Dreamwork practitioners without a medical license are in a tricky spot when it comes to sharing health-related information or opinions online, so it’s important for me to again state upfront that what follows is my educated opinion as a human with special interests in dreams and dreamwork, and as someone who identifies as a neurospicy woman. It is based on my personal experience studying dreams and dreamwork, as well as my work as a dreamwork practitioner. It is also based on decades of experience living with and loving neurodivergent individuals and educating myself in the absence of meaningful guidance from under-informed mental healthcare practitioners. In other words, what follows is not based on published research (though I have started to see articles and papers on dreams and neurodivergence, so yay!) Ready?
Dreamwork can be really supportive to both formally diagnosed and self-diagnosed neurodivergent individuals.
I am focusing here on late-diagnosed adults, as opposed to those diagnosed as children because that’s the population I am more familiar with. I am also including “self-diagnosed” here because not everyone can afford a formal medical evaluation and dreamwork may be helpful to those identifying with the criteria for a diagnosis, but without a formal diagnosis. (ie. If you struggle with aphantasia — the inability to picture images in the mind — but have not been formally diagnosed as autistic, dreamwork may still be helpful. Or if you suffer from rejection sensitivity, but haven’t been diagnosed ADHD, dreamwork may prove supportive to your well-being.)
Further (and unfortunately), many people are still being misdiagnosed and under-diagnosed even when they seek out medical evaluation for neurodiversity; especially women. Even those with diagnoses are still struggling to find therapists who deeply understand neurodivergence and can work with a population who may need different approaches to therapies than a neurotypical population would.
Again, I am not a therapist and dreamwork is not therapy. However, just as cardiovascular exercise is not psychotherapy, and going to the gym can be supportive to neurodivergent individuals who are struggling with managing stress and burnout; dreamwork is not therapy, but can be extremely beneficial for learning how to navigate challenging interpersonal dynamics and relationships, increase self-awareness and acceptance, expand your window of tolerance, recognize approaching burnout, and soothe yourself in dysregulating situations, among other things. Dreamwork sessions in which we use dream social encounters can also be a low-risk, neurodivergent-affirming setting to practice new skills.
On my about page, I note my training includes using dreams and Natural Dreamwork to support individuals who identify as having experienced trauma, C-PTSD, attachment wounding, relationship anxiety, overwhelm, burnout, or a dysregulated nervous system. This training includes both formal learning environments and a lot of informal research and on-the-ground practice in life. Without sharing too many personal details right now, I’ll say it was as a result of my work with my own dreams that I became aware of how much my experience as an undiagnosed neurodivergent individual has impacted the way I viewed myself, others, and the world around me. It has also been through Natural Dreamwork, specifically, that I have learned how to feel more deeply, be more present in my body and senses, and recognize my own needs and desires (as well as my tendencies to ignore my own basic needs or feel overwhelmed by them). This work also has taught me better how to stay in my body and senses during moments of system overwhelm. It has, over time, enabled me to identify (in dreams) situations that activate me, which enables me to be more aware of that tendency in waking life.
Natural Dreamwork is an embodied approach to working with dreams, whereas many other schools of dreamwork tend to approach dream images via the mind, relying on analysis and interpretation. While Natural Dreamwork was not created specifically as a therapeutic tool for awakening body awareness and how to have a more deeply felt experience of life, I personally have found these to be benefits of my regular dreamwork practice.
Another reason why dreamwork can be beneficial to neurodivergent individuals is that a lot of us dream, remember our dreams, and dream vividly. Some of us remember our dreams even better than we remember our waking life interactions. (Some of us tend to be really good lucid dreamers, as well, and others of us have extremely realistic scary nightmares that torture us.)
Dropping back into vivid dreams in a dreamwork session can be a way to notice whether you are under-responsive or over-responsive to sensory stimulation. We can see if and how you spend a lot of time in your own mind and in overthinking, or if are you engaged instead with the dream environment. This can be really useful for individuals who suffer from anxiety. It can also be helpful to approach nightmares this way, too, as you’d be surprised how much of a nightmare can actually exist inside your own mind inside a dream. (More on that in a later article.)
Our remembered dreams, in general, can be a safer way (with the right support person and container) to observe ourselves, our emotions, and our behaviors toward ourselves and others. For some reason, it can feel less vulnerable to share and reflect upon our dream encounters with another person than it does to share and reflect upon waking life interactions. (For instance, rejection sensitivity can still come into play when working dreams with a practitioner, but using a dream encounter can be a much gentler approach to co-discovering rejection sensitivity than other modalities.)
Another hidden benefit to dreamwork if you are a vivid and active dreamer like I am is the enjoyment that can come from meeting regularly with another person who is as curious and as interested in your dreams as you are!
I want to write more articles on this topic in the future, but it’s a big topic and I want to take care with it. Supporting individuals who have suffered from under-diagnosis, misdiagnosis or who cannot find the help they need due to an undereducated system is really, really important to me. I suppose you can say it’s part of my mission as a dreamwork practitioner and researcher. Dreams have been a life-long special interest of mine, but it’s been such a blessing to learn that dreams are so useful for healing and growth, as well. When so many of us are struggling without access to care, I’d like to be able to show people how using our dreams and dreamwork is one way to heal and grow that may need support of a practitioner at the start, but can eventually be a practice that can expand into independent inner work or group work that does not require the guidance of a practitioner.
So consider this an “introduction to…” and if you have more questions, I’ll do my best to answer them briefly if I can or direct you to resources if you reach out via my contact page. You can also use the contact page to schedule a session with me or learn more about how Natural Dreamwork works.
