1. Join the NZ group attending the
FIRST AUSTRALASIAN REGIONAL DREAM CONFERENCE,
of the International Association for the Study of Dreams
and the newly formed Australian Dream Network:
19-22 April, 2012
DREAMS AND IMAGINATION: HEALING PATHWAYS
At St Joseph’s Centre for Reflective Living, Baulkham Hills, Sydney
Registn $360. Early-Bird Registration $330 ends 31 January.
A delegation from Auckland will be attending the Australian Dream Conference in April.
2. NEWS FROM AUCKLAND
Congratulations to three more people who have gained the Certificate in Applied Dreamwork this year: Sarah Lassally, Tay-Marie Yorston and Chandra Marks. Several more have nearly completed the requirements.
Congratulations to Joy Crabtree, first to complete the new Dreamwork Leader’s Certificate!
This has required intensive reading and a number of practical assignments, including leading a small dream group. All year Joy has been leading a keen monthly group of four 11-12-year-olds, who confidently demonstrated their skills to the adults’ group on 11th November, and showed us their dream workbooks. They are already responding to enquiries from their peers!
The Advanced Dream Group continues to meet monthly for supervision of dreamwork done, new learning and skills development. David Legg has led a dream course at St Luke’s Church. We hear that Brian Scott-Hughes is beginning to lead a dream group in Brighton, UK!
I had the opportunity to address a large group at the Forum of the AUT Psychotherapy Department, on the need for direct attention to the Healing of Nightmares, especially when they are repetitive and undermining sleep. A number of colleagues, including senior practitioners, thanked me for opening a new angle on the significance of dreams.
3. AROUND THE COUNTRY
I have led enjoyable dream workshops around the country during the year, at New Plymouth, Whangarei, Nelson, Tauranga and Dunedin; and will lead more in 2012.
4. THE “WORLD DREAMING” CONGRESS of PSYCHOTHERAPISTS, Aug. 24-28, at Darling Harbour, Sydney. This was the world-wide triennial Congress of psychotherapists, in Australasia for the first time. Some 800 came from around the world, and participated in eight parallel streams of presentations. There were about 30 of us from NZ, including a strong group of Maori women, who added strength to the emerging voices of Indigenous Australian healers. Each day began with the option to attend a Social Dream-Sharing Group, a kind of group meditation in which participants spoke out their dreams without interpretation, in a chain of free association; an awesome glimpse into our collective unconscious process, often very moving.
IASD organized a Dream Research Forum, at which the leading speaker was Deirdre Barrett
from the USA, on Post-Trauma Nightmares. In general, however, Conference presenters had little to say about night dreams. The one I found most interesting was Emmy Van Deurzen’s practical workshop on Existential Dreamwork. I think we dreamworkers in NZ are well up with our knowledge of dreamwork, but face an uphill struggle to get its value more widely recognized in the health professions.