Introduction to Dream Tending and Deep Imagination

A Two-Day Workshop Dream Tending with Dr. Stephen Aizenstat

Friday, September 27th, 2024
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm Pacific Time

Saturday, September 28, 2024
9:00 am – 5:00 pm Pacific Time

Dream Tending and Imagination is a life practice that healers, storytellers, and poets have known by many different names for thousands of years. Passed on through generations, the art of tending living dream images emerges when the call to the see the natural world as alive becomes urgent. Participants in this two-day workshop will build practical skills grounded in traditional and emerging methods of dreamwork. The Dream Tending methods developed by Dr. Stephen Aizenstat build on the methods of association, amplification, and animation pioneered by Freud and Jung, and expanded upon by James Hillman and Marion Woodman. Dream Tending puts animation into practice and allows us to experience dreams in their living, embodied reality. By hosting and tending relationships with the living images of dreams we discover new ways of experiencing life and achieve better psychological and physical health.
We invite you to join the upcoming Introduction to Dream Tending and Imagination Workshop on Friday and Saturday, September 27 & 28, 2024. This online workshop will provide you with resources and methods you will need to tend to your personal dreams as well as those of others. During this workshop, Stephen Aizenstat, Ph.D., will demonstrate his approach of Dream Tending by working with dreams of participants’ live. He will then describe what tools he used and how these methods were utilized.
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8 Continuing Education Credits: Available

Workshop participants will learn these skills!

 

  • How to remember dreams and examine reoccurring dream themes.
  • Dream tending skills with nightmares, anxiety and sleepless nights.
  • Identify three methods to aid in better dream recollection.
  • Apply two dream journaling approaches to decode dream metaphors.
  • Develop the three Dream Tending skills of Association, Amplification, and Animation.
  • How dreams and imagination can support and improve physical and psychological health.
  • Identify and develop supportive relationships with figures in dreams.
  • Select and identify three common dream themes and how they relate to your personal journey.
  • Assess recurring dream themes; utilize interventions to change the pattern.
  • Explain embodied dream images through emphasizing the use of the association process.

The Dream Tending Method

At the end of the weekend intensive you will walk away with an understanding of the primary underpinnings of Dream Tending’s approach to working with dreams and imagination. This approach evolved out of Freudian and Jungian psychology and continues to be a cutting edge methodology of working with dreams through active imagination and living images. The Dream Tending method differentiates from dream interpretation. Dreams are not just a product of the logical mind and can’t be reduced to a label. The Dream Tending Method identifies dreams as image-based metaphors that require tending and opening in order to tap into your psyche’s innate intelligence.

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 You will also receive our complimentary Dream Tending Toolkit upon registration.

Questions

Please email Program@DreamTending.com or call (805) 680- 3774 with any questions, and one of our Program Coordinators will get back to you shortly.

Workshop Learning Objectives

 

  1. Identify and explain how to remember dreams.
  2. Demonstrate how dream journaling approaches can be used to decode and understand dream metaphors.
  3. Review and catalogue the methods for tending the “living image” of dreams with an emphasis on the process of animation.
  4. Explain how the Dream Tending methods can be applied in small groups setting.
  5. Explain how Dream Tending methods help us distinguish personal, collective and world unconscious dimensions of dreams.
  6. Develop Dream Tending skills: Association, Amplification, Animation
  7. Conceptualize embodied dream images through emphasizing the use of the association process.
  8. Assess recurring dream themes.
  9. Utilize Dream Tending interventions to change the pattern of dreams.
  10. Explain how to work with nightmare dream images.
  11. Establish supportive relationships with figures in dreams.
  12. Select and identify common dream themes and how they relate to a personal journey.

Testimonials

“The Creativity and Imagination workshop with Stephen Aizenstat was beyond my expectations.  What I learned from this seminar has had applicable implications to my work as a clinician working with patients.  Bringing in the world of the imaginal into the consulting room is a powerful portal in which we both can walk through that brings about a sense of well-being and play!”

