DREAMCATCHER: Alex Hossack and Catherine Aubrey interpret your dreams

Rachael’s Dream:

Connor my partner, my dog 'Ollie' and I came out of a pub and decided to take a different route home.

The Sat Nav suggested a route that would take five minutes longer and meant we needed to take the road around the coast of Scotland.

We set off, but when we reached the northern part of the Scottish coast and tried to negotiate the narrow edge of the cliff road and tight corners, there was a huge long drop on one side into the sea.

I managed to drive around the corners but there was blood on the cliff walls which was distressing.

I was warned by someone standing in the road not to go any further as it was dangerous. I ignored the comment and carried on but eventually decided it was too dangerous after all and so turned the car around and stopped at a house further down the road.

We all hid in the empty attic, it was bare, nothing at all in it. I could see people outside talking and plotting to get us. They came into the house and found us because of the noise Ollie was making.

I was getting more distressed as we had been tracked down. I wanted to know why they were chasing us. They said Connor had killed someone. I decided that it was fair retribution.

Dream Analysis:

The dreamer is leaving a place of comfort represented by a pub. She is looking for a new way to reach future goals or return to a place of comfort, which may be an emotional place. This is represented symbolically by searching for a ‘new way home’.

She has needed advice to reach her goals represented by the use of a Sat Nav and the way forward has required her to ‘negotiate’ potential difficulties and perceived warnings and dangers some of which she has ignored but have left her feeling 'on the edge'.

An overwhelming sense of danger, however, has ultimately caused her to rethink her direction and return to a place of perceived safety.

Within this place she ‘hides’ her feelings from those who are not close to her and harbours some fears that others are actively ‘plotting’ to find her out. She feels pursued and finds these feelings distressing.

The dreamer is seeking explanations for her inner feelings and when she realises that something has ended, she finds a sense of relief.

In summary, the dreamer has struggled with something in her life from which she felt she needed to escape. She has felt distressed, vulnerable and under external pressure.

She retreats into herself to look for answers and when she finds a reasonable explanation for why she feels the way she does, it makes sense to her and she is relieved. This dream has effectively worked out an emotional conflict felt by the dreamer.

If the dreamer would like to provide feedback about the interpretation, please send it to ACDreamcatchers@mail.com.

Interestingly, we have found it is not always possible 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.

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.