Description: Patients are frequently afraid of remembering their dreams, saying “I don’t dream.”  Very often, there can be childhood nightmares that contributed to this aversion to remembering dreams. Using the case of a very religious, “good girl” 40 year- old woman, who was terrified of her violent, murderous dreams, we can begin to look at how we can help patients work with these “not me” aspects of their personalities. We will discuss theoretical contributions by Jung, Bonime, Kohut, Fosshage, and others and see how they might contribute to helping this patient to heal via her dreams. Please bring your questions and case vignettes.

  Mary Ellen McMahon, LCSW a graduate of Northwestern and Columbia University School of Social Work, found her own “royal road” while at NIP, particularly in Dr. Fosshage’s Dream Course. Subsequently, she studied with Dr. Montague Ullmann, learning his “Experiential Dream Group” method. Mary Ellen has been in private practice for several decades, teaching the Dream Class at NIP and Derner.  She conducts private Dream Groups and Supervision Groups.