This dreaming business.
Whenever I’m asked what I do for a living, my answer seems to surprise, or confuse.
“I’m a dream analyst,” I might say, or “I’m a dream therapist”, or sometimes, to keep things easy, “I’m an author”, but that only invites the question, “What do you write about?”
Then curiosity kicks in, and keenness to share, because everyone dreams – at least five dreams a night – and while we may not remember them all, and some of us remember more than others, I have learned after 25 years in the business that everyone is intrigued and excited to finally find someone who can shed light on a particular dream that has always confounded them.
There’s so much more room in this world for professional dream workers!
When I first started in the business I was a rarity, and it’s an increasing delight, for me, to see more professionals entering the field to help people identify and transform blocks, limiting beliefs, inner conflicts, and habitual unconscious patterns, and to help them discover latent gifts and talents, a sense of purpose, meaningfulness, and direction.
The dream business is all about helping people to know themselves more deeply through their dreams, to resolve issues, reconnect to lost aspects of their self and soul, to heal, and to grow on every level.
Dream work is powerful because it accesses the dreamer’s unconscious mind, which is where change needs to occur if it is to be effective and long lasting. It’s also powerful because the client is aware that she is working with her own material – a dream that she created – and, in the careful hands of a therapist, can relate to. This sense of ownership of her dream and the issues it reveals opens her to real change.
Imagine a world where everybody had access to a professional dream worker upon waking from a scary or intriguing dream, or a world where everyone was taught from childhood the basics of understanding and working with their own dreams.
Yes, there’s plenty of room for more professional dream workers and more resources for credible community education about dreams in this world.
For myself, I split my work between my consultation business (consulting as a dream analyst and dream therapist) and community education through talking about dreams in the media, creating free resources such as The Dream Show podcasts, and writing books and blogs.
I have trained others in the art, science, and business of professional dream work for many years, mostly face to face or by phone or Skype, and it’s been such a pleasure, this year, to both deepen and broaden that work and make the training available in a more affordable online format through our dedicated training website, The Dream Academy.
What might your dreaming business look like? What calls to you?
2 Comments
Caroline · 28 September, 2017 at
I’m in love with the fact you say ‘imagine a world where…’ I say that absolutely all the time.
My vision is this: one day I’ll have emigrated to New Zealand. I’ll have an established practise to take with me.
One day I shall be a dream worker. A therapist. Dreams are a window to the soul and to be honoured. I’m inspired by how you talk to people and relate to them.
Mid term: imagine a world where I have a dream practise, a room perhaps, where people can come to? What if I used my CBT learning to help people understand what needs to be done to help people to the next level? It’s one thing knowing what the dream means but many don’t know what to do with that information or what to do next. I can help with that.
My room would have things to look at and touch and even art things or plasticine so they can draw or mould aspects of the dream they can’t describe to me .
Imagine at festival season, maybe I could switch to smaller scale novelty things. I could have a bus thing that people could hop onto and visit. Just for fun. They could become clients if they like for longer term help.
Now: keep studying. Keep learning and listening and practicing. I do alot of listening and helping now, social anxieties and suicide prevention anyway.
The fun thing is also: what kind of person do I have to be? What do dream therapists wear? What do they eat? How do they talk? What do they dream about? What can I do now to move towards that vision?
…. that makes me free. Free to choose, to evolve, to grow. I can choose anything I like.
Dreams are exciting. It’s not all good news but I know I have the call in me to stand beside people and help them not feel alone. I sense and feel their hopes and fears. I am also outrageous fun so whatever my practise has… it’ll have colour and joy about it.
I’m on the path…
Jane Teresa Anderson · 29 September, 2017 at
Thank you Caroline, I love your imaginings, they’ll surely deliver. I agree with you when you say that “knowing what the dream means but many don’t know what to do with that information or what to do next” is the key place to begin therapy. It’s where I do my most powerful work too, and this is a large focus of the course. Here’s to you, and your outrageous sense of fun that will indeed bring such colour and joy to your practice.
Jane Teresa