Background: In sleep, when the defenses of the day are at rest, disavowed and rejected emotions return in disguised form as the dream. This program will explore the use of dreamwork in the treatment of eating disorders as a route for reintegrating an individual’s rejected emotions and promoting self integration.
- Handout copies of dream to participants for initial analysis
- Power point - dreams theories through history
- Core principles of dreams in depth psychology
- Group Discussion
- Why do you want to use dreamwork with clients and what are the barriers to doing so?
- Review goals of dreamwork with eating disordered clients
- The Work
- Hosting a dream
- Jung’s dramatic structure of dreams
- Active Imagination techniques
- Hill Cognitive-Experiential Model
- Wordplay and humor in dreams
- Psychoanalytic interpretation
- Practice application of methods using initial handout
- Group discussion, Q&A, review
In sleep, when the defenses of the day are at rest, disavowed and rejected emotions return in disguised form as the dream. A hallmark feature of patients with eating disorders is significant self-criticism, and consequently these patients experience dis-ease with their feelings, urges, and needs. The eating disorder behaviors and obsessions are regarded as maladaptive means for coping with this unease, but also leads to a reservoir of emotions that remain cutoff from experience. While comprehensive eating disorder treatment has expanded to include expressive and somatic therapies to access these rejected emotions, the use of dreamwork as a route for deepened exploration and connection remains de-prioritized.
Emotional and experiential avoidance are key maintaining factors for eating disorders. Patients may staunchly avoid “extra helpings,” and any experience of "extra flesh" on the body. In eating disorder treatment, where behavioral and medical interventions are imminent, dreamwork parallels this notion of excess. Thus, the deliberate use of dreamwork holds the possibility of being the “extra help” needed to reach the heart of the matter, leading our patients toward greater emotional freedom and self integration.
Participants of this program will develop practical tools to learn how to collaborate with their patients in the illumination of a dream, drawing primarily from psychoanalytic, Jungian, and post-Jungian techniques. This program will also review how dreams have been conceptualized throughout history and culture, encouraging participants to reflect on their own ideas about the use and meaning of dreams. Participants will have an opportunity to try their own hand at dreamwork using relevant case material and small group discussion.
Melissa Daum, MA, MFTi is an eating disorder therapist at Monte Nido Eating Disorder Treatment of New York. She attended Pacifica Graduate Institute where she received her MA in Counseling with an Emphasis in Depth Psychology. She has a BFA in Fibers from the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she also taught courses on Dream Studies and Psychopathology. She has been published in Psychological Perspectives: A Quarterly Journal of Jungian Thought and Psychology Tomorrow Magazine. Prior to becoming a therapist, Melissa worked in costuming for theater. Melissa lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. For more information about her work, see www.vashermeticum.com.
