A Clinician’s Guide to Dream Therapy demystifies the process of working with dreams by providing both a grounding in the current science of dreaming as well as a simple, practical approach to clinical dreamwork.
In addition to a survey of the current science and neuroscience of dreaming, this book includes clinical examples of specific techniques with detailed transcripts and follow-up commentary. Chapters cover how to work with PTSD nightmares and their relationship to the nervous system and polyvagal theory, and how to use experiential dreamwork techniques to produce lasting change. This second edition has been thoroughly updated throughout, including new case studies, and a new, detailed clinical example of embodied experiential dreamwork.
Readers will be able to discuss their clients’ dream material with confidence, armed with an approach that helps them collaboratively tap into the inherent power for change found in every dream.
Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. Fast-track to deep waters: why work with dreams? 2. Bringing it home: inviting dreamwork into your practice, and your life 3. Common factors: toward a universal approah to working with dreams 4. Mapping the route: the science of why we dream 5. Understanding the terrain: the dream is born in metaphor 6. From ordinary to sublime: kinds of dreams 7. Navigating the dream divide: woman in the mirror dream 8. The central quest: finding the life force inherent in all dreams 9. Avenues of exploration: visual art and technology 10. The inner journey: dreams and the body 11. Perfect storms: working with nightmares and bad dreams 12. Nightmares and health: why treatment is imperative 13. Nightmare relief: an embodied experiential treatment protocol 14. Fellow travellers: working with dreams in groups 15. How dreams enlarge us: big dreams 16. Transformation: dreamwork as a catalyst for change Index
About the Author :
Leslie Ellis is an author, teacher and psychotherapist with a lifelong interest in dreams. She is a leading expert in the use of somatic approaches in psychotherapy and she specializes in teaching focusing, dreamwork and nightmare treatment.
Review :
“A Clinician's Guide to Dream Therapy is the perfect resource for clinicians wishing to incorporate dreamwork into their psychotherapy practice. Leslie Ellis offers a scholarly yet entertaining summary of the major contemporary approaches to dreams and outlines the key effective elements across these approaches. She illustrates all this with engrossing clinical anecdotes that give readers a solid idea of how to begin this work.”
Deirdre Barret, author The Committe of Sleep, faculty, Harvard University; president, International Association for the Study of Dream
“In this important update to Leslie Ellis' clinical dream book, she offers some new information near and dear to my heart. She includes a fascinating section on the relationship to nightmares and the autonomic nervous system, making this book a major contribution to cutting edge trauma treatment. She offers a clear map to working with nightmares in a way that respects the lineage of somatically-informed trauma therapy. A must read for clinicians who work with dreams and trauma.”
Jan Winhall, author of Treating Trauma and Addiction with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model
“Throughout this clear-sighted and fascinating book, Dr. Leslie Ellis showcases the remarkable potential of dreamwork as a catalyst for healing. Ellis demonstrates how to integrate dreamwork into clinical practice in creative and scientifically grounded ways, guiding therapists through dream embodiment to the visual arts, and discussing everything from neuroscience to virtual reality. A Clinician’s Guide to Dream Therapy illuminates the path for therapists to explore clients’ dreams with deep respect for the experiential wisdom embedded in every dream. A must-read for all therapists who hope to guide their clients towards even greater self-knowledge and transformation.”
Dr. Clare Johnson, author of The Art of Lucid Dreaming and Elixir of Sleep, founder of DeepLucidDreaming.com
