The Therapist/Analyst in Dreams
The Role of Dreams in Clinical Practice
4 Week Webinar Series
with Michael Conforti
“Dreams are impartial, spontaneous products of the unconscious psyche, outside the control of the will. They are pure nature; they show us the unvarnished, natural truth, and are therefore fitted, as nothing else is, to give us back an attitude that accords with our basic human nature when our consciousness has strayed too far from its foundations and runs into an impasse.”
[Collected Works Volume 10, paragraph 317]
[Collected Works Volume 10, paragraph 317]
To enter into a therapeutic relationship, involves a participation in a process that extends far beyond the confines of the therapist’s office and encompasses more than the individual psyches of both client and therapist. Therapy is an encounter with archetypal dynamics that literally shape the interactions of both the therapist and client. Where Freud saw transference and Robert Langs spoke of the therapeutic frame, we can now understand both as expressions of underlying archetypal processes literally shaping those creative, fascinating and at times, troubling, therapeutic dynamics.
In this seminar, we will look to those dreams occurring in treatment to understand the nature of these interactions, and to help evaluate whether they are in service of the Self, helping the individual integrate yet greater aspects of the numinous and the Self, or/and speak to a blockage occurring in treatment where the patient-therapist dyad is caught within a non-generative, replicative process.
Interestingly enough, little attention is given to the role of dreams in treatment, offering an accurate and objective commentary on the therapeutic process. This theme is addressed by the late Jungian Analyst, Yoram Kaufmann, in The Way of the Image, which tells the story of a client presenting the following dream;
“I am in a session with my analyst, except that my analyst is sitting my chair and I am sitting in his.” (p. 35). Another example would be of a client who dreams that; “My therapist is piloting a plane going to Europe, where my family is from”. While clearly provocative dreams, I trust we can all see these as important commentaries, either fictional or objective about the therapist and treatment.
In this four week seminar, we will look at dreams of the actual therapist/analyst and those providing a symbolic expression of the therapeutic process. This seminar will address the following themes:
* Looking at the initial dream as a commentary on those archetypal and personal processes needing to be addressed.
* Ways to understand the meaning of the analyst’s appearance in the dream
* Working to understand if the therapist’s activity in the dream is driven by the client’s complexes or presents an accurate rendering of the therapeutic process
* Learning to recognize symbolic and derivative perceptions of the therapist and therapeutic process
* Learning to recognize when the analyst’s appearance in dreams speaks to the meaningful or /and regressive aspects of therapy
* Learning to recognize those dreams alerting us to those moments when the analyst’s own psychological and archetypal issues have taken precedence over the client’s issues in the therapy
* Understanding the dream’s capacity to offer guidance about the most meaningful personal and archetypal issues needing to be addressed
I hope you will join us for this seminar as we take yet another step in our understanding of the role of dreams in the therapeutic process.
Dates: Monday Evenings
June 18th, 25th, July 2nd, 9th, 2018
Time: 8:00 -9:30 PM EST
Format: Zoom
Fee: $120 USD
Instructor: Dr. Michael Conforti
TO REGISTER:
Call us to register easily over the phone! (860) 415-5004
E-mail us to register with your card on file! [email protected]
Conforti, M. (1999). Field, Form and Fate: Patterns in Mind, Psyche and Nature
Kaufmann, Y (2009 ). The Way of The Image: The Orientational Approach to the Psyche
In this seminar, we will look to those dreams occurring in treatment to understand the nature of these interactions, and to help evaluate whether they are in service of the Self, helping the individual integrate yet greater aspects of the numinous and the Self, or/and speak to a blockage occurring in treatment where the patient-therapist dyad is caught within a non-generative, replicative process.
Interestingly enough, little attention is given to the role of dreams in treatment, offering an accurate and objective commentary on the therapeutic process. This theme is addressed by the late Jungian Analyst, Yoram Kaufmann, in The Way of the Image, which tells the story of a client presenting the following dream;
“I am in a session with my analyst, except that my analyst is sitting my chair and I am sitting in his.” (p. 35). Another example would be of a client who dreams that; “My therapist is piloting a plane going to Europe, where my family is from”. While clearly provocative dreams, I trust we can all see these as important commentaries, either fictional or objective about the therapist and treatment.
In this four week seminar, we will look at dreams of the actual therapist/analyst and those providing a symbolic expression of the therapeutic process. This seminar will address the following themes:
* Looking at the initial dream as a commentary on those archetypal and personal processes needing to be addressed.
* Ways to understand the meaning of the analyst’s appearance in the dream
* Working to understand if the therapist’s activity in the dream is driven by the client’s complexes or presents an accurate rendering of the therapeutic process
* Learning to recognize symbolic and derivative perceptions of the therapist and therapeutic process
* Learning to recognize when the analyst’s appearance in dreams speaks to the meaningful or /and regressive aspects of therapy
* Learning to recognize those dreams alerting us to those moments when the analyst’s own psychological and archetypal issues have taken precedence over the client’s issues in the therapy
* Understanding the dream’s capacity to offer guidance about the most meaningful personal and archetypal issues needing to be addressed
I hope you will join us for this seminar as we take yet another step in our understanding of the role of dreams in the therapeutic process.
Dates: Monday Evenings
June 18th, 25th, July 2nd, 9th, 2018
Time: 8:00 -9:30 PM EST
Format: Zoom
Fee: $120 USD
Instructor: Dr. Michael Conforti
TO REGISTER:
Call us to register easily over the phone! (860) 415-5004
E-mail us to register with your card on file! [email protected]
Conforti, M. (1999). Field, Form and Fate: Patterns in Mind, Psyche and Nature
Kaufmann, Y (2009 ). The Way of The Image: The Orientational Approach to the Psyche