Counselling with Dreams and Nightmares by Delia Joyce Cushway
This practical, eclectic guide points out that dreams are not the prerogative of psychoanalysts, and is the first to provide counsellors with a model and techniques for working with their clients' dreams and nightmares. Using case examples throughout, the authors demonstrate that, used with sensitivity, dreamwork can prove a fruitful therapeutic tool.
The emphasis is on the fact that dreams are the creation of, and `belong' to, the dreamer and that they offer a powerful means of access to an individual's emotional and creative life. Chapters describe objective methods of understanding and interpreting dream language and symbols, and vivid subjective methods by which clients can be encouraged to experience the emotional content of the dream in the counselling session. Different types of nightmare are defined and separate guidelines are outlined for working with and alleviating nightmare distress. Guidance is also given on how to deal with post-traumatic nightmares, night terrors and children's nightmares.