Katy Baldock Psychotherapist
Counselling & Psychotherapy in Paddington, West London

Dreams

Dreaming is a common experience, and yet many of us do not pay full attention to our dreamworld. We can work together exploring the dream images which you have, whether they be 'nightmares', disturbing dreams, seemingly mundane dreams (they are rarely as mundane as we might think, once we start to explore their meaning), or luminous beautiful dreams.

I offer dreamwork courses for small groups as well as one to one therapeutic work.

How are dreams helpful to us?
You can think of the part of your psyche in which your dreams take place as being like a bridge between the outer, material more everyday world, and the inner more subtle world. In this dream space (on this bridge, as it were) content from both worlds meets and shows itself as images which we remember when we wake up. Sometimes there are a lot of 'outer world' images there, and your dreams will reflect your everyday life to a large extent. At other times in your life the 'bridge' will be more populated by images from another level, and may seem much more mysterious to you.

In fact, all the images, mundane or extraordinary, are offering to tell you something. There is always guidance in dreams. Your psyche is processing the parts of itself that are out of balance in some way and saying 'look, here, this needs attention'. It does it in images. It follows that what you need to do is learn the language of the dream images and learn how you can discern what the guidance might be.

Images will be unique to you - although there are some general 'maps' which we can use we always have to explore the image in relation to the particular dreamer and the particular time. There are lots of resources on the internet which try to help people interpret their dreams (and some of them are useful pointers), but ultimately the meaning of the dream is unique to you. It is a bespoke message from your psyche, offering you one to one specific guidance. And just as your dreams dont only happen when you are feeling under stress, or in some kind of career or relationship crisis, or feeling some depression - so the guidance is not restricted to difficult times. The guidance is always there, accessible.

Nightmares are simply dreams that we do not like, and which bring up feelings within us which we would rather avoid. Although it can seem daunting to engage with them, there is great benefit to be gained from exploring them. Ultimately they can be 'defused', and lose their power to disturb your sleep - when the guidance is discerned.

I work with dreams extensively in the therapeutic work which I do. I find that it provides people with a way to get underneath the surface levels, and thus offers insight and transformation effectively and profoundly. If you are considering starting counselling or therapy soon, I recommend that you start a daily practice of writing your dreams down in the morning. This encourages the dreams, and you may soon begin to see patterns emerging.