Recommended by SoulCollageĀ® Facilitator Diane Trowbridge, who has been working with dreams since 1985. She was trained in dream work by her husband Bob, and other grass roots dream workers in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a psychotherapist and SoulCollageĀ® Facilitator, Diane considers dream work to be a sacred endeavor for us to be blessed with the opportunity to be touched by your soul.
BOOKS
(with thanks to Robin, Nancy, and Jillian on the KaleidoSoul Community Group):
JUNGIAN PERSPECTIVE
Carl Jung, “Man and his Symbols”
Carl Jung, “Dreams” (this is actually a compilation book made after his death)
Robert Johnson “Inner Work”
WOMEN’S DREAMS
Lucy Goodison, “The Dreams of Women”
Patricia Garfield, “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Dreams”
CREATIVITY AND DREAMS
Patricia Garfield, “Creative Dreaming”
Diedre Barrett “The Committee of Sleep”
Jill Mellick “The Natural Artistry of Dreams” (This book is full of all kinds of creative approaches to working with dreams, many of which I have seen nowhere else.)
EDGAR CAYCE PERSPECTIVE
Almost any book by Mark Thurston
GENERAL INTERPRETATION GUIDES
Gayle Delaney “Living Your Dreams”
Gayle Delaney “Breakthrough Dreaming”
Jeremy Taylor “Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill” (This book is a favorite of a therapist I know who runs dream groups because it includes a communal or cultural perspective on dreamwork as a societal force for positive change, though not the main thrust of its content.)
Lukeman “What Your Dreams Can Teach You”
Ann Faraday, “Dream Power”
There are many good introductory books out there–what you want to avoid at all costs are the dream “dictionaries” so popular in bookstores.
DREAMS AND HEALING
Brenda Mallon, “Dreams, Counseling and Healing” (This book covers dreams of clients inĀ her practice)
Mark Ian Barrasch “Healing Dreams” (This is a really fascinating book full of amazing stories of healing dreams.)
Patricia Garfield “The Healing Power of Dreams” (This book covers using dream interpretation to reveal health problems, speed recovery from illnesses and surgeries, and also includes a discussion of the dream themes likely to be encountered in any healing process.)
DREAMS AND TRAUMA
Diedre Barrett “Trauma and Dreams”
NIGHTMARES
Almost any book by Ernest Hartmann
LUCID DREAMING (These are dreams in which one becomes aware of dreaming.)
Stephen La Berge, “Lucid Dreaming” and “Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming” (He is the authority on this subject.)
DREAM TELEPATHY
Krippner, Ullman and Montague- “Dream Telepathy”
DREAMS IN CRISIS
Rosalind Cartwright- “Crisis Dreaming”
DREAMS AND THE NEW PHYSICS
Fred Wolfe “The Dreaming Universe” –a fascinating book, I thought, though not any kind of guide for interpreting dreams
PERSONAL MYTHOLOGY
Feinstein and Krippner “Personal Mythology” –this book is not as detailed in the “how to” as I would have liked, but I recommend it because it really imparts a sense that each of us has a personal mythology that is important in our lives
DREAMS AND GENERAL SELF-HELP
Alan Siegal, “Dreams That Can Change Your Life”
Joan Mazza “Dream Back Your Life” (includes a lot of dream interpretation, etc, but also ventures into other self-help exercises and approaches that make it an interesting book)
DREAMS AND SENSUALITY
Gayle Delaney, “Sensual Dreaming”
Pat Maybruck “Romantic Dreams”
CHILDREN’S DREAMS
Patricia Garfield, “Your Child’s Dreams” (This is an excellent book for understandingchildren’s dreams and nightmares.)
Some of these books are out of print, I know, and I also know that both Patricia Garfield and Gayle Delaney have more recent books that I have not included here. The reason I didn’t include these new books is they summarize common dream themes and what they mean rather than walk you through interpreting your own dreams with a lot of examples as the ones I’ve listed do.
Robert Van de Castle’s “Our Dreaming Mind” offers a sweeping compilation of the historyof dreaming and dream interpretation, almost like an encyclopedia, but you will not find “how to” guides in it.
The Art of Dreaming by Jill Mellick.
Steven Aizenstat- Dream Tending
Robert Boznak – A Little Course in Dreams
Robert Johnson – Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth
Connie Kaplan – The Woman’s Book of Dreams
Jeremy Taylor -Dream Work
Penguin Dictionary of Symbols
I had an intro psych class as an elective in which the professor spent exactly one class talking about dreams. He recommended Ann Faraday’s “Dream Power” and Carl Jung’s “Man and his Symbols” to those of us who may be interested in our dreams.Ā So those were the first books I read about dreams.
Other very good books for people interested in interpreting their dreams are Gayle Delaney’s “Living Your Dreams” and “Breakthrough Dreaming” and really, any other book by her, and Patricia Garfield is another reputable person on the subject, though her books tend to focus on specific dream topics.
Dream Language: Self Understanding Through Imagery and Color” by Robert Hoss. This is a smart book and well written. Robert Hoss is a past president of the IASD (International Association for the Study of Dreams).