This workshop is a stand-alone event and also an introduction to the on-line course of the same name, starting 17th Jan 2022.

It’s also an opportunity to learn and apply developments in waking dream practice (also known as ‘active imagination’ and ‘guided imagery’) with the author of newly published ‘Waking Dreams’.

Read the introduction to ‘Waking Dreams’ here.

Who it is for?

The workshop is for anyone interested in exploring the spontaneously creative and therapeutic imagination found in the borderland consciousness in-between waking and dreaming, in particular:

– Psychotherapists, Counsellors and Coaches

– Art, Drama and Family Constellations therapists

– Eco-therapists and anyone interested in an image-centric approach to ecopsychology

– Artistic creators (writers, storytellers, painters, directors, etc.)

– Artistic consumers (novel readers, movie watchers, art gallery goers, etc.)

– Leaders of change

No expert understanding is required. As the subtitle suggests, this is a workshop on imagination in psychotherapy and everyday life – with examples and applications that include and also go beyond a conventional therapeutic context.

Workshop purpose

The advantage of a waking dream over a sleeping dream (in which the surroundings convince entirely and only upon waking do we realise it as a dream) is that consciousness continues within the dream state – as sometimes happens upon waking-up in the morning when a dream continues to feel present alongside an awareness of lying-in bed.

The workshop explores the benefits of this waking/dreaming state and goes beyond a conventional presentation of waking dream practice to show:

• How the generic principles and skills of all image-based transformation and healing are revealed by attending to the process of how we imagine in a waking dream.

• How a broad understanding of imagination (not just as ‘pictures in the mind’) allows the principles of ‘eyes-closed’ waking dream practice to be applied in everyday life, the arts and experiential psychotherapy work as an ‘eyes-wide-open’ waking dream.

The creative and healing benefits of an up-close, experiential interaction with images will be demonstrated – as a method that values imagining in its own right, not just as a means to cognitive insight.

If you are interested in cultivating a richer, story-filled and enchanted existence – or a therapist wanting to help others do so – then this might be a workshop for you.

The approach

The workshop explores the meeting place of transpersonal psychology, ecotherapy, complexity theory and fractal geometry. The genesis is a sympathetic development of the hidden potential within the image-based applications of Roberto Assagioli’s psychosynthesis, many of which have been taken up by other therapies but have received very little critical attention or modification over the years. Further influences derive from: post-Jungian psychotherapists James Hillman, Mary Watkins and Robert Bosnak; ecopsychologists Theodor Roszak, Jerome Bernstein and Nick Totton; cultural ecologist David Abram; and the integration of psychotherapy with complexity theory and fractal geometry by Terry Marks-Tarlow and Robert M. Galatzer-Levy.

What to expect

The format will be a mixture of theoretical presentation, group discussion and experiential exercises to cultivate waking dream skills, including small-group practicums.

You will learn the theoretical basis of waking dream practice alongside a practical step-by-step method, including:

-The quality of imaginal attention needed for waking dreams.

– How to move and interact and dialogue within a waking dream.

– Imaginal identification in waking dreams.

– How to approach everyday life, creative projects and other image or art-based methods as an ‘eyes-wide-open’ waking dream.

– The basis for an image-centric approach to psychotherapy.

There will also be suggestions for projects exploring your life, work and environment as a waking dream.

Learning outcomes

Participants will leave with an understanding of:

• How imagination is present in all perceptions, actions and relationships.
• How imagining is a healing and creative therapy in its own right.
• How to cultivate a more imaginative life.
• A practical step-by-step waking dream method.
• The relevance of waking dreams principles and skills to the activity of images in everyday relationships, creative projects and generic therapeutic work.

Next workshop

Read about Allan’s next workshop, ‘Waking Dreams’ 10-week online course