Dream interpretation
There have been debates on whether dreams are meaningful as well as worthy to interpret. This paper will apply two articles to analyze whether the interpretation of owns dream is useful. One the article is “Are the Effects of Dream Interpretation on Session Quality, Insight, and Emotions Due to the Dream Itself, to Projection, or the Interpretation Process?”. At the same time, the other is “Dream Interpretation: A Developmental Counseling and Therapy Approach.” I hypothesize that interpretation of one’s dream is meaningful and effective than taking another person’s dream and interpreting it like your own.
The study examined whether one’s dream was more effective in subject-related session depth, insights, and also negative and positive emotionality compared to the interpretation of another person’s dream. Its research methodology involved five therapists who carried out 12 sessions, one-hour volunteer subjects in each own dream, own event, and other dream conditions. The therapists were all women aged between 22 and 43 years. Their training level varied form BA in psychology degrees to advanced doctoral students to a counseling psychology professor. The three conditions were randomly assigned to sixty undergraduate volunteers, where 20 participated in each of the conditions. Hill, Diemer, and Cogar’s model was applied to interpret the conditions in preparation. To create a post-test design, the subject’s self-reports were administered after the sessions (Hill et al., 1993). Before the study, the therapists indicated that they believed the three conditions were helpful as well as equally effective for subjects by using a scale ranging from 0 to 5.
The study results revealed that the interpretation of one’s dream contributed to greater insight and depth than the interpretation of another person’s dream or one’s event. One’s dream contributed to a powerful element that was obtained by collaborative working to gain an understanding of individual dynamics. Commonly, dreams allow people to reason in a manner that they could not be able otherwise. One’s dream standard deviation was greater than the other conditions of clients undergoing the therapy. Subjects felt the interpretation of their own dreams provided them with value as well as deep experience. Also, the interpretation of one’s own dream was greater than the interpretation of other individual’s dreams on the basis of subject insight feelings about their gain from the sessions. The projection did not explain the reason why subjects gained something from the session. One’s own dream presented something unique to the subjects. For example, the dreams may have revealed both waking and unconscious conflicts that call for examination.
There was a huge difference in subject responsiveness to the conditions under study. Some subjects were engaged in the assigned conditions and productively used the condition. The subject provided glowing imagery and was motivated, eager, curious, and insightful to learn about themselves when they were asked about their own dram, a recent event, or imagination of another individual dream as their own. However, other subjects had difficulties getting involved in the assigned condition. Some subjects lacked even the vivid event or dream and felt silly for just imagining other individual’s dreams as their own. There is an influence in regard to any kind of interpretation. The study limitation was that the subjects were looking for additional credit points and were not after important life crises. There is a real possibility client could have greater dream intensity contented as well as more motivated. Moreover, they could have greater event content and projection ability.
Clients present dreams in counseling sessions as materials for creating the meaning of their experiences. Ivy’s developmental counseling and therapy (DCT) is beneficial to mental health counselors. The approach assists clients in processing their dreams hence promoting change as well as insights. The article describes how the DCT approach is applied in the analysis of the dream. Some clients present their own dreams even though mental health counselors (MHCs) doe not do not take dream interpretation as a counseling process part. Interpretation of dreams may bring about beneficial counseling results. Dream interpretation can be a tool to be applied in assisting clients in developing more insights about their behaviors, thoughts, and feelings (III & Myers, 2006). At the initial sessions, the counselors can explain to clients that they can talk to them in case they have experienced any dreams. It enables the majority of clients to recall and think about their dreams. MHCs integrate a set of eight steps in the session.
The steps are a universal guideline that is beneficial in processing dream processing with clients. The natural session flow is more important than following the steps. Mental health counselors need to encourage a client to talk about their feelings during dream discussion if they identify that certain clients struggle to express their feelings. The counselors are not supposed to force clients to reveal their intimate emotions when they are not ready. Prior to the application of the DCT model, it is essential to examine if clients are interested in discussing their dreams. The preferred client’s DCT style provides important clues. The mental health counselors are not limited to using various theories because of applying the DCT model. They can use several counseling theories provided they the interventions are appropriate for their clients. For instance, Jungian theory is used to motivate clients to freely associate by emphasizing every person has unique dream symbols as well as theorizing that dreams can reveal a powerful message about an individual inner self. Gestalt technique is used to assist clients in experiencing sensations as well as feelings from dreams. Object relation theory is used in examining manners in which dream figures are represented in distinct parts of actual figures.
Irrespective of the theories applied, the main goal is assisting individuals in experiencing dreams in several DCT styles. Individuals who make 4 cognitive styles about their environmental meaning have less psychological and physiological complications than others. Carl experienced his dream in multiple cognitive styles like sensorimotor (body anxiety), concrete (identification of the place he felt the anxiety), formal operational (recalling when he had anxiety), and dialectic (understanding how dream figures applied to the parts). It offers an understanding of multiple dream meanings in DCT styles. Mental health counselors not supposed to dictate the meaning of the dream to clients. Dream themes can be influenced by client cultures. For instance, the majority of African American clients, as well as counselor education students in the United States, have revealed if an individual had a dream about a fish, someone close to him or she could have a child, but the dream is interpreted differently in other cultures. The different meaning of dreams is based on education, residence location, gender, and age.
Facilitation of a counseling approach assists individuals to process as well as interpret dreams more effectively when the counselor and client work together in several sessions. The mental health counselor easily sees the potential meaning of a personal dream through understanding him or her. Clients tend to recall dreams more frequently and develop a hypothesis about their meaning when they have worked with the MHC in several sessions and know he or she is skilled. They recall dreams more frequently and learn to process them on their own without MHC assistance.
Most of the mental health counseling education programs pay less attention to the dream interpretation subject. They might benefit from using the DCT counselor training model. Dream interpretation discussion could be applied in psychoanalysis lecture or Adlerian and Jungian counseling though most programs do not educate MHC trainees on integrating dream interpretation in the counseling process. Moreover, there is counseling literature does not comprehensively discuss dreams. DCT model promotes dream interpretation as well as exploration on the basis of universality. It provides a useful model that assists clients in processing dreams in a more meaningful way. Research on counseling outcomes is required in studying the effectiveness of the application of DCT as well as dream interpretation in counseling practice.
In conclusion, the interpretation of one’s own dream more meaningful and effective than the interpretation of another person’s dream-like your own. Dream provides a basis for a person to acquire self-understanding. The first article supports the hypostasis as it concludes interpretation of a person’s own dream creates more insights as opposed to interpreting another person’s dream as your own. Moreover, the second article backs up the hypothesis by stressing on the importance of mental health counselors collaborating with clients to interpret their dreams. Finally, the interpretation of one’s dream is more effective than interpreting another individual’s dreams.
References
Hill, C. E., Diemer, R., Hess, S., Hillyer, A., & Seeman, R. (1993). Are the effects of dream interpretation on session quality, insight, and emotions due to the dream itself, to projection, or to the interpretation process?. Dreaming, 3(4), 269.
III, J. F. M., & Myers, J. E. (2006). Dream interpretation: A developmental counseling and therapy approach. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 28(1), 18-37.