“Dreams … are invariably seeking to express something the ego does not know and does not understand.”
~ C.G. Jung
Finding Meaning In Dreams
For over a decade Paul Adams has facilitated small dream groups (five to seven people) for those who have wished to better understand the world of their own unconscious and thereby better understand themselves. The dream groups provide a safe, non-judging place from which to explore dreams. However, it should be said, that whenever a person feels uncomfortable with what the process is revealing, they are respected and not pushed to probe further into places they feel they would rather not venture.
The Dream Group Process
Dream group members take turns each meeting to present a dream and a single dream is the focus of the entire meeting, (one and a half hours), whether it be a complex ‘narrative’ or a single brief image. The presenter is asked to give some context to the dream – events that preceded the dream the day before. Group process is roughly as follows. The dream presenter is encouraged to read out their dream in the present tense. Group members focus on each of the images of the dream asking the presenter for associations or giving their own associations. The presenter freely discards what does not fit while other associations are taken on as potentially helpful or relevant.
Dream Group Discussion
Free association and questioning leads to gradual reckoning of what the dream is talking about and whether it is offering a compensatory or complementary message. Additionally, the history of images may be researched in the various reference books that are on hand in the office library. Group members are not encouraged to interpret the dream, certainly not in any final or fixed way. The dream presenter will generally find that the process leads them to a deeper understanding of the dream, its meaning and its impact on their self-awareness.