Schemas of The Night: Phantom or Real

Dream Material can give access to schemas, particularly the unconditional schemas of early childhood, that may be difficult for clients to emotionally connect with in sessions. Research from neurobiology, sleep and memory studies will be presented to explain how this happens and how the dreaming process is thought to be critical in the process of memory consolidation particularly in connecting current events with past experience. A case study of working with a dream of client A will be presented. The presentation will demonstrate how to connect the therapist’s in depth knowledge of the client’s schemas and modes from their case conceptualisation with dream material. Facilitating exploration of the dream through the emotional focus techniques of schema therapy can enable connection with the vulnerable child mode, often for the first time, as well as emotional expression of the schemas.