Elizabeth Carothers Herron, PhD
707.522.9000
MFT Lic. # mc 2250

Private Practice, Sonoma County, California
Board Certified American Psychotherapy Association

Member Association for Psychological Science
Member International Association for the Study of Dreams

Welcome

Dr. Herron provides techniques for dream recall and guidance in exploring dream images. A gentle process of Q & A leads the dreamer to discovery of the dream's personal meaning. Dream analysis provides relief from symptoms of anxiety and mild depression, empowering clients through the creative intelligence of their own dreams. This process is especially useful during transitions and challenging life circumstances. 1 & 1/2 hour individual sessions are booked as needed. Small groups and occasional classes.

DREAMS & DREAM ANALYSIS

In today's busy world it is easy to feel fragmented, out of touch with the inner-self and to feel a sense of psychological rootlessness. This is the dis-ease of our time. When our lives lack contact with the energy of the whole psyche, they can feel shallow, even pointless, our achievements hollow and insignificant, our longings unattainable. Through working with our dreams, we can rediscover meaning and direction in our lives.

The word psychology is derived from the old Greek word, psyche, which meant soul. It is no accident that the field of psychology would thus mean the study of the soul. Whatever our beliefs about the existence of a soul, the psyche is understood to be that aspect of the person which is intangible -- the inner person, the spirit or true being.

The psyche uses dreams to find a way into consciousness where it enlivens our relationships, our solitude, and the work of our daily lives. If we listen to our dreams, along with the demands of our waking life, we find a balance between the two. Life recovers its vitality, and we have the energy to cope even with difficult situations.

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The two great voices in the history of psychology, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, each believed that dreams provided essential keys to our well-being. Freud identified dreams as "the royal road" to the unconscious, that great well-spring of the person that remains shrouded in mystery. Carl Jung agreed and added that imagination itself gave access to the unconscious. Through dreams we contact aspects of ourselves unavailable to waking awareness. Paying attention to them, the hidden narrative of our emotional and spiritual life reveals itself.

The language of dreams is the language of image and metaphor, often including humor and playfulness. Nightmares are usually exaggerated efforts of the unconscious to break into our awareness with something important we need to know or something we've ignored. When the worlds of waking and dreaming are in harmony, the wisdom of dreams can be brought into daily decision-making and action for a sense of wholeness, increased energy, focus, and joy.

Dream Analysis is the exploration of the symbolic language of dreams. In order to distinguish the way I work with dreams from the approaches of Freudian psychoanalytic or Jungian analytical psychology, I sometimes refer to my approach as Process Dream Analysis.Through a series of carefully guided steps, the dreamer is able to translate the images and action of a dream to an understanding of their personal meaning. It is the dreamer who discovers the dream's meaning. My task is to ask the questions that will guide the process to the moment of the dreamer's illumination.

These moments are often accompanied by a feeling surprise, and the emotion of the dream is seen in a new light. Often the meaning of the dream is far deeper and more resonant in the dreamer's life than had at first been perceived. Dreams offer each of us a path to more meaningful living. They also inspire and enliven creative work for those interested in the arts.
Process dream analysis is a way to explore and infuse your life with the energy of your imagination. It may serve as a useful adjunct to longer-term psychotherapy.

Elizabeth says -
Dreams and creative work have guided and enlivened my life as long as I can remember. My enduring interest in imagination from a scientific point of view and as a creative practice led naturally into the arts and psychology. I completed my doctorate in psychology with an emphasis in biopoetics, the origin and evolution of aesthetic behavior.

I have great faith in the practice of engaging with images presented by the unconscious in dreams and the arts. Images invite us into contact with our emotional truth. They also offer guidance, warnings and affirmation. Each image waits to be explored, each dream is a mystery to unravel. Working with dreams we experience the combustion of the known with the unknown, the dream with the dreamer.

I began keeping a dream journal at the age of 19, and over time learned and developed useful ways of working with dreams. My formal work with dreams began when I was on the clinical staff of the Counseling Center at Sonoma State University. From there I moved to the faculty where my dual credentials as a poet and a psychotherapist prepared me to work with small groups of students in an expressive arts program. My diverse interests have also taken me into anthropology and the human relationship to nature. As Professor of Arts & Humanities, I taught courses as far ranging as Dreams & Imagination, Ecological Identity and Creative Process. Over the years, my engagement with images in dreams and art led to the development of my unique theoretical and practical approach to dream analysis. Now Faculty Emeritus, the focus of my attention is on my private practice and, as always, my own writing.