ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 5, 1996 TAG: 9608060017
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
Some dreams from recent workshops and discussion groups of practitioners interviewed for this story:
* A woman dreams she is walking through the woods with her 12-year-old son (who is really 20). They see four bears directly in their path. She has to decide whether to go around the animals or run from them.
She runs and runs - until she and her son end up at a nice suburban house that looks a lot like that of her ex-husband. Her son discovers he has lost his wallet, and they soon discover he lost it back by the bears. She will have to go back and get it.
Interpretation: The woman will have to face the scariest part of her life sooner or later. Taking financial support from her husband has only avoided the issue. She will have to face up to finding her own identity - the bears - which in turn will help her adult son do the same.
* An older man dreams about his ex-wife, who recently turned down his lunch invitation. He imagines seeing her at a strange house, where they sit on a long bench, apart but close enough to have a pleasant talk.
Interpretation: The man has been worried about his wife since they divorced six years ago. This signaled that she was OK without him and that he needed to move forward with his own life. Whatever happened between them didn't include any present ill will, which relieved the man of guilt.
* A 35-year-old woman dreams she is on a deserted island that keeps shrinking each day. She worries what will happen, where she will go if there is no land left. Then she realizes she is actually standing on the back of a whale. She worries about whether the whale will fully submerge and she will drown.
Interpretation: The woman had recently decided to pursue a Ph.D. in psychology, which severly limited her social life and even family contacts. She realized she would be standing on firmer ground after receiving the degree.
* A financial analyst in her 50s, who hated her job but hesitated to leave because of her age, dreamed she was a locked up in a laboratory animal cage. Her boss was the lab supervisor and she noticed he was feeding all the other animals except her. Then a wall fell in the lab and she scampered to a cafeteria populated by women she knew when she worked years before as a secretary while studying for her business degree.
Interpretation: The woman determined that this job was no longer tolerable. Seeing her former work friends inspired her to quit, thinking she could always support herself as a temporary secretary while she looked for another job. She was hired by a new firm within two weeks.
- KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
LENGTH: Medium: 53 linesby CNB