DREAMS: Your Hidden Resource

In the dreamscape we encounter ourselves in surprising ways, recovering what we have lost, revisioning what we know, befriending or vanquishing the enemy and/or monster, finding the new, and engaging the inner characters who lack a voice in our daylight world. In focused dream work we make room for our lives to speak to us in new and different ways. We learn to work with the literal content of the dream as well as with the metaphor contained in images.  And in this way, we move with new skill through the landscape of the dream. It’s a territory like any other.

“I have taught writing to individuals and groups as an approach to dealing with traumatic nightmares which are different than the nightly dreams or nightmares non-traumatized people experience. I use a very specific format that addresses the traumatic nightmare directly and is appropriate to use in the event of daytime intrusive imagery. Learning this technique also adds another skill to self-car which creates independence and confidence.  

Sand-tray is the other technique I use in working with traumatic nightmares.  I first came to adapt the use of traditional sand-tray when I was working with severely traumatized Vietnam vets living and acting out in the wilds of Alaska . I needed a technique that would provide relevant safety and a sense of control as well as provide some order to chaos.  In the course of my experimentation I discovered that the tray itself provided containment with the natural frame acting as a boundary that the experience not “spill out” into the everyday world. The sand-tray work with the nightmares also provided a sacred and ritualized place for telling their stories – ritualized story telling as a practice takes us back to our indigenous roots.  Ritualized story telling is hardwired in us human-beings and has been functioning since we created ourselves.

Once the lay-out had been done, the veteran told the story which was received by group members and myself.  And another level of the healing was the presence with which group members listened – a listening presence, a focus and an empathetic receiving and holding of the story. 

 “Ray Scurfield, DSW, LCSW on the training Andrea Steffens provided at American Lake Veterans Hospital PTSD in-patient program  …I give Dr. Steffens my most highest recommendation in terms of her clinical and teaching skills…Dr. Steffens  left such a positive and lasting impression that her influence carried on long after she left…. through Dr. Steffens direct influence, I personally know that many, many war-veterans with severe PTSD have and continue to receive enhanced diagnostic and treatment interventions... I can give no greater compliment.”