If we think back on any dream that has been important to us, as time passes and the more we reflect on it, the more we discover in it, and the more varied the directions that lead out of it. The depth of even the simplest image is truly fathomless. The unending, embracing depth is one way that dreams show their love. –James Hillman The craft of “tending” a dream differs significantly from the traditional practice of dream analysis. Most dream therapists have been trained to ask: “What does this mean?” This question tends to freeze the dream within one of a multitude of intricately contrived psychological systems. When we “tend” a dream, however, the primary question is, “what is happening here?” This simple question locates the dream work in the immediacy of the present experience, looking to the images themselves to reveal their purposefulness, their stories.
There are several requirements for dream-tending:
1. Honesty. This approach frequently brings dreamers into relationships that aren’t always easy. Dream images are often “twisted, unnatural, and in pain” because they are trying to get our attention.
2. Courage. From the French word “coeur,” meaning, “heart.” We must find the “heart” to not turn away from our dreams—however repulsive the images.
3. Radical receptivity and radical containment. This we learn by doing, as we go along. By strengthening the psychical capabilities and imaginative responses of the dreamer, the doors of possibility are flung open.
With practice, we can learn to be there for our dreams, like lovers—with heart, soul, intellect, body, and discernment. If we can let go of demanding, we can begin to learn the dream’s language of love. Then, something quite beautiful happens. Always.
“My weekly telephone sessions with Dr. Coleman have become the means whereby I restore emotional and spiritual balance in my life. Her vast knowledge and accrued wisdom have been invaluable in guiding me through the labyrinth of the dream world. Through my ongoing work with her, I have come to appreciate the power within myself to live a larger life. I have been an educator for thirty years and while Dr. Coleman is my therapist, I hasten to call her the finest ‘teacher’ I have ever encountered. She has taken my darkest nightmare and revealed its hidden ‘gold’ to me.” – Dorothy Ward, Professor, Theatre Arts Department and George Brown College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
For more information or to schedule your free introductory dream-tending session, please call 661-288-1901 or email: dreamtending@gmail.com .