Let's PLAY in our DREAMS! Announcing new Dream Coaching!
As a lot of you know, I’m creating my life coaching business as a place to pour my love of deep soul work into serving others. My business has been evolving as I try out different things and notice where I am most drawn to working with others. At the end the day, though I want to have some F-U-N!
As a chronic over-achieving, workaholic, I have been (re)learning how to PLAY. I’ve been practicing – at PLAY – play in my yoga practice, play through creativity in the grad classes I teach, and play with my own guitar practice and pottery lessons. Now I want to add some PLAY into coaching until the weather get a little warmer to bring back in-person Walk & Talk Coaching Sessions around northern Colorado.
Enter the idea of DREAM Coaching (night dreams or guided visualizations)!
But, Tamara, what do you mean, DREAM Coaching?
It’s magical AND scientific! It’s artful AND psychological! Combining all that I love!
Dream Analysis was a tool I learned during my Wayfinder Life Coaching program with Martha Beck. At first, let’s be real, I was super skeptical because, ya know, I’m trained as a social science researcher.
But now…oh, now, I have seen how it offers new perspectives. Because it completely is based in meaning to the dreamer. We don’t consult Professor Google for anything. Instead, I guide you through deep, inner inquiry about what specific symbols in your dreams mean for you. Then, we coach through what that message is, what perspective it might be offering you, what you would like to do with it or not, etc.
I love me some Jungian psychoanalysis: It’s self-awareness and transformation
Dream analysis hails from a Carl Jung (dead white guy psychoanalyst) who split from the Freudian thought (thank god, he was a hot mess with serious momma issues). Jung believes that dreams (and visualizations when we are awake) show us symbols that hold individual, personalized deeper meaning. We can then play around with the meaning of those symbols. Dreams happen in the parts of our brain responsible for emotional processing and memory storage meaning that’s some pretty good info about what’s really happening inside. Psych and neurological research confirms that dreams are about future and forecasting what we are grabbling with.
Think of it as storytelling – and you get to determine the meaning for all of the characters, actions, plots, contexts, and props! One example from my own dreams — I would find myself in hotel lobbies, I was always moving through them. Over a few months, this reoccurred regularly enough to notice the pattern. This specific context/place showed up during the time when I was going through a divorce. These images were my brain’s way of processing out the emotions and making sure I was ready to transition.
What are the steps?
Here’s what I do. I write down any dreams I remember first thing in my morning journaling process for the last couple years.
Steps:
· Keep track of your dream. I suggest keeping a journal and pen next to bed during this. This is so you can write them down immediately upon waking before you forget. Although some dreams can leave such an impression that they are memorable.
· At our call, we talk about which symbols during the dreams really hit a cord with you or maybe even didn’t. We look at what relatable is going on in life that you want to work through. We can use the symbols to talk through how they might apply to your situation.
· We talk about next steps or application.
Recalling and writing dreams in the morning (or after napping, if you’re lucky enough) may take practice and you’ll get there. Just keep at it. My dreams are often easily forgotten or not recalled due to waking up patterns in the night or they are full of stress dreams when work shit comes in to be processed.
What if I don’t dream, Tamara? No worries, I have that covered, too!
We can take a playful approach to daytime dreams or visuals! Or I learned a fun guided visualization that I can lead you through were we can access similar symbolic activity of your brain and imagination. We then use those images to follow through analysis and coaching.
From now until, I don’t know, maybe end of March, I’m offering Dream Coaching for $50 at session (about an hour) with some emailing support. You can do one stand alone session or combine it with other work together.