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Dream Anxiety: Nightmares & Repetitive Dreams
Night Dreams and Day Dreams © Martyn Carruthers
We offer dream work in which we help you dismantle dreams
from the inside out. Dreamwork and Dreaming Together is
an integral part of our systemic psychology.
Are You the Dreamer? Or are You the Dreamed?
Is dreaming older than human consciousness? You have probably seen sleeping animals and babies move their limbs and body while making unusual sounds. Dreams seem to assimilate or integrate events, and perhaps evaluate future possibilities.
Dreams seem to be a way that we connect our emotional reality to our mental reality. Some psychologists say that an awake human mind can manage about seven things in consciousness, while a sleeping human mind can manage thousands of things. All the details of your dreams may be meaningful.
People have long searched for the meaning of dreams. In ancient Egyptian healing, one relief for mental problems was to sleep in a temple. The island Temple of Isis at Philae in Egypt was a center for temple sleep. Dreams were interpreted by priests.
Ancient Dream Temple at Philae, Egypt |
Many writers about dreams seem to imagine that every reader uses the same symbols as the author, regardless of their emotional history and cultural backgrounds. Whose dreams are dream analysts analyzing?
Dreams, Anxiety & Frustration
Nightmares usually end when you wake up with a sense of fear, anxiety or distress; which may make further sleep difficult. You may not be sure that you have stopped dreaming. If you awake often, or if you avoid sleep because of nightmares, you may have trouble staying alert the next day.
You helped me make friends with my worst nightmare. I had the same nightmare for years –
a pack of dogs would chase me wherever I went. They seemed rabid and drooled
with insane excitement. In the dreams, I felt sure that they would tear me to pieces.
During your sessions, I learned to run with the pack and be accepted by them.
The terrible dogs turned into kids from the school I attended when my
parents divorced. I had put all my fears about my parents into my dreams.
Do you wake up frustrated? Repetitive dreams can be tedious. Perhaps you dream that you are at an airport – late for your flight – and many problems prevent you from boarding your flight. Or you want to make a phone call from a phone booth but you can’t. Or you are late for class or for work and crazy things keep delaying you.
Hawaiian Dreamtime: Moe Uhane & Ho’omoe
For the healers of old Hawaii, unusual or recurring dreams were significant and worthy of exploration. To better recover the meanings of a dream, an expert (kahuna) might join people within their dreams. Hawaiian Dreamwork is called moe’uhane (dreams of the spirit) and ho’omoe or (dreaming together).
I have been exploring moe uhane and dreaming together since about 1988, and I developed many useful Dreamwork methods for coaching, counseling and therapy. The feedback and responses I receive are persistently positive.
Many anxiety attacks or depressions can be called waking nightmares, and the methods I developed for changing dreams are often very useful. Our Dreamwork can be a wonderful and enjoyable activity – even with intense nightmares.
We teach Dreamwork on our Systems 3 training. Quite often, when you try to change a dream, the dream changes you until you create a new balance.
Dreamscapes & Nightmares
If you have nightmares related to current abuse – please seek advice from appropriate professionals about how you can change abusive situations.
Many things can cause nightmares and bad dreams, some examples are:
- Side effects of drugs or medications
- Fevers, influenza and other diseases
- Memories of traumatic or abusive events
- Anxiety about some crisis or potential crisis
- Foods or beverages which you cannot tolerate
As nightmares often reflect relationship and emotional problems, we may offer to dream with you. We may gently enter your dreamscape with you, and together seek to understand any confusing or scary imagery. Then, within your dream, we can find possibilities for integrate your conflicts or assimilating trauma.
We help people find lasting solutions for unpleasant or disturbing dreams, recurring nightmares and horrible dreams about some crisis or traumatic event. Our Dreamwork is particularly useful for changing deep limiting beliefs and toxic relationship bonds.
Our Dreamwork
We liken entering dream reality to entering Pandora’s Box. Neither you nor we know what to expect in your dreams. We usually find that events and symbols in dreams have many messages, not only one. Also, you may often experience the scary dreams of inner children – parts of you that got stuck at some young age and never grew up.
Dreamwork is no place for arrogance … rather for humility! During Dreamwork, I usually feel exhilarated joining people in their interesting dreams. The dreams are filled with meaning and emotional significance. Then we can dream dreams together – dreams that can change reality.
Are you curious about some frightening, unusual, or repetitive dreams? If you have recurring dreams of misery, death or monsters – why not ask us for help?
Caution: entering the nightmares of disturbed people can be
traumatic for unskilled or inexperienced helping professionals.
Dreamwork Case History
I was teaching a class about dreams and Jungian archetypes at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. I asked for a demonstration subject and a young woman volunteered. She described a recurring dream of being chased by a (female) vampire.
During our dreaming together, instead of her running away in terror, I helped her talk to the dream vampire. The vampire explained that she was a keeper of power, and as the woman kept running away, the vampire kept following – to give her her power!
The vampire offered the woman a cloak – jet-black with bright red trim. She put on the cloak and felt immediately resourceful. She said that she could not remember feeling so strong. The now-friendly vampire offered advice about the woman’s life challenges.
Two weeks later, the woman reported that she could maintain her powerful state, and she described changes that she was making in her problematic relationships.