I had a wonderful vignette happened recently: a woman rang and she wanted to
work on a dream over 1 – 2 sessions and would that be OK? I said yes of course
as I love working with dreams. Andrea came (she was small, bright, articulate, in her early 30’s with some Chinese heritage) and told me about a series of tsunami
dreams that she has had over the last 5 years that make her really anxious (I’m
wondering what happened 5 years ago?). She got married and has a 2 year old
daughter (Aha I think – there’s a tsunami of feelings around that situation). I
asked her to choose a dream and tell it and there is some confusion for her as all
the dreams are very similar but each has a uniqueness, so I ask her to choose
that last one which happened last week and prompted her to call me. She told
her dream and we drew the main scene which was the big wave coming – a wall
of water – on the page. I said where are you and she took another sheet and
drew herself running up a hill gathering her daughter, husband, Mum and Dad, 2
-3 friends with her to flee the danger…they were just above the tip of the wave
heading for a building above them.
I invited her to speak from her in the dream and she felt terror but more taken
with being responsible for the safety of everyone (I’m wondering of this was the
tsunami of responsibility and doing?). I asked her to be the others and they were
frightened etc but trusted Andrea and getting to safety (good – seems to have
trust in keeping herself safe). I asked her to be the wave and she found that a
difficult one to be…she has little concept of her own power and big energy (which
I can see. She has a job with the council implementing programs for special
needs groups and I imagine she’d be very effective. They had given her 2 years
off to have the baby which is unusual in local government – they usually only give
1 year maternity leave. They want her back! But she doesn’t see this as
significant or of her being special). So here we have someone who takes
responsibility, does a lot for others and doesn’t consider her worth …or is she
scared of a part of herself maybe the powerful part/ the Critic?…(no she didn’t
think so). Could it be being a girl and part Chinese that she carries the burdens of
generations of discrimination and murder of girls?(I didn’t ask this as I felt it was
jumping ahead).
I felt we hadn’t got to the core of the work and shared with her that and she
agreed. Most musings had been around thoughts she’d processed before as
she’d seen a few psychologists about this before coming to see me. I invited her
to put the two pictures together and just see how that felt as she looked at
them…to go with her body feeling. She looked for a long time and seemed quite
sad and said she felt a lot of grief (ah I think a tsunami of grief?). I asked her
where and she touched her heart and said there was pain around her heart and I
invited her to stay with that. She then had her hand on her heart and looking
down and….fell off the couch! She lay in foetal position on the floor and said “Just
leave me alone. I want to be quiet.” I waited for a while and then sat down next to
her and asked her what it was like down there and she said she felt OK calm –
giving herself some space and “letting it all wash over me”. Maybe the collapsed
place was what she was yearning for? It was an unfamiliar place for her as she
was such a doer. She was on the floor for about 10 minutes and then sat up and
her eyes were bright and she looked different – more relaxed. We had to finish in
5 minutes so to complete the session I asked her to put herself in the picture now
and she then drew herself in foetal position after the wave had passed.
I had to leave the next week to a prearranged reunion overseas. While I was
away she texted me that she had had another tsunami dream and this time she
couldn’t flee so she went “with the flow expecting to drown or die but I ended up
letting it flow over me and I’m still here. I’m alive! I’m alive!” I was so happy. She
has come back to see me so we can work on the triggers for the danger dreams
and some self soothing and meditation practices.
I think dreams hold such a deep insight into the character of the person. In
working with them we avoid all the usual defences and creative adjustments that
come up from early trauma and get to the core of the person’s issues quickly. It
can also feel a lot like constellation work in that old messages handed down from
generations are revealed as themes. I love the pictorial nature of them and that
there is a special scene and often associated feelings come through so easily
when we explore them. So often there is confusion and then the Aha as the
elements are worked through the felt senses and an inner wisdom emerges. Aha!