill, 2004). Clients who reported that they had not talked about dreams in their therapy sessions either indicated that other issues were more pressing or that bringing dreams into therapy had never occurred to them (Crook Lyon and Hill, 2004).…”

“…Likewise, psychoanalytically oriented therapists also frequently engaged in these four activities, but in addition often encouraged clients to associate to dream images, worked with conflicts represented in dreams, interpreted dreams in terms of waking life and past experiences, invited clients to tell dreams, encouraged clients to re-experience feelings in dreams, used dream images as metaphors later in therapy, and mentioned to clients that they were willing to work with dreams . Similarly, clients who discussed dreams indicated that therapists most often helped them interpret their dreams, relate their dreams to waking life, and associate to dream images (Crook Lyon and Hill, 2004). Hence, although both cognitively and psychoanalytically oriented therapists used many activities to work with dreams, they most often focused on exploring and understanding the dreams; they rarely addressed how clients might change their dreams or make changes in waking life based on their understanding of dreams.…”

Spirituality and Dream Work in Counseling: Clients’ Experiences

“…Crook and Hill (2004) found that clients were more likely to present dreams in session if their counselors encouraged dream work. Davis (2003) further suggests that counselors assess the client's willingness or interest for discussing spirituality before approaching the dream from a spiritual perspective.…”

“…The clients whose experiences are highlighted in this article were selected from a larger sample of 67 participants in a study investigating client reactions to working with dreams (see Crook & Hill, 2004). Crook and Hill obtained the larger sample by asking randomly selected members of Division 42 (Independent Practice) of the American Psychological Association, alumni from a counseling psychology doctoral program, and counselors at two university counseling centers to give a packet of measures to their next available client in individual counseling.…”

“…From Crook and Hill's (2004) sample, we determined that 20 clients reported spiritual or religious images in dreams, identified the dream as having a spiritual or religious meaning, or indicated that the counselor related the dream to the client's spiritual beliefs. In order to present a richer description of the data, the experiences of seven clients are highlighted in the next section.…”