– Mai Lai Breech

“Dream Tending is allowing for images to emerge that have as much to do with my inner struggles as with those of the world: the pain over the personal paths not taken as well as the missed opportunities for the healing of the planet. It also points me to unexpected allies – both in the dream group and dream time – that help materialize new strategies for being in, and with, this world.” 

– R. Funke, Educator and Accompanist

“I came to Dream Tending in a moment of mid-life identity crisis. Stephen models a way of being with dreams that inspires me to step into my life with greater authenticity and stronger vision.” 

– Susanna M, Creator and Mother, MFA, PhD

“The workshop is still resonating in me. Dr. Aizenstat worked on a dream of mine during the workshop and the underlying emotion of guilt that has tinted my days has vanished in response to that work.”

– Susan Walcott, M.A.

“The skills I’m learning in Dream Tending are a great source of healing to me. They help me create a safe container for the ups and downs of my emotional life. Instead of reacting, I’m learning.”

– YP, Writer

“It was a wonderful event.  I learned new skills to apply when working with my clients, especially how to be present and allow an imaginary field presence. It challenged my natural inclination to want to offer interpretation and led to deeper understanding of working with the subconscious/ unconscious. It was well organized, and Steve is great.”

–  Cindy Chau, LMFT

“I enjoyed the workshop. I am grateful for this live introduction to Steve and am grateful for his scholarship and Dreamwork these many years.  I am still looking forward to learning more.”

Daniel Davis, LMFT 

“Thank you for this. This was my first ever experience with a community talking about dreams in any way.  And, I loved it!  I look forward to plugging in more.”

– Joshua Ramsey

“Thank you, Steve, for your presence as well as the many years of study and sharing of your expertise and compassion!”

– Tess Keehn

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Meet Dr. Stephen Aizenstat

Stephen Aizenstat, Ph.D., is the Founder of Dream Tending, Pacifica Graduate Institute, and Academy of Imaginal Arts and Sciences. He is a world-renowned Professor of Depth Psychology, an imagination specialist, and innovator. He has served as an organizational consultant to major companies, institutions, Hollywood films, and has lectured extensively in the U.S., Asia, and Europe. He is affiliated with the Earth Charter International project through the United Nations where he has spoken. He has collaborated with many notable masters in the field including Joseph Campbell, James Hillman, Marion Woodman, and Robert Johnson.

General Information

Location
The workshop will be held Online.

Questions
To learn more about the Dream Tending program, please email Program@DreamTending.com and one of our Program Coordinators will get back to you shortly. Our Program Coordinators can schedule a meeting to discuss questions, program prices and payment plan options.

Continuing Education Credit
This program meets qualifications for 8 hours of continuing education credit for Psychologists through the California Psychological Association (PAC014) Pacifica Graduate Institute is approved by the California Psychological Association to provide continuing education for psychologists.  Pacifica Graduate Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content.  Full attendance is required to receive a certificate.

This course meets the qualifications for 8 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.  Pacifica Graduate Institute is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (#60721) to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs.  Pacifica Graduate Institute maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content.  Full attendance is required to obtain a certificate.

For Registered Nurses through the California Board of Registered Nurses this conference meets qualifications of 8 hours of continuing education credit are available for RNs through the California Board of Registered Nurses (provider #CEP 7177).  Full attendance is required to obtain a certificate.

Pacifica Graduate Institute is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs.  Pacifica Graduate Institute maintains responsibility for each program and its content.  Full day attendance is required to receive a certificate.

Continuing Education Goal
Pacifica Graduate Institute is committed to offering continuing education courses to train LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs to treat any client in an ethically and clinically sound manner based upon current accepted standards of practice.  Course completion certificates will be awarded at the conclusion of the training and upon participant’s submission of his or her completed evaluation.

CECs and Online Program Attendance
Participants requesting Continuing Education Credits (CECs) for Online programs must attend all live sessions (offered via Zoom) in order to receive CECs. Please make sure that your Zoom account name matches the name of the attendee requesting CECs.