“We welcome dream reader, Jane Teresa, onto the breakfast show,” a radio presenter announced earlier this morning, and I had to smile to myself: there it was again, call it synchronicity, a prod from the universe, or meaningful coincidence, those two words, dream reader, gave me the thumbs up for the blog idea I had scribbled on my notepad late last night.
What qualifications do you need to be a dream analyst? Or to work as a dream interpreter, dream therapist, dream alchemist, or dream reader? Who offers accreditation to work in any of these fields? And what kind of dream work do these labels imply?
A quick Google reveals various dream courses, mostly online courses, some of which offer their own certificate of accreditation. There are also sturdier courses of one to three years duration in broader subjects such as Jungian Psychology, Depth Psychology, or different schools of psychotherapy that include dream work specific to their niche.
You can sail through most psychology college and university courses without studying dream work in depth (or at all), though many include a very basic introduction to the history of dream work, or offer optional modules in different approaches and theories. As a psychology student such study may be rewarding and enrich your professional work when you graduate.
As a consumer, don’t expect your psychologist to have the tools to understand or work with your dreams. If this is important to you, ask if they specialised in this area during their degree or in their postgraduate or professional development studies.
There’s an art and a science to dream work, a time to use the head, a time to use techniques and tools, a time to use the heart, a time to use intuition, a time to read at a more psychic level, a time to work with the body, a time to work with the mind, a time to work with the soul, and a time to heal. No wonder so many job titles spring to mind.
Would you prefer to consult a dream analyst or a dream reader? Or a dream interpreter, dream therapist, or dream alchemist? Or a dream counsellor, dream worker, dream group facilitator, dream doctor?
The essence, I have found, is to be practised and proficient at all these levels, and then simply to be present, for each dreamer, knowing that what needs to unfold will unfold, and what needs to happen, will happen. As it always does.
I offer various training courses in my methods of dream work: for health professionals such as psychologists, psychotherapists, and counsellors, for people interested in going into business in dream work, and for people interested in learning how to interpret their own dreams.
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