EXPERIENTIAL WORK: DREAMS & INNER LISTENING

Some experiences don't fully come into view through thinking alone.

There may be a sense of something just at the edge of understanding — a feeling, image, or tension that hasn't yet found words. Part of my work involves creating space to stay with these experiences and listen to them more closely, without rushing to interpret or resolve them.

This can include working with dreams, and with what is sometimes called the felt sense — a subtle, bodily way of knowing that can be difficult to describe at first, but becomes clearer when given time and attention.

WORKING WITH DREAMS

Dreams can offer another way of listening to ourselves.

For some people they are vivid and naturally compelling. For others, infrequent or not something they feel drawn to explore. Both are completely fine. Dreamwork is never required — but for those who are curious, it can become a meaningful part of the work.

I approach dreams as part of the broader life of the psyche. They can bring us closer to feelings, tensions, or questions that haven't yet surfaced in ordinary conversation. Rather than interpreting a dream from the outside, the process involves staying close to the experience of the dream itself — allowing its meaning to emerge gradually from your own sense of it.

My role is to help create the conditions for that kind of exploration, with attention, patience, and respect for the fact that the meaning of a dream belongs to the person who dreamed it.

FOCUSING & INNER EXPERIENCE

Alongside dreamwork, I draw from experiential approaches that involve attending more directly to inner experience.

This includes noticing what is present in the body — not just physical sensation, but a more subtle, often hard-to-name sense of a situation or feeling. This is sometimes called the felt sense, a term developed by philosopher and psychologist Eugene Gendlin, who worked closely with Carl Rogers.

Someone might notice that a situation feels tight, uncertain, or off in some way — before they can explain why. By staying with that unclear sense, words, images, or shifts in understanding can begin to form.

Rather than analyzing or trying to change something right away, this approach invites a slower kind of listening. New meanings or directions often begin to emerge that are not the result of problem-solving alone.

While there is some overlap with mindfulness, this process is more interactive and specific — sensing into a particular situation and engaging with it from within, rather than observing from a distance.