Contemporary approaches to dreams in psychotherapy
This eight-part series of workshops brings together theoretical frameworks and their approaches to dreams in the clinical space.
Each seminar moves between concept and clinical application, giving you frameworks you can actually use.
When dreams enter the therapy room
The Series at a Glance
Format: Online via Zoom | Duration: 60 minutes per workshop | Price: £12 per seminar Book individually or as a series
Clients may bring dreams to a session vividly, or in fragments, or as nothing more than an underlying feeling. How should we respond?
Contemporary Approaches to Dreams in Psychotherapy is a series of eight online workshops, one a month on Wednesdays from February to October 2027. Each takes a single approach to dream work and examines it properly: why dreams matter clinically, the neuroscience of dreaming, group dream work, psychodynamic approaches, Jungian analytic psychology, Transactional Analysis, relational practice, and finally nightmares and trauma.
Each online workshop runs for 90 minutes and combines teaching, clinical discussion and direct work with dream material. They can be booked individually or as a complete series. Individual sessions £20.
£150 for the full series (saving of £10).
This is not a training in a single method of interpretation. It sets out the available positions, so that the choice between them, when it arises in the room, is an informed one.
Open to all practitioners and students of all modalities and levels of experience (including social workers, mental-health practitioners and group facilitators). No prior knowledge of dream theory required.
Series Overview
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Why Work with Dreams in Clinical Practice?
The Neuroscience of Dreaming
Dream groups
Psychodynamic Approaches to Dreams
Jungian Dream Analysis
Transactional Analysis and Dreams
Working Relationally with Dreams
Nightmares and Trauma
2027 dates
3 February
3 March
7 April
5 May
2 June
7 July
8 September
6 October
Monthly online via Zoom on Wednesdays February to October 2027
Times*
9.00am - 10.30am UK time: 3 February 2027, 3 March 2027
10.30am - 12.00noon UK time: April - October 2027.
*Start time moves in April when the clocks change between UK and Australia, where Brad is based.
Booking
Each workshop can be booked individually using the links below. Or book the full series.
1 Why Work with Dreams in Clinical Practice?
Wednesday 3 February 2027 9.00am - 10.30am UK time.
This opening workshop explores the history of dreams in therapeutic practice and introduces the different approaches to working with them. We will consider the purpose and function of dreams, and their value in clinical work, exploring how dreams can be understood as forms of communication, emotional experiences, symbolic material and events within the therapeutic relationship.
2 The Neuroscience of Dreaming
Wednesday 3 March 2027 9.00am - 10.30am UK time.
This workshop explores how our scientific understanding of sleep and dreams has developed, considering what we know and what remains a mystery. We will look at the different stages of sleep, the relationship between dreaming, memory and emotion, and how the brain processes and anticipates experiences. We will also consider the limits of neuroscience in explaining why we dream and what our dreams might mean.
4 Psychodynamic Approaches to Dreams
Wednesday 5 May 2027 10.30am - 12.00pm UK time.
Exploring Freud’s approach to understanding dreams and how psychoanalytic thinking has developed since. We will consider dreams in relation to unconscious wishes, inner conflict, defence mechanisms, transference and unconscious fantasy, alongside contemporary perspectives on their meaning and significance in therapeutic work.
5 Jungian Dream Analysis
Wednesday 2 June 2027 10.30am - 12.00pm UK time.
This workshop explores Jung's approach to understanding dreams and their role in psychological development. We will look at how dreams can be interpreted through their structure, emotions and symbolism, and consider the use of amplification and active imagination in exploring dream material. We will also examine the relationship between dreaming and individuation – Jung's concept of becoming more fully ourselves.
6 Transactional Analysis and Dreams
Wednesday 7 July 2027 10.30am - 12.00pm UK time.
Explore different approaches to understanding and working with dreams within Transactional Analysis. We will consider how TA concepts and perspectives can offer insights into dream material and how these approaches can be applied in therapeutic practice.
7 Working Relationally with Dreams
Wednesday 8 September 2027 10.30am - 12.00pm UK time.
Explores how dreams can be understood and worked with collaboratively within the therapeutic relationship. We will consider how therapist and client can develop meaning together, paying attention to what happens in the here and now, including enactment, countertransference and the therapist's own responses. We will also explore how dreams can offer opportunities for reflection and supervision of therapeutic work.
8 Nightmares and Trauma
Wednesday 6 October 2027 10.30am - 12.00pm UK time.
This workshop explores a range of evidence-based approaches to working with traumatic dreams and nightmares, particularly in the context of PTSD and Complex PTSD. We will consider different therapeutic interventions and how these can be used to support clients experiencing distressing or recurring dreams.
How the series works
Each workshop opens with teaching, moves into clinical discussion, and includes direct work with dream material.
Participants are welcome to bring a dream of their own. Sharing is entirely voluntary and there is no expectation that anyone will disclose personal material. The workshops work as well for those who prefer to listen.
This is an educational programme rather than a therapy group, and the distinction is held clearly throughout. Confidentiality, consent and emotional safety are treated as part of the subject matter, as is working across cultural difference, where the risk of imposing a meaning that belongs to the practitioner rather than the client is higher than usual.
One principle runs through the whole series: the dreamer owns the dream and its meaning. A practitioner can offer an impression, a question, a tentative possibility. “I wonder whether that image has something to do with...” keeps the work open. “This dream means...” generally closes it.
Each workshop is self-contained and can be taken on its own.
The series is also designed to be followed as a whole. The monthly spacing leaves time for an idea to settle and be tested in your own practice before the next workshop, and the group stays the same throughout, so each discussion has the previous ones behind it.
Whether that is worth more to you than two or three well-chosen workshops will depend on your practice. Both options are available.
About the Trainer
Brad McLean
CTA (Psychotherapy) · MSc · Gottman Level 3 · PACFA Registered
Brad McLean is a psychotherapist, Certified Transactional Analyst (Psychotherapy), and Balint group leader specialising in clinical work with gender, sexual, and relationship diverse clients. Based in Australia, he works nationally and internationally with individual and relationship clients and supervisees, practising from a contemporary relational/ psychodynamic orientation increasingly informed by Jungian ideas.
Brad is a PACFA-registered psychotherapist, certified clinical supervisor, and Gottman Level 3 practitioner, holding an MSc in TA Psychotherapy from Middlesex University. He is a member of the Balint Society of Australia and New Zealand and has published two widely read papers (2023, 2025) in the Transactional Analysis Journal on relationship therapy and TA.
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