Messages from the Depths: Dreams as Inner Guides on the Path to Trauma Recovery

Abstract

This paper presents a case study about the potential of dreams to mediate traumatic experience using art therapy. It presents the theoretical foundations of dream work according to S. Freud and C. Jung, and art therapy research to support a rationale for using clients' dreams to support trauma recovery. The methodology is from Moon's process for dialogue with a dream (2007) that evokes existential questions that the dream presents. The participant was pre--selected from residents of a domestic abuse shelter who reported a dream that was significant in recovery after a traumatic experience. The findings supported the hypothesis that dreams have the compensatory potential to provide supportive imagery and clues to existential questions confronting the participant, and that attention to this material in therapy was beneficial to the participant. The study concludes that dreams can be an important avenue for clients to experience resilience, process emotion and begin to heal from trauma.