Dreams are meant to balance our waking perspectives/subjectivity to give insight on another way of viewing our life situation
Dreams ‘speak’ to us in symbols and metaphors, using stored material in the form of images from our memories that serve as associations to express unconscious conflicts/feelings/experiences
Dreams were compensatory to the conscious point of view; expressions of aspects of the individual which were neglected or unrealized… often expressions of the ‘other side’ trying to assert itself.
– Anthony Storr, The Essential Jung
The Purpose of Engaging and Exploring Dreams
To offer a different way of looking at our life’s circumstances, giving us new perspectives, creating a more holistic viewpoint
Gain a deeper understanding of our experiences
Decrease anxiety and stress and increase a sense of control over one’s life
Increase a sense of connectedness to inner resources and understanding of healing
The dream is a message from and to the dreamer about their chosen mode of being-in-the-world.
– Eric Hall, Carol Hall, Pamela Stradling and Diane Young, Guided Imagery
How to do Dream Work
Symbol appreciation, or exploring personal and collective associations with dream imagery
Expressive Arts – recreating the dream or symbols of the dream through drawing, painting, sculpting, collage, mandalas or movement
All dreams come in the service of health and wholeness.
– Tallulah Lyons, Dreams and Guided Imagery
If you would like to schedule a one-on-one session or are interested in exploring your dreams in a small-group format, click here to set up an appointment.
The New Year represents new beginnings, a fresh start, a chance to get closer to the person you would like to be, the life you want to be living. Setting aside bad habits, letting go of crutches that you may have outgrown or no longer need and patterns that are no longer serving you can be both empowering and challenging. Ultimately, we all want to feel better about our bodies, minds, capabilities, or station in life, but how do we implement our ideas of being more fit, well educated, healthier, or more financially secure?
According to the blogpost Hacking Habits: How To Make New Behaviors Last For Good by Jocelyn K. Glei on www.99u.com , there is a very specific protocol for changing behavior. Through modifying habit loops, which include the 3 steps ‘cue, routine, and reward,’ we are able to set ourselves up for success in our new endeavors.
If you are seeking to create life changes this new year and would the support of a Licensed Professional Counselor, contact me to set up an appointment. It would be my honor to help you to create and maintain positive change in your life!
As an Asheville Counselor, I often see individuals who are dealing with varying degrees of anxiety and depression. It is my belief that we all deal with these feelings, to some extent, in our individual life-spans. Both can be debilitating, constricting conditions which cause life to feel like an incredibly uncomfortable, even miserable experience.
Recently, I have come across two resources that both speak to these states of dis-ease. The first is a TEDxYouth talk, by 18 year old Kevin Breel, who delivers an insightful speech on depression: both his own struggle, and our struggle as a nation, in accepting and understanding this condition.
The second is a recent article that way published in the New York Times by ‘anxiety-blogger’ Daniel Smith. In it, Smith recounts the experience of Alice James, the writer who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1891 at the age of 42, and the impact that the diagnosis had on her twenty-year experience of anxiety. You can read the full article by clicking the link:
I think one of the most important things to understand about anxiety and depression is that we all deal with them at some point. Exploring your feelings and gaining a greater understanding of the root of these issues in a confidential space can be beneficial and lead to insight and new ways of operating in the world. It is an honor to provide counseling in a sacred space to individuals of all ages to work through the anxiety and depression that is preventing you from living a life you love.
