Dreams & Soul Coaching®

Dreams & Soul Coaching®

Dreams & Soul Coaching® have been walking hand in hand for years. Let me explain. I’ve been curious about dreams since 1980 when, pregnant with my third child and having had an interesting dream, I happened to catch an interview with Dr. Gayle Delaney on the the morning radio show I was listening to while juggling children and coffee.

But the first time I became aware that dreams were hinting at something larger than my own personal psychology was in an unlikely place for a revelation. The year was 1997 and I was sitting by the hotel pool on a very hot Philadelphia weekend. A friend’s son had just celebrated his Bar Mitzvah and my kids, numbering four, were cooling off in the pool along with all of Philadelphia it seemed. I sat in a lounge chair, watching the kids, watching people and reading Joan Borysenko’s “Fire in the Soul”.

In it, she wrote, “A Parable: Safe Passage Home”. I read it and gasped. Then I cried under my sun hat. Somehow, in a few words, I found out why I was so interested in dreams, why I was a dreamer. Borysenko wrote,

“The fledgling souls took many roads Home. Each Way had its own Story and each soul responded to that Story with the gift of free will, embroidering new stories on the dream-tapestry of the One Great Dreamer.”

A Fire in MY Soul!

With that sudden understanding, I could now see what wasn’t there a moment before. In that moment, I reconnected with my Creator, with myself and to all dreamers in a way that I wasn’t connected before. Before, I felt like an orphan; now, suddenly, I belonged. Before, there had been an intellectual understanding of the psychology of dreams, now it was personal and it was spiritual.

In that moment by the pool I realized that I dream—you dream—because God dreams. Being “created in God’s image”, a familiar passage from the Bible, now took on deeper shading, as the idea took root in my heart and in my soul. Life was a noisy, hot day by a pool one moment and reality was where I had left it. Yet, a moment later, my eyes were opened to a broader perspective and I understood. I dream because God dreams! I was born of the One Great Dreamer and to dream is my birthright and my gift. At the same time, it is both natural and ordinary,  yet supernatural. My fascination with dreams had come into alignment with creation. Yet this sudden spiritual awakening —my poolside satori—threatened to dissipate as I struggled to understand. Am I dreaming all of this? Am I dreaming my life? My children? (My deliberation paused as I counted heads in the pool.) And if, like my Creator, I dream or create my world, are my own children, or anyone else for that matter, dreaming a different dream? Are common dreams what creates community and binds societies together? If my mind can play with the possibility that I’ve created my own reality, and I’ve dreamed this life of mine, then I have to also consider the possibility that God is a dream as well. Who’s dreaming whom? (And is it time to get out of the sun?)

Sharing My Field Notes

In some small way, I might say that my life is the story of one woman’s journey and search to remember the dream she had of herself, of God and of all creation, all while cooking dinner, raising four children, running a psychotherapy practice and Soul Coaching® groups. And these essays are my field notes from the road because as I write this, I am still searching and still dreaming. I’ve been a “Dweller on the Threshold” with one foot in the dream world and one foot on the ground of daily life with its pleasures and its pains. Ironically, the more I dwell in the dream world, contemplating its insights and adventures, the easier it is to access its wisdom and guidance as I find my way in the waking world. I’ve seen the reports of other dreamers and I know I’m on the right path, tracking my Self and Spirit, however many potholes and detours I encounter. We are all “Dwellers on the Threshold” with a foot in both realms, but who has the courage to step over the threshold? Dreamers do.

Combining the Two

Dreams and Soul Coaching® have been siblings, traveling together, each supporting our inner journeys. In fact, Denise Linn, who is the founder of Soul Coaching®, wrote a book on dreams long before she created Soul Coaching®. So when we, as Soul Coaching® Practitioners, help our clients find the tools of transformation to move their lives forward, dream work is part of the package that I offer. For those who would like to dive deeper into dreaming, I haven’t forgotten you! I am so excited to share that I am creating a course, for deepening and expanding your dream-working skills, for yourself and for others! Dream on, friends, and watch for news on my next creation!