Dream Work & Depth, Archetypal Psychotherapy
​in St. Louis with Margaret Howard

Left, high-Palaeolithic figure currently dated from 20,000-18,000 BCE, found near Lespugue in the Haute-Garonne in 1922; Right, high-Palaeolithic figure currently dated from 24,000-22,000 BCE found in the Austrian village of Willendorf in 1908. Photograph by Margaret Howard, 2019.

Why Do We Interpret Dreams?

​From "Why Do We Interpret Dreams?" is quoted directly from John Betts, MA (Psych)  (http://jungian.ca/jungian-dream-interpretation/)

• To provide direct access to unconscious material.
• tell the situation of the psyche ‘as it is”
• are not distorted by ego defences,  hence provide accurate depictions of the psyche
• provide a pole for the dynamic dialectic between the conscious and unconscious, and represent the dialectic between the psyche and the external world
• provide access to subjective, inner experiences
• provide pure symbolic/imagic representations of the archetypes
• provide symbols in the form of the transcendent function to mediate polar opposites between the conscious and the unconscious
• can provide specific information to the analyst
• are central to the analytic process
• are diagnostic tools especially with neurosis
• facilitate healing
• are essential to the individuation process.
  
  

Dream are our most marvelous guides, especially at change points and transitions.

We are a part of nature and the land, of the deep and ancient stories that live in it, whether we know it consciously or not. Our dreams arise to help us process, recover, and to provide guidance that is very different than the rationalistic logic of waking life. The land itself is dreaming, and waiting for us to reconnect to her wisdom, through our own dreams.

When we become separated from our sense of place, nature, and the land, we become separated from ourselves, as well. We are far more than our thoughts, more than that tiny layer of brain cells that governs our cognitions. We are deep and complex and marvelous. All of us. 

In depth work we:

• Explore dreams, and access the unconscious through them.
• Connect to ancient myths, stories, and "fairy tales" (if you have doubts about how profound that can be, check this out).
• Begin to notice the synchronicities between dreams, nature, and what waking life presents.
• Explore the role of shadow in the work, so that we may come into balance with light and shadow, ease and difficulty, and remove ourselves from the "cult of positivity" that is damaging to so many, since it's impossible to be human and never have pain and struggle.
  For those who have an orientation toward spirituality, regardless of what that spirituality "is," dream and depth work is a rich field in which to encounter help, clarity, and guidance.
  
  Those who have influenced my work in this area are, among others too numerous to name, Carl Jung, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Donald Kalsched, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Sharon Blackie, Toko-Pa Turner, Daniel Foor, as well as the wonderful Jungian therapist/analyst with whom I have done my own work for many years, Shirley Fontenot. ​​

Painting by Molly Howard-Crow, 2016.

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