Interpreting Your Dreams (and Nightmares). What Your Deepest Self is Telling You
Interpreting Your Dreams (and Nightmares). What Your Deepest Self is Telling You
Maybe you are less weird than you think 😱
Hi! I’m Kate, a psychotherapist writing about mental health and self-discovery, for you to flourish in a life you love. When we cultivate compassion, resilience and understanding, we also create a more harmonious world. Upgrade here for transformative journaling prompts, empowering tools, workbooks and guided meditations, and if you would like to support my work.
Hi friends,
A warm welcome to you if you’re new here, it’s lovely to have new faces after this personal note went a bit viral on Substack this week. Thanks so much for being here!
I have created a new contents page to make Letters from Therapy easier for you to navigate. It’s a work in progress, and I’ll address the paid Members Toolbox Page next, as it’s getting rather full! You are welcome to join us if you haven’t already here.
Back to today’s topic: dreams, where I’ll take you through this whistle-stop tour on how to interpret your dreams, covering views of Freud and Jung, Gestalt dream work (my favourite), dream emotions, nightmares, night paralysis, sex dreams and not dreaming. Maybe you’re less weird than you think!
Unlocking Your Dreams
I’ll spare you the details of my own strange dreams, but if you are anything like me you have woken up in the morning thinking ‘What the…’ as bizarre memories of your own making linger on, leaving you scratching your head. Or maybe you’ve woken up laughing, your heart racing, blushing, or drenched in shame?
Dreaming is a healthy part of the minds integrating process as it organises experiences of our waking lives, past and present. Although I am no expert, as a psychotherapist, I've seen how exploring dreams can offer powerful insights with clients and it is always pretty enlightening for them. So today, let’s look at what different perspectives in psychology tell us about dreams.
Sigmund Freud’s Perspective on Dreams
Sigmund Freud was among the first to view dreams as a gateway to the unconscious, containing hidden desires, fears, and conflicts, often rooted in childhood. He believed that dreams express unfulfilled wishes, revealing thoughts and emotions we repress in our daily lives. He introduced the ideas of manifest content, or the literal storyline of a dream, and latent content, its hidden, symbolic meaning with repressed desires and unresolved conflicts. Freud thought that by analysing the dreams symbols we can understand and release these conflicts, and other processes our conscious mind pushes aside. Recurring dreams of common symbols, like flying or falling, might reflect suppressed anxieties, desires, or unresolved issues. Inviting us to explore what we may be pushing aside.
The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind. Freud, 1909.
Emotions of Dreams
The most important part to note as you scratch your head in the morning is the feeling you had while dreaming. We often disconnect from feeling, so recognising the overarching emotions can bring light to feelings of stress, longing, sadness, fear, excitement or wishes.
Reflect on the main emotion you felt and ask how it might relate to your current life. Sometimes, these emotional echoes may point to areas needing more of your attention.
Carl Jung’s Perspective on Dreams
Carl Jung saw dreams as a bridge between the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious (a universal layer of unconscious shared by all humans, he believed. A whole other topic perhaps!). Jung believed that dreams could reveal our archetypes -universal symbolic aspects of our personality that we may be neglecting or struggling to integrate; like the hero, shadow, or wise old man. By connecting fully with our inner archetypes, we may come to understand the parts of ourselves we neglect or need to integrate more fully into our lives. If you keep seeing a similar character in your dreams, maybe you need to embrace these qualities more in your daily life?
Gestalt Therapy: Seeing Dreams as Parts of Yourself
I find this so useful. In Gestalt therapy, we explore each part of a dream as an aspect of yourself. Every element of the dream, from characters to objects, represents an aspect of you. To interpret, imagine giving each element a voice: What might that tree, sofa, or person say? This method helps you see the dynamics between the hidden parts of your psyche, and uncover emotions or needs you aren’t aware of. It’s a way of integrating lost parts of yourself. In therapy you might role play each aspect, for now, think about or write what each part of the dream would say.
What do each aspect of the dream say?
What emotions do they hold that you are ignoring?
What do you need to express?
What dynamics are you missing?
Trauma Showing Up In Dreams
Sometimes trauma can show up in our dreams as nightmares, as our psyche attempts to integrate difficult experiences. Although it’s unsettling, it is an opportunity to explore what remains unresolved. You may wish to see a therapist for this, talk to loved ones, or for now, re-write the dream with a new, better ending, such as escape, justice, and recovery, to help integrate the experience. (Check out my Heal Your Past Course and workbook for paid members to help you, particularly the posts about unfinished business and moving on from painful memories.
Night Paralysis
If you’ve ever woken up physically unable to move, stuck in a scary or strange dream state, you’ve experienced night paralysis. I have in my twenties, and I was petrified. This happens when you wake up before your body’s ‘movement’ nervous system has turned on, (sorry I’m not a neuroscientist but you get it!), which feels utterly terrifying. I have good news: the aliens have not taken you to do experiments, no ghosts are trying to take you to their lair. It is just a physiological glitch where the movement part of the brain stays asleep, while you are semi conscious.
Existential View of Dreams
Dreams often reveal our existential concerns, like meaning, freedom, isolation, or death. Ask yourself, what does this dream say about my values? Does it connect to my sense of purpose or highlight fears around responsibility or meaning? These dreams can offer a glimpse into our own search for meaning in life. I wrote some posts about meaning here.
No Dreams? No Worries
If this is you, you may have dreams, but you don’t remember them, and thats fine. Sometimes our mind protects us from adding more to your plate as it may not be the right time to process what the dreams raise.
Dreaming About Sex
Sex dreams can be baffling, especially when involving surprising people, objects, or creatures! In many cases, sex dreams aren’t about desire; they’re about integrating parts of ourselves. If you dream about sex with someone specific, consider what qualities they (or it) have and whether you need more of that quality in yourself.
What are your thoughts and experiences on dreams?
Paid subscribers can find 8 journaling questions to explore dreams in the Members Therapy Toolbox Page.
Sweet dreams!
If you enjoyed this post, do press the heart so I know you are reading, and share with anyone else you think might enjoy it!
With love and gratitude,
Kate
What are your thoughts on this? Will you have a go at interpreting one of your dreams, perhaps using my favourite Gestalt method? Let me know your experiences!
Thank you for this article. I remember talking to my therapists about dreams and being amazed what she told me. It takes practice and courage to analyze your dreams yourself. But is worth it.