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A Dream Work Example

Jane is in her thirties. She opened up a shop selling herbal remedies, ethnic goods, health books, that kind of thing, with a large notice board for local groups to advertise and arrange meetings and so on. She was worried that the financial side of the shop would not bring her the income she needed.

In Jane's dream she was attacked by lice in her hair. A swarm of them. There seemed to be nothing she could do to stop them landing and crawling about on her head. She had no idea what the dream could mean. There was nothing wrong with her head, or her hair, as far as she was aware.

I worked with her on her dream. Lice are a powerful metaphor - they're parasites, they suck the blood out of her. She feels overwhelmed by this "attack" but does nothing to stop them - she's passively suffering it. The lice are a swarm, a threatening group, rather than isolated individuals. The feeling of threat means that she is unable to deal with each blood-sucker at a time, she can only label them all as lice, shudder at them - and do nothing. Her passivity makes her a welcome mat for the parasites.

Jane was struck by the aptness of the parasite metaphor. She had always been the kind of person who attracts people, and organises them. She liked doing it, but more and more people depended on her, used her, and - her word - exploited her. Now that she had opened the shop they were not only exploiting her time and goodwill, they were doing it financially as well.

The important realisation the dream brought to Jane was that she was allowing them to do it. She decided to make a distinction, for the moment, between her personal, social life and her business life: she hated to split things up in this way, but in order to survive, it had to be done. Later, she could perhaps mix things up again.

Jane allowed the dream to convey its message to her. She could have done it by herself - but it's often easier to get help.

Dreams throw up messages from all areas of your life. Any 'interpretation', like the one Jane and I worked out, will only be part of what's going on inside you. And the messages aren't always difficult or upsetting - they can also be joyful, serene, exciting. But what they always do is point to areas where you have changed or are changing - or where you need to change.