I offer individual and group consultation, specializing in dream analysis and the creative process with over 30 years experience making art and teaching both privately and at Sonoma State University. I hold a doctorate in psychology, specializing in biopoetics. My teaching has included:

• Dreams & Imagination
• Writing Fiction
• Movement & Text
• The Art of Collaboration
• Creative Writing
• Creativity & Synchronicity
• Writing Poetry
• Ecological Art
• Interdisciplinary Creative Process

DREAM ANALYSIS - THE ROYAL ROAD

I began keeping a dream journal at the age of 19, and over time learned and developed useful ways of working with dreams. Not only do dreams offer a path to more meaningful living, they also inspire and enliven creative work for those interested in the arts.

About Dreams- As Sigmund Freud knew, dreams are the “royal road” to the unconscious. Carl Jung said that imagination and dreams were the two ways to connect with the unconscious. Through dreams we access aspects of ourselves hidden from ordinary awareness. By attending to them we discover the hidden narrative of our emotional and spiritual life. Even our day-to-day decisions are better made if we have paid attention to our dreams and learned from them what we need and what we want in our heart of hearts.

The themes and preoccupations of our dreams are clues on a path running crisscross, with our waking lives. Unless we notice and follow the clues, it is easy to lose our way. We must pay attention to the whole self to be fully alive; that includes making room for the unconscious to offer up its clues. Without their guidance, life can begin to feel shallow, even pointless, our achievements hollow and insignificant, our longings unattainable. When we listen not only to the demands of our waking life but to our dreams as well as, we find the balance between the two. Dreams provide the meandering path the soul needs to find its way into daily life where it enlivens our relationships, our work, and our solitude.

Dream Analysis is the exploration of the symbolic language of your dreams. The unique personal meaning of the images and action of the dream to the dreamer gradually reveal themselves through a series of carefully guided steps. It is the dreamer who discovers the dream's meaning. As the Dream Analysis practitioner, 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 of both surprise and certainty, and the emotion of the dream is seen in an entirely new light. Often we find the meaning of the dream far deeper and more resonant in the dreamer's life than had at first been perceived.

Dreams speak an aesthetic language of image and metaphor, often with humor and playfulness. Even our nightmares are usually exaggerated efforts of the unconscious to break into our conscious mind with something important we need to know. When our waking and our dreaming lives are in harmony, we can bring the wisdom of our dreams into daily decisions and action.  Then we discover a renewed sense of wholeness, increased energy, focus, and joy.

Dream Analysis- I teach individuals and small groups how to connect with their dreams. To remember them is the first step, so I provide techniques for dream recall.  To begin to work with dreams, I teach dream amplification through seven primary processes. For those who wish simply to understand a specific dream, I offer my experienced attention to the dream through focused interaction with the dreamer in individual sessions lasting one and a half hours. My task is to assist in the dreamer’s translation from image to personal meaning. I am always impressed by the powerful moment of realization when a dreamer penetrates the mystery of a dream and discovers the significance of its uniquely personal message.

Sessions for dream analysis are 1 & 1/2 hour long and are booked one at a time as needed. I have a sliding scale for this work.

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WRITING & CREATIVE ARTS CONSULTATION

For thousands of years, humanity has made art out of an inborn impulse. As we recover our understanding of the place of art in life through current scientific and scholarly work, it becomes clear that creation is not only our birthright but a key to our belonging and to our understanding of the world.

The arts arise from an innate human capacity to appreciate and engage in aesthetic activity, not only as self-expression, but as a process of spiritual alignment and a way of contributing to community. Each one of us has inherited an aesthetic sensibility that can be cultivated, adding discovery, joy and meaning to our lives.

My experience with all aspects of writing, from start-up through blocks, first drafts, rewriting and editing enables me to offer guidance throughout the writing process. Because I have experience in dance, music and mixed-media performance, I can provide a developed attention to exploration in the arts and to artists who may wish feedback or direction. I am familiar with the overwhelming experience of initial creative vision, with production, performance, fallow period and post performance depression. My background in psychology enables me to provide supportive understanding of the creative impulse and clarification of complex imagery. My experience with collaboration enables me to support the coherence of complex works involving more than one artist.

My fee for consultation is negotiable and I am open to trades.

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Group Offerings

Small groups of 8 to 10 participants can schedule a Dream Group with me. These groups are limited in time, not on-going. A group may be scheduled for several meetings once a week: four to six sessions.

Dream Workshops are generally weekend events from 8 to 16 participants. Friday night and all day Saturday is usually the most workable. Occasionally I schedule such Workshops myself and invite participants who may or may not already know one another.

Fees vary with the duration of the group and number of participants.

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As a California licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, Dr. Elizabeth Herron holds a stable supportive environment for individuals unfamiliar with the emotional challenges of dream analysis, image encounter and creative work. She can identify personal issues and assist in appropriate referral when necessary.