To become a dream interpreter requires a basic knowledge of psychology and an understanding of the symbolic representations which surface in dreams.
This course will enable you to help your clients to discover the meaning of their inner self desires and fears that surmount during those restful periods of sleep, day-dreaming or meditation. You will be given a set of possible dream interpretations but it is important to realize that these may be only offered as guidelines to help your dreamer to develop his or her own understanding. To impose our own beliefs about what dreams mean does little to help the subject because only they, not us, know how those symbols relate to themselves in their own concept of the world.
Not all dreams require interpreting - during REM, which occurs approximately every 90 minutes, the subconscious mind is making sense of what has happened during the previous day and events that have occurred prior to that which have not been satisfactorily processed and remain in the 'back of the mind'.
Other factors may be things that have been heard or seen (or smelt) unconsciously and which trigger off the memory of an associated experience. However, when dreams recur then this is an indication that the mind is troubled about something that the subject is not consciously aware of. Dream interpretation is about self-knowledge and empowerment - because only when we know our own strengths and weaknesses can we develop as effective, functioning human beings.
Dreams can be seen in black and white, shades of grey or multi-colour. The dreaming mind has no concept of time during sleep and a dream lasting only a minute or two can seem to take place over several weeks or days.
It is common for people to dream that they are someone else, or even no one at all, for the sense of self is often lost in sleep - one can travel thousands of miles without leaving the bed - what a fascinating avenue of discovery the dreaming mind is.
Some of the greatest inventions have come to people during sleep or when the mind is totally relaxed - it seems that we are picking up ideas from the collective unconsciousness. All our senses are alive and sometimes ultra-heightened.
Occasionally you may meet people who tell you that they 'never dream'. This is nonsense - everyone dreams, it's just that some people don't naturally remember them.
Jungian Psychology, Functions and Word Association
Carl Gustav Jung devised the technique of Word Association to help gain access to his patient's inner lives. Jung was fascinated by the idea of
Archetypes
Archetypal events: birth, death, separation from parents, initiation, marriage, the union of opposites;
Archetypal figures: great mother, father, child, devil, god, wise old man, wise old woman, the trickster, the hero;
Archetypal motifs: the apocalypse, the deluge, the creation.