The Use of Dream Work in Supervision

Abstract

Dreams provide important material in the practice of psychotherapy and counselling. A logical but somewhat controversial extension is to use dreams in the supervision of psychotherapy or counselling. Literature on the use of dreams is becoming increasingly available in humanistic and experiential psychotherapies. Thus the practice of working with dreams is accessible to most counsellors. One major problem exists in using dreams in supervision: because of real authority systems, the supervisee may not be prepared to risk disclosing at the level produced by dream work. Five case studies of counselors using their dream work in supervision are given. Two involved countertransference issues and three involved staff development issues.