Night terrors

What script/process would you recommend for a client with startlingly real dreams of doing harm to others? In his waking life he is good natured, funny and gentle. The dreams scare him awake several times a night and he does not want to resort to medication. Thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by Pete & Lorraine on March 27, 2011 at 10:27am

Working with a client recently, she was having dreams after one of our sessions. It was to do with her work environment.

The dream consisted of a house, a work colleague was there and there was a fire in the basement. I got her to go down to the fire in the basement and ask the fire what was trying to tell her. It was warning her to go. She thanked the fire and it died down. I got her to go outside into the garden, which represented growth freedom expansion. I got her to ask what the house represented, it was her work situation and as she had gone into the garden it was no longer needed so it also disappeared.She had at the fire decided to move on from her job.

I would get your client to do a similar process, perhaps ask who these people represent, the reason for doing harm. What we see on the outside even how somebody see's themselves may not be the full picture. If he is easy going he may have been used as a doormat, his even temper abused. Perhaps not being the angry type he expresses his anger in his dreams. Using gestalt techniques can provide alot of information.

I hope this helps

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Permalink Reply by John Cleesattel on March 27, 2011 at 2:41pm

Nancy,

With so little to go on about the client, its tough to suggest a path. Obviously there is a cause to the issue, or this would have been happening since childhood (or is that the case here?). You might conduct the managers meeting technique (parts meeting) to find out what is going on, and proceed from there.

I hope that helps you

John

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Permalink Reply by John B. Lee IV on March 27, 2011 at 3:06pm

As Mr. Cleessattel said, there is little to go on, with that in mind, a quick and easy approach may be to alter the dreams. Revivify and change. You would be amazed how altering colors or the time of day/night that occurs in the setting can do. Replace startling occasions with silly and ridiculous outcomes. Build in a nice resource state( just in case), associate/ dissociate, change sizes, brightness, etc...

Good Luck

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Permalink Reply by docregal.com on March 27, 2011 at 3:23pm

Haunting thoughts are being revealed through his dreams for he most likely represses his innermost feelings. I recommend exploring the work of David Quigley. He has written several books and there are many articles on his work. His techniques could suit you. Explore his website for some ideas. His most recent book I am presently reading: The Alchemy of Healing; Healing Your Body and Your Life With Hypnosis Therapy may be helpful to you as well.

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Baboch on March 27, 2011 at 6:53pm

From a Freudian perspective, the dreams are a message from the unconscious mind. And whether or not this is true, it can help the patient in addition to the hypnosis part.
In this case, it can be interpreted as wanting revenge from the people he dreams about or maybe something else, but this desire or rather tendency is still in his unconscious mind. So if you make him aware or that and build your session around that, it will be much easier. But make sure you don't accidentally encourage him to take revenge or whatever the "message" of the dream was.

Another thing you can do is: while he is hypnotized, tell him that unconsciously he is getting a lesson from this dreams so he won't have to get those nightmares anymore etc...
But also make sure it's not something bad or unethical

Chris

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Permalink Reply by Ian Collins on March 28, 2011 at 8:45am

Just

a question. Are dreams the real problem or their perception?
Is it really important "what" is the dream or HOW the client reacts to that?

Maybe it would be enough to help client to ACCEPT these dreams because (probably) the problem is about feeling bad about having such dreams.
Having a horror like dream and killing in this dream for example- does not mean that the person is "bad" or whatever.... but many people feel ashamed of their dreams.
Western culture problem... diminishing, banning and rejecting dreams.... well:)

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Last on March 28, 2011 at 11:05am

Thank you everyone - some good suggestions and food for thought. Sorry I couldn't give more details, this was a quick question from someone who wanted to know if I could help him with this problem - he plans on having a session in the near future but we haven't had an in depth talk or session about the problem yet.

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Permalink Reply by Kelley Woods on March 28, 2011 at 7:40pm

Hi Nancy,

If this were my client, I would tell him that there is a theory that nightmares are a way of purging negative emotions and that is a good thing! He may find them quickly or gradually diminishing in intensity and frequency now that he has released them.

I would then give him a positive resource state to access when he wakens to quickly change the experience. (Michael Ellner's Detox technique is great...)

Best wishes,

Kelley