Where do dreams come from? No doubt some place deeper than our conscious mind… Dreams convey many different things: wishes, images, strong feelings, creative moments, nightmare fears, confusions, as well as seeds of potential future growth. Most commonly we think of dreams occurring during nighttime sleep. Both day and night dreaming arise from our unconscious mind, and there is still great debate about what the unconscious mind actually is… or does. At a minimum, sleeping and dreaming help to process and digest our daily experiences, including our emotional life. If we don’t sleep or don’t sleep well enough, we become stressed and eventually break down. Through sleep and dreaming we process the day’s events, and have intimations of our wishes, desires, and fears. Many things we are not aware of come through our dreams. Our waking reveries and daydreams touch this same deep well. Imagination and creativity also arise from this underground psychical source.
Depth psychotherapy is informed by a wide array of psychoanalytic thinking, and is not focused primarily on behavioral or solution-oriented change. Depth psychology is not about quick fixes, miracle cures, or temporary bandage approaches. Nor is depth psychology geared toward immediate symptom relief, although finding a therapist you can connect with, and one who is able to engage with you in a resonant way, can offer some relief in itself.
Depth psychology addresses and cares for what feels true, real or essential about your inner nature and core sense of self, including what feels off or damaged, as well as what feels right, most alive… and durable. By reaching toward and welcoming this “ground of being” through self-exploration, we have the best chance of feeling fully present in our own skin, self-connected… and better able to live life from a trusting place more firmly supported from underneath.
Depth psychology attempts to strengthen the connection and quality among parts of our self that are separated, conflicted, alienated, or not recognized. As one example, injurious feelings and emotions from early-life insults and trauma will often ‘disappear’ into unconscious realms by becoming split-off, repressed, denied, or avoided. They go underground as a way to protect us from their painful effects. They were likely too much for our equipment to handle at the time we experienced them. We do need our defenses, and yet such un-experienced feelings, if traumatic enough, tend to remain embedded in our unconscious substrate, getting stuck within our body and nervous system. Their painful effects can continue to affect our physical being and emotional atmosphere, along with the quality of our relationships.
Psychotherapy is not something you must be ‘ill’ or ‘sick’ to utilize or gain from. Yes, psychotherapy is called for when there is emotional disturbance, but it is also one way among many to grow psychically and emotionally, through connecting and contacting ourselves more fully over time. Psychologically healthy people often find benefit from having a person with whom to discuss their life, emotions and relationships on a regular basis.
Depth psychotherapies respect and care for those complex aspects of both our healthy and injured selves. Benefits often arise during longer-term engagement, as we partner with parts of ourselves we unconsciously avoid or dislike. I have also seen people benefit from having only a few sessions— there is no such thing as “one size fits all,” as each human being is unique.