ABSTRACT

Wendy Pannier

Wendy Pannier has worked with Dr. Montague Ullman since the early 1980s, completing many of his leadership and advanced leadership workshops. She published a quarterly newsletter, Dream Appreciation, from 1996 through 2002, based on his group process. In 2003 she began an online version called "Conversations with Monte." She has spoken about dreams and led dream groups for diverse audiences for almost 20 years, including staff at a Veterans Hospital, cancer survivors at Wellness Communities, and members of the Swedish Dream Group Forum at workshops in Greece, Sweden and Bali. A member of ASD since 1995, she became a board member in 1999, Secretary in 2000 and Board Chair in 2002. She is also chair of the Publicity Committee.

Summary of Presentation

This workshop explains Dr. Montague Ullman’s dynamic four-step group approach that he developed with Nan Zimmerman. The group will work on a participant’s dream using the process. Safety of the dreamer is a primary tenet of this process, and the dreamer remains in control at all times. This approach helps people tap the potential of their dreams – and also shows how dreams connect us, one to another. This process exemplifies the high standards set in ASD’s Ethics Statement through protecting the safety of the dreamer, using non-intrusive techniques and respecting the dreamer’s wishes at all times.

Learning Objectives.

• How to protect the safety of the dreamer in a group setting
• How to enhance the discovery process for the dreamer in a non-threatening way
• How everyone in a group can benefit from working on another person’s dream

Evaluation questions:

• What is the metaphorical significance of the visual images?
• How can you best put questions to the dreamer to help uncover clues about the temporal significance of the dream (why the dream occurred that night)?
• What can you take away from this group approach that can be useful in working on a one-to-one basis with a client?

Abstract 

There is a unique dynamic that occurs in an Ullman-style dream group. A depth of understanding emerges when the group follows a structure that provides safety for the dreamer to explore a dream without fear, and allows for discovery of the dream’s meaning without being intrusive.

This four-stage process, developed and perfected by Dr. Montague Ullman over almost a quarter of a century, enables the dreamer to decode dream messages and attain levels of understanding rarely reached through other means. The strength of the process arises from the structure -- a structure that many claim to follow but few do with accuracy or completeness.

This workshop will present and clarify the structure, and allow attendees to participate in the dream group process. When the structure is clearly understood and practiced, the process greatly enhances group dream work.

Group dream work is a way to help people tap the potential of their dreams -- and also to show how dreams connect us, one to another.

Facilitator’s role:

1. To maintain the safety of the dreams (The Safety Factor)

• Dreamer controls the process
• Dreamer’s privacy is not to be invaded
• Leading questions are to be avoided
• Dreamer determines the level of sharing he or she feels comfortable with
• The dreamer can terminate the process at any point.

1. To lead the group through the various stages designed to help the dreamer make discoveries difficult to make on his or her own (The Discovery Factor)
2. To regulate the time as to leave sufficient time for the dreamer to respond and for the dialog to ensue.

The leader asks: "Who has a dream he or she would like to share with the group?

Addressed to:

Dreamer Please tell your dream slowly, so we may have time to write it down.

Limit your telling to the manifest content of the dream and include any feelings experienced during the dream.

Group (after dream) Does the group have any questions regarding the clarification of the dream? For example:

1. Are the characters real people?
2. If so, what is their relationship to the dreamer? (no details)
3. Were there any further feelings in the dream?
4. Any colors in the dream?
5. Dreamer’s age in the dream?

Dreamer You might like to sit back and take note of any responses that have meaning for you as we make the dream our own.

Group We will talk about the dream as if it were our own, sharing with each other feelings and moods the imagery evokes in us. These are our projections and in making them please avoid eye contact with the dreamer.

IIB. Group We will now consider each dream element in its potential metaphorical significance to some actual situation in our lives or to any imagined life situation. We can continue to express further feelings should they arise. Please remember that everything we say is our own projection!

Dreamer We will now give the dream back to you and invite you to respond in any way that you wish. You will not be interrupted. Take all the time you need and let us know when you are finished.

IIIB. Dreamer Consider any questions as instruments for you to use in exploring your own psyche. These are not questions demanding an answer. You are free to respond or not as you see fit.

IIIB1. Group Our initial questions are to help the dreamer explore the recent emotional context that shaped the dream. For example, any feeling residues to recent experiences that stayed with the dreamer the night of the dream.

IIIB2. Dreamer Would you like us now to play back your dream scene by scene to see if you can make any further associations?

Group Who would like to read back the first scene?

The scene is initially read back in full giving the dreamer a chance to respond. If there are still elements in a scene the dreamer has not yet addressed the dreamer is helped to focus on those specific elements and the question of their appearance in the dream at this time in the dreamer’s life. This procedure will be continued until the entire dream has been read back.

IIIB3. Dreamer Would you like to see if the group has any orchestrating projections to offer you in an effort to help you make further connections between the content of the dream and all you shared?

Dreamer If you have any further ideas or insights concerning the dream or the work the group did with it, you are free to share them with us at this time.

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