Dream Weaver/Dream Catcher: The Older Child and Analyst at Work

ABSTRACT

Children in late latency through early adolescence can join in a partnership with their analyst to explore their dreams as important communications about themselves. The child is the bearer of the dream, the analyst the receiver, and their shared attention to something new presenting itself to each of them offers a unique opportunity to seek meaning together. This article provides clinical illustrations of work with the dreams of children in different phases of analysis and during developmental transitions. Technical approaches that invite a child’s interest in dreams are demonstrated.

Notes

¹ For this reason certain details about the patients and their dreams have been altered slightly to preserve anonymity while staying true to clinical meaning.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Denia G. Barrett

Denia G. Barrett, M.S.W., is a child and adolescent supervising analyst at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, where she is also the director of the Center for Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy.