31/07/2025
What if your dreams held the key to your deepest transformation?
We all dream. Some argue we sleep specifically to dream—our minds craving this nightly journey into the unconscious.
Dreams excel at one thing: showing us the opposing sides of what's really on our minds. The dreaming mind creates a hyperspace where contradictions coexist—feelings, images, and sensations dancing together in ways our waking logic never allows.
Last night, I dreamed of a man I know. He stood in his kitchen near the Hunter River on Wonnaruah country, surrounded by piling dishes. His wife worked outside the home while he managed house and children. He was significantly overweight.
My reaction was visceral. Lately, I've been carrying extra weight myself, and it's been weighing on my confidence too.
Here's what most people don't know: dreams activate our emotions more intensely than waking life. As a therapist, this is gold. To heal, we must feel. We need to understand what's happening in our life our relationships, work or education, we need to understand how we experience it, what it feels like in our bodies, and the context(s) that created it.
This is where the magic happens. When we focus our attention—through dreamwork, using methods like Process Work, EMDR and other Somatic or Parts approaches to therapy—the dreaming mind reveals what it's been trying to integrate all along. In an embodied way!
Working with this dream, I discovered something beautiful: this man wasn't showing me my shame. He was teaching me about connection, hospitality, and pride in who I am—regardless of appearance. He's one of the most welcoming people I know, and suddenly he became my teacher. He became a figure who's positive adaptability, in essence is something I need to live out a little more.
Dreams are portals into the self-organizing process that is hidden in your personal and communal background. When you learn how to be with your dreams and unfold them, you have a direct path to your deepest self hidden in plain sight. From a place of deep connection within yourself it is amazing what gifts want to flow into your everyday life!
The question is: are you paying attention?
What dream has taught you something unexpected about yourself? Share in the comments—I read every one.
