Today’s Dream from Al:

I was on a bus with Hayley from Coronation Street and felt comfortable having her around.

It was an ordinary, fairly bright day and I felt at ease, neither very happy or very sad.

Hayley and I got off the bus and she handed me something. I’m not sure what it was but it may have been an old threepenny coin.

We were standing at the brow of a hill looking down and saw George Bush and another man coming up the hill on horses.

George Bush was slumped over the front of the horse, hanging on in a strange way. He wasn’t embarrassed but obviously wasn’t a rider. I was surprised that he would allow himself to be seen in such a silly position on the horse.  The other man was riding well.

George Bush got off his horse and I was standing in front of him as he came to talk to me. The conversation was not important, just protocol and small talk.

I was slightly anxious. Hayley wasn’t there. Everyone else got off the bus and they were waiting in line to speak to George Bush. I stood apart because I’d already spoken to him.

We got back on the bus and drove around a field. I could see a hotel on the other side of the field. The bus wasn’t a double decker but I realised later that we were upstairs.

We pulled up outside the hotel and could only see the front of the building. I got off and realised that George Bush was on the bus in a separate second carriage. I thought for protocol reasons I shouldn’t have got off the bus first.

The front of the hotel seemed like a facade which had a mighty defence system like a prison and no door. Hayley got off the bus. The hotel was bullet proof and I thought they must have checked the windows for bomb threats.

Dream Interpretation and Basis for the Interpretation:

The dreamer is moving forward with day to day life at ease. Something from the past has presented itself represented by the three penny coin and triggered reflective thoughts.

The dreamer is faced with a representation of authority, symbolised by George Bush, which may reflect the past when he felt professionally credible and supported.

The dreamer is faced with a comparison between his current and former life. However, he realises that he is looking back from a higher place ie: the brow of a hill looking down, and ‘hanging on’ to something.

The dreamer is still fluctuating between currently pretending to be something he is not and acknowledging that he is no longer in a position of authority. He worries about feeling less important and that this fear may be exposed in front of others, represented by the incompetent riding skills of George Bush.

He is, however, also in the process of coming to terms with these feelings and while he feels mildly anxious, is not overwhelmed by the fear.

He believes that others still see him as an authority figure but he is separating himself from that identity. This is symbolised by the dreamer standing back as the passenger’s line up to speak to George Bush.

The dream is about his own feelings and fears not evidenced by the feedback from others.

The second part of the dream moves forward to something new ‘on the other side of the field’.

In everyday life the dreamer acknowledges that he has built impenetrable psychological defences to manage his fears and move on from the past, particularly in regard to his loss of professional identity. This is symbolised by the hotel facade and ‘mighty defence system’.

However, he is beginning to regard his past life as secondary to his current circumstances, which are comfortable and at ease.

Hayley represents comfort and the dreamer ends with a reminder that he is still in a process of change and his defences are strong enough to sustain him. This is represented by the reflective acknowledgement that the hotel is bullet proof and the windows have been checked to manage threats.

This is a transitional dream and has probably followed a period of adjustment after a significant change in the dreamer’s life. This may have been a process of months or years but the dreamer is ready to moving on.

Interestingly, we have found that it is not always easy to interpret your own dream, probably because it often represents the sublimation of feelings or thoughts that we are trying to avoid in our waking lives. However, with a little assistance from the dream interpreter, the symbols and themes can start to make sense and help us to move forward.

If you are interested in having a particular dream analysed, please send us an account of your dream to the following email address: ACDreamcatchers@mail.com We only have space to interpret one dream a week which will be selected from those received. Please refer to the guidance provided to describe your dream as this will enable us to provide a full interpretation.

Dream Theories:

Dream work and dream theories have an ancient and rich history with religious, spiritual and paranormal links and we have attached meanings to them for thousands of years.

In 1900, a more formal approach to interpretation was attempted by Professor Sigmund Freud with the publication of ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’. Freud proposed that dreams were the result of unacceptable memories, desires or impulses and concluded that they had origins in wish fulfilment. Many variations on this theme have been offered since then, including those of Jung, Perls and Faraday.

We engage in a thematic approach to dream interpretation involving the analysis of symbols offered in the dream from which themes are developed. We use the model of dream work proposed by Custaway and Sewell to look at the relationship between the distinct parts of the dream and relate them to everyday life.

Dreams and the Dreamer:

Dreams are the personal creation of the dreamer and their symbols can be both personal and universal. Dreams often represent unconscious thoughts which are not usually recognised by the dreamer in their waking hours. The dream is satisfactorily ‘interpreted’ when it makes sense to the dreamer. The interpretation can help the dreamer to make decisions and/or changes in their lives.

Guidance for the Dreamer

• Record your dream in writing as soon as you wake up with as much detail as possible.

• First of all ask yourself who is in the dream.

• Where are you, what is happening to you and what is happening around you?

• Record how you are feeling about what you and/or others are doing.

• Are there particular symbols or objects in the dream that are unusual?

• Are there any sounds and is the dream in colour or black and white?

• Are you watching yourself in the dream or are you experiencing it first-hand ie: through your own eyes.

Alex Hossack and Catherine Aubrey are public service professionals with years of experience as practitioners and managers in the Criminal Justice System. Alex Hossack – I am a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and have worked in Forensic Psychology in both community and secure settings for the past 28 years. I have delivered therapeutic dream analysis in those settings aimed at helping people to improve the quality of their lives and better understand their emotional response to personal circumstances.

Catherine Aubrey - I qualified as a Probation Officer in 1988 and moved into management after ten years as a practitioner. I have worked in a range of Court, prison and community settings to assist the rehabilitation of offenders. My interest in dream analysis came from working with Alex who taught me the fundamentals of dream interpretation which I then developed by studying academic texts. Dream analysis is a useful way of making sense of life events and associated emotions that we unconsciously sublimate.

We both have a strong local connection with the South Lakes. Seven years ago, we bought a boat on Windermere and have lived on it nearly every weekend since. As a result, we have had the pleasure of developing an existing love of the area, great friendships and an active involvement in local events. We have a real affection for The Westmorland Gazette which we read every week and so it seemed a logical step to offer our dream interpretation service to this newspaper.