DREAMCATCHER: Alex Hossack and Catherine Aubrey interpret your dreams

Dave’s Dream: The dream begins with me leaving my hotel bedroom, dressed formally, carrying my lecture notes and making my way to the lift and a large conference room downstairs.

When I get there, it’s busy but the conference hasn’t started yet so I take a seat at the front and look up to see a speaker who is coming to the front of the stage.

I turn around to look at the audience behind me and notice a man from work who is smiling, but not at me. I don’t like him.

Someone on the stage starts to talk to the audience. It reminds me to check for my lecture notes but can’t find them. I look again.

The organiser of the conference who is standing at the side notices my predicament and comes over asking what is wrong. I tell him about losing my speech notes. He looks displeased. I look again but still can’t find them. I feel partially sick and partially relieved.

Dream Analysis: The dreamer is reflecting on the past and doesn’t like what he sees. He makes a link with bad past work experiences represented by the man from work he dislikes.

He keeps looking for possible opportunities to move forward but he can’t find the direction, symbolised by the continued inability to find his notes.

The rest of the world moves on, represented by the speaker moving towards the front of the stage and talking to the audience.

The dreamer is stuck at this point in his life even though he continues to feel supported as indicated by the attention of the Course Organiser. However, he remains stuck in a transitional state with conflictual feelings, searching for a future direction as yet undiscovered.

To lose something in a dream indicates that we have forgotten something important. This may have been the reward gained from a way of living or a moral code that previously sustained us. To be suffering such a loss suggests that we are trying to live without it.

The dream content appears to be related to the benefits of a working life now changed or gone.

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.