Ethical Issues for Transactional Analysis Practitioners Doing Dreamwork

Abstract

The authors are concerned that dreams are undervalued by too many transactional analysis practitioners, most of whom do not appear to use dreamwork in their practices. This neglect raises ethical questions. Berne's valuing and use of dreams is briefly reviewed, and further clinical uses are noted. Case examples of dreamwork demonstrate how the ethical questions can be answered with benefits for clients. The article concludes with a set of ethical principles recommended for practitioners who work with dreams.

Fighting Back

“…Bowater (2003) provided an overview of applying transactional analysis to clients' dreams and described how a client, in the context of a supportive group, used two dreams-one a lifelong recurring dream, the other a brief vision-to achieve dramatic script change (Bowater, 2010). Bowater and Sherrard (2011) also reviewed some ethical concerns relating to the use of dreams in the course of therapy. These articles have presented clear examples of the use in dreamwork of close listening, OK relationships, ego states, Adult reflection on metaphor, conscious and unconscious processes, script analysis, physis, autonomy, and redecision work.…”

Group Imago and Dreamwork in Group Therapy

“…Among the most active authors of the 1970s and 1980s, I here mention the contributions of Goulding and Goulding (1979), Jongeward and Scott (1984), Thomson (1987), James andJongeward (1971/1996), Erskine (1997), Scilligo (1990), and Novellino (2012). In recent years it has been Bowater (2001Bowater ( , 2003Bowater ( , 2008Bowater ( , 2009Bowater ( , 2010Bowater ( , 2013Bowater & Sherrard, 1999, 2011 who has provided the greatest contribution to the analysis of dreams in her comparison of the transactional analytic experience with the most recent research studies on dreams in both the neuroscientific and psychodynamic fields.…”

“…To ignore these dreams, or fail to respect them, is to deny a major psychological reality of clients and the validity of their own spiritual resources. To work with dreams offers clients an opportunity to observe their own inner processes and to develop a tool for self-healing.(Bowater & Sherrard, 2011, p. 180)…”