Dreams are for many an overlooked aspect of ourselves, our modern culture rarely encourages us to give them much attention, and yet nearly all psychotherapeutic schools recognize the value of working with dreams. Coming from this culture that undervalues dreams will often mean we lack the confidence to make use of dreams in therapy or to really allow ourselves to experience to any depth our own dreams. The central theme of this workshop will be to reconnect us with our dream lives and through this reconnect us with a very essential part of ourselves. Just to start to be able to recall our dreams connects us with deeper energy and broadens our awareness of ourselves to something beyond the ordinary and mundane. Many of us as children directly felt the magic and wonder of dream experience but we have since grown more and more alienated from it. This needn’t be the case and together we can help one another reconnect with the beauty and depths that are possible through truly honouring dreams.
I have come to find that you don’t actually have to do very much in dreams for this change to happen. The key values are awareness and receptivity. Approach your dreams like this and they will show you things of great beauty and value. Your ego-self cannot guess or plan these things, instead let the dream take you by the hand and lead you into its open, fluid and magical world. You will naturally be enriched by what you encounter.
In my workshops I seek firstly to reawaken people’s interest and love of dreaming, for some this begins with seeing how to start to actually dream again. Once this interest is back I offer ways to enter into dreams with openness and a loving attitude. The development of lucid awareness is also useful to dreamers to help ground them and to work with fear and tension that may be encountered as they move into a relationship of trust with their dreams. When we can go into dreams in this way I believe we will find (amongst many other things) what James Hillman describes in the following quote…
“As I grow familiar with my dreams I grow familiar with my inner world. Who lives in me? What inscapes are mine? What is recurrent and therefore what keeps coming back to reside in me? These are the animals and people, places and concerns, that want me to pay attention to them, to become friendly and familiar with them. They want to be known as a friend would. They want to be cared for and cared about. This familiarity after some time produces in one a sense of at-homeness and at-oneness with an inner family which is nothing else than kinship and community with oneself…”
James Hillman, Insearch (1994)
During the course of the workshop we will…
About Arthabandhu
Arthabandhu is an ordained Buddhist and has long had a special interest in dreams and has explored them in relation to Buddhist practice ever since hearing his Buddhist teacher say: “If you want to really know yourself, pay attention to your dreams.”
He has explored Lucid Dreaming and Buddhist Dream Yoga, as well as studying other approaches to dreams including their application in Gestalt Psychotherapy. As part of his dream practice he has kept detailed dream diaries for the past 20 years, these have included many illustrations, which he has now made into a zine using these images and extracts from his diaries.
Visit Arthabandhu's 'Stuff of Dreams' website
Date: 16th - 17th September 2023 Venue: SCPTI, 1 Westbourne Grove, Scarborough
Cost: £220, SCPTI members and early bird bookings: £190 (early bird ends 16th July)
I have come to find that you don’t actually have to do very much in dreams for this change to happen. The key values are awareness and receptivity. Approach your dreams like this and they will show you things of great beauty and value. Your ego-self cannot guess or plan these things, instead let the dream take you by the hand and lead you into its open, fluid and magical world. You will naturally be enriched by what you encounter.
In my workshops I seek firstly to reawaken people’s interest and love of dreaming, for some this begins with seeing how to start to actually dream again. Once this interest is back I offer ways to enter into dreams with openness and a loving attitude. The development of lucid awareness is also useful to dreamers to help ground them and to work with fear and tension that may be encountered as they move into a relationship of trust with their dreams. When we can go into dreams in this way I believe we will find (amongst many other things) what James Hillman describes in the following quote…
“As I grow familiar with my dreams I grow familiar with my inner world. Who lives in me? What inscapes are mine? What is recurrent and therefore what keeps coming back to reside in me? These are the animals and people, places and concerns, that want me to pay attention to them, to become friendly and familiar with them. They want to be known as a friend would. They want to be cared for and cared about. This familiarity after some time produces in one a sense of at-homeness and at-oneness with an inner family which is nothing else than kinship and community with oneself…”
James Hillman, Insearch (1994)
During the course of the workshop we will…
- Learn how to awaken and enhance our capacity to dream
- Explore the value and uses of our dreams
- Look at what may potentially block our capacity to dream, or stop our ability to dream creatively
- Look at ways of changing recurrent dreams and nightmares that have become stuck
- See how a practice of Mindful dreaming can lead to a richer and freer waking-life experience
- Explore other aspects of sleep and issues with sleeping well
About Arthabandhu
Arthabandhu is an ordained Buddhist and has long had a special interest in dreams and has explored them in relation to Buddhist practice ever since hearing his Buddhist teacher say: “If you want to really know yourself, pay attention to your dreams.”
He has explored Lucid Dreaming and Buddhist Dream Yoga, as well as studying other approaches to dreams including their application in Gestalt Psychotherapy. As part of his dream practice he has kept detailed dream diaries for the past 20 years, these have included many illustrations, which he has now made into a zine using these images and extracts from his diaries.
Visit Arthabandhu's 'Stuff of Dreams' website
Date: 16th - 17th September 2023 Venue: SCPTI, 1 Westbourne Grove, Scarborough
Cost: £220, SCPTI members and early bird bookings: £190 (early bird ends 16th July)