The Dream Journal

Katherine speaks to Dr Joshua Black about dreams of beloved deceased which he calls Grief Dreams. He talks about his introduction to the significance of dreams when he had a dream at 18 years old which helped him come to terms with the loss of a relationship. We talk about his first grief dream around his father’s death then about the history of what drew him to study the little studied field of grief dreams. Dr Black then shares some of his research into the statistics of grief dreams and how prevalent that really are. Most of them are pleasant dreams and comforting to the dreamer, but some are not. Even though it is common for people to dream about beloved deceased when they are close to death, Dr Black reassures us that dreaming about a loved one does not mean we are about to die! We also take a call from Esther Frances who shared a dream which involved “dancing on the bones of the dead” and a coyote figure who reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously.

Bio. Dr. Joshua Black is a grief researcher, speaker, author, and host of the Grief Dreams Podcast. He has focused all of his MA and PhD research in psychology on investigating grief dreams and continuing bonds from many types of loss, including prenatal loss and pet loss. Most of his academic research and publications have specifically been on dreams of the deceased. Due to the lack of academic research in this field, Joshua has focused his efforts on raising awareness on grief dreams through doing talks, workshops, and interviews. Additionally, he developed a grief dreams website and runs several social media accounts on the topic.

www.GriefDreams.ca

Show aired on September 26, 2020.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page is found here.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

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If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at  ExperientialDreamwork.com.

Katherine speaks with Lauren Schneider about how to find the medicine even in our most upsetting dreams. We talk about how even scary dreams may have helpful information for us. We speak to two callers: Lucille who speaks about how remember more of her dreams as well as working with the Tarot and Sylvia who reminds us to check the physical implications of dream images as well as their psychological implications.

Lauren has a book coming out in a few months called Tarotpy, It’s all in the Cards. I’ll probably have Lauren back on the show when it is released in January or February.

Bio: Interweaving psychology and imagery has been Lauren Schneider’s consistent passion through several decades and careers.  She has degrees in film and psychotherapy and dreaming certificates in Dream Tending and Embodied Imagination. Lauren has published on animal symbolism, in particular whale dreams, in the book, Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind and her upcoming book, Tarotpy: It’s All In The Cards, describes using Tarot and other archetypal imagery, like dream work, to access inner wisdom and the creative unconscious for guidance and healing. 

DreamsandTarot.com

Katherine and Lauren will be co-teaching a series of workshops on Mondays in October called “Finding the Medicine in the Dream”. Contact either of us for more details.

Show aired on September 19, 2020.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page is found here.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

Apple Podcasts

Google Play

Stitcher 

Spotify

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at  ExperientialDreamwork.com.

Katherine speaks with Eva Rider about the Jungian approach to dreamwork including a discussion of Jungian concepts including compensation dreams, big dreams and the dialectic, and also why nightmares are “the most important dreams” to connect with. A theme that weaves through the conversation is the lizard brain.

Bio: Eva Rider MA, MFT is a licensed Jungian-oriented depth psychotherapist, a workshop leader and presenter.  Eva’s teaching incorporates dreamwork with fairy tale, myth, tarot, music, movement and art based in an exploration of the correspondences between Jungian theory, alchemy and psyche or soma as revealed through the Hermetic tree of life.

Eva Rider is a graduate of the renowned Marion Woodman BodySoul Rhythms® Leadership Training program. Eva has taught Dreamwork, Jungian Theory and Myth at John F. Kennedy University and teaches independently at locations in the United States and Canada.

Eva’s web page is ReclaimingSoul.com

Please see Eva Rider’s current offering a 11 week online series called Sophia’s Sparks: Return of Light in Matter, NOW BEGINNING OCTOBER 3, 2020. Classes are every other Saturday, noon to 2pm Pacific time.

You can find some of Eva’s many presentations on YouTube including “The Mystic Fool: Masks & Mirrors of the SELF in Tarot—Intro Lecture by Eva Rider”

This show aired on September 12, 2020 from a conversation originally recorded and broadcast on July 13, 2019.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page is found here.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

Apple Podcasts

Google Play

Stitcher 

Spotify

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at  ExperientialDreamwork.com.

For Labor Day this year, the Dream Journal is an all call-in show. Katherine takes two calls. In the first call, Ray describes a dream about walking with a deceased friend and another dream about teaching a young girl how to fly. Then Diane calls in to talk about two redwood dreams and another in which she has “before the fire and after the fire” memory cards. We discuss the dream in terms of how we are changed by our experiences, especially traumatic ones.

I talk alot about about the Bonny Doon fires and want to acknowledge that in fact the communities of Boulder Creek and the entire San Lorenzo Valley were affected in the CZU Lightning Complex Fire. Indeed there are many people all over California affected by wildfires and I want to express my heartfelt compassion for everyone who has been or will be impacted.

Dreams help us cope with stressful times, and there have been plenty of stressful things happening lately. Whether your dreams have been addressing the fires, hurricanes, Covid, race relations or the future of our country, call in and feel the love!

Share your dream in a safe space where we know that EVERY dream offers healing and growth. No dream too is small to share, no dream too big! You might be amazed at how precisely your dreams target you and offer healing in each moment and how they also nudge us forward and help us to become more authentic and loving human beings.

Katherine Bell has 20 years of experience helping dreamers find insight and comfort in their dreams.

In between calls we will hear several lyrical and humorous songs written by our resident musician Rick Kleffel, and Katherine will talk about the remarkable mechanisms that allow the human psyche to deal with trauma, helping us cope and remain functional even in these trying times.

Show will be aired on September 5, 2020.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page is found here.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

Apple Podcasts

Google Play

Stitcher 

Spotify

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at  ExperientialDreamwork.com.

We spoke with Grace Cheptu about how your dreams are taking you on a spiritual journey leading you home. Dreams offer us a way to tap into our promise and our unique gifts.We discussed the archetypes of the  Anima and the Animus and how they help us heal and grow. We also addressed common themes of wedding dreams and dreams with people knocking at your door. 

Cheptu then described some of her journey with music and sang her original song, “Open My Heart”.

We ended the show with three call ins. Two callers shared dreams and the third had a question for Cheptu about how she started writing her own songs.

Bio: Cheptu is an Archetypal Dreamwork Practitioner who companions with others along their spiritual journeys guided by the sacred script of their dreams. She weaves into her dreamwork practice gleanings from her professional background in music therapy and music education, clinical chaplaincy and pastoral ministry. When personal crisis visited, Cheptu found support to embrace the growth edges her dreams revealed with specific, loving intention. Now she creates sacred space for others to explore the landscape of their dreams for clarification, cleansing and healing and growth where there has been uncertainty, suffering, and various forms of loss.

Available for individual and group work, Cheptu can be reached via her website NowJourneyHome.com.

Show aired on August 29, 2020.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page is found here.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

Apple Podcasts

Google Play

Stitcher 

Spotify

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at  ExperientialDreamwork.com.

Amid the severe fires of Santa Cruz, Katherine spoke to Courtney Bolstad about a perennial listener favorite: how to get a better night’s sleep. We talked about sleep hygