The Art of Dreaming: A Creativity Toolbox for Dreamwork

Rating:
Summary: a jewel box
Review: This book is a jewel box. What a relief to find a book of dream work that encourages one to explore, expand, and appreciate the dream itself, rather than squeeze it down to fit one single theory or crummier yet,to interpret it. Mellick acknowledges while theories can be helpful, anyone else's opinion is secondary to your own. It's your dream and yours alone.
Mellick opens up dreams, as one might a box of paints, and presents a series of brief lessons, ways to work with inner material that are rich, fruitful and ultimately nourishing.
Her premise is that since dreams do not come to us in strings of words, why should we limit working with them to writing and talking. "We can express dreams in the art form that best suits them." (p. 13). The core of the book presents several dozen different art forms, taking from five to fifteen minutes (including a number that make use of words) that can take the most mundane seeming dream and uncover many layers of meaning within it.
By taking her suggestion to treat dreams as visits to another culture, one far more varied and flexible than our waking reality, she makes all dreams, even nightmares, worth exploring. Mellick says (and shows to be true) that "the dream is often the companion of the soul," (p. 18). She would have us settle for nothing less.
I highly recommend this book if you are open to merging your own creativity, no matter if it is embryonic or fully developed, with your nightly visits to the dream garden that grows inside your heart.

Rating:
Summary: a jewel box
Review: This book is a jewel box. What a relief to find a book of dream work that encourages one to explore, expand, and appreciate the dream itself, rather than squeeze it down to fit one single theory or crummier yet,to interpret it. Mellick acknowledges while theories can be helpful, anyone else's opinion is secondary to your own. It's your dream and yours alone.
Mellick opens up dreams, as one might a box of paints, and presents a series of brief lessons, ways to work with inner material that are rich, fruitful and ultimately nourishing.
Her premise is that since dreams do not come to us in strings of words, why should we limit working with them to writing and talking. "We can express dreams in the art form that best suits them." (p. 13). The core of the book presents several dozen different art forms, taking from five to fifteen minutes (including a number that make use of words) that can take the most mundane seeming dream and uncover many layers of meaning within it.
By taking her suggestion to treat dreams as visits to another culture, one far more varied and flexible than our waking reality, she makes all dreams, even nightmares, worth exploring. Mellick says (and shows to be true) that "the dream is often the companion of the soul," (p. 18). She would have us settle for nothing less.
I highly recommend this book if you are open to merging your own creativity, no matter if it is embryonic or fully developed, with your nightly visits to the dream garden that grows inside your heart.

Rating:
Summary: From the perspective of a clinician . .
Review: This wonderful book of tools combines dream work with the expressive arts. Jill Mellick lightly introduces the reader to Jungian theory and invites us to explore further if desired. An understanding of Jung is unnecessary, however, to use the exercises in the book - only a wish to further explore one's dreams, and a willingness to branch out from the traditional linear narrative form of conveying dream experiences. Our clients need not be artists to use the expressive arts suggested here - just willing. The expressive arts suggested in this book range from writing, drawing, collage, mask making and movement, to ritual and dramatization. This book is well organized and easy to read. For example, icons are given next to each exercise indicating which of the expressive modalities are involved for quick reference.
Mellick shows us that there are numerous ways to approach working with dreams. We can learn to be flexible and listen to what is needed to work with a particular dream. She invites us to see our dream lives as another world to be explored, and to use innovative approaches which draw from the traditional. Traditional approaches, seen as doing, include analyzing, hypothesizing, understanding, and applying to life, whereas innovative approaches, seen as being, include nourishing, imagining, inquiring, and connecting.
Practical guidance is given for creating a space for this work. The "four phases of expressive dream work" help the reader to go into the dream world, and to return safely to everyday life. These phases are "an intentional departure from ordinary awareness", "an inner journey into the imagination", "a return to ordinary awareness", and "a reflection on the journey" (p. 25). I would guess that many of these exercises can be adapted to clients who need extra assistance from their therapists to be able to to enter and return from the realm of dreams and imagination.
The author urges us to keep a dream journal, to carefully record our observances, and to set aside a protected space where we can view our expressive dream work over time. When we are able to sit with a piece, a deeper relationship can evolve. Also, at times the work will lead us to dream the dream further. For example, what might happened next in the dream? What associations can we make to the dream material?
The bulk of the exercises are included in two broad sections, categorized by how much time one has to do the dream work. Very practical for busy lives, the first set of exercises can be done in five minutes, the second set in ten to fifteen minutes. Included are special considerations and exercises for both nightmares and dreams in a series.
This book can be used by individual clients as well as by groups. Some clients might prefer to work on their own and share later with their therapists. Others might prefer to do the exercises in their therapist's office. The author provides guidelines for creating an expressive dream group. I appreciate how she gives detailed suggestions for creating healthy boundaries and an atmosphere of exploration and witness rather than interpretation and judgment. I highly recommend this book for any therapist who is interested in working with clients using dreams, the expressive arts, or Jungian theory.