It started out as an innocent field trip -- like dozens she had taken her
young students on for years. So when the kids got all excited about something
they had found, she didn't think much of it. Until she saw it.
There, stretched between trees, was a massive web with a monster spider
lifting each one of its spindly black legs along the whisper threads. Then
she spied the eagle splayed like a stuck butterfly on a pin board. She shuddered
with a mixture of grief, remorse, regret and finally terror.
"I woke up sobbing and I carried that same emotion for days. I was a completely
shattered human being," says dream therapist Kathleen Sullivan. She realized
that she was the eagle, and she vowed to spend the rest of her life getting
the eagle out of the web. After that dream, Sullivan left her life as a teacher
and immersed herself in dreamwork.
The road to dreamwork was a long one for Sullivan. She took some courses
in transactional analysis and soon found herself flooded with dreams -- sometimes
as many as 22 a night. Sullivan has worked with over 3,000 people
in her dream groups and on her radio show.
"It's the only work I've ever done that energizes me," she says.
"People who come to dreamwork are extraordinary people. They're positive.
I get to see the best."
Sullivan spends an average of four years with each of her dream groups.
"It's just astonishing how people come and stay and stay and stay," she
says. "The group is food to their souls. It's really important work."
Alan Siegel is one of the few men to have embraced dreamwork. A clinical
psychologist and vice-president of the Association for the Study of Dreams,
Siegel delved into dreams for the first time as an undergraduate in university.
As is often the case, he had discovered the writings of Sigmund Freud and
Carl Jung.
In his spare time, Siegel began participating in dream groups to satisfy
his own quest for personal exploration. Now he does significant work with
children's dreams.
Dreams are like a microphone for your inner voice, Siegel says. "It gives
you a sense of when you're getting out of touch," he explains. "It helps
you stay tuned into your deepest feelings."
But Siegel, who is working on a book on children's dreams, has seen
dreams waken creativity in his clients, too. "They feel more confident and
inspired," he says.
He's also seen dreams act as a healing mechanism. "I remember one
woman who had an ulcer and was having trouble with her business," he says.
"In all her dreams, she was enraged at the employees. In real life, she saw
herself as a pacifist, but she saw her rage in her dreams. She realized she
had denied her own assertiveness and it helped to understand her illness."
One of the difficult parts in working with dreams is clients with pre-set
interpretations. "What dreams give you is the unknown -- what you don't
know about yourself, " Siegel says. Then there are the people who are quick
to spin out their long dreams, but don't want to talk about them in any
kind of depth. "Every dream is potent with insights," he says.
Jayne Gackenbach teaches about dreams at a university. Her work came out
of a few near-death experiences that spurred her to examine her own dreams
and do a PhD dissertation on the subject. Later, she became interested in
native culture -- where dreams have great importance.
During her research, Gackenbach recalls asking a young native man whether
dreams were important to him. "He looked at me like I was crazy," she says.
"I had to repeat the question two or three times. Then he scratched his head
and said, 'That's like asking me if I brush my teeth.' He couldn't
imagine why I asked such a thing."
While many people scoff at metaphysics, Gackenbach says it's hard
to shrug off dreams like out-of-body experiences.
"I like dreams because it's one of the most concrete parts of metaphysics,"
she says. "Everybody dreams every night. You've got no choice. It's
part of the natural phenomenon of being human. When you're looking at
an out-of-body experience, you're not so certain. But the experience
of dreams is always magical."
Gackenbach now offers an online dreamwork course and finds that it's
a perfect venue for people reluctant to share their dreams, or even admit
that the subject interests them. "It's a tremendous opportunity for personal
and spiritual growth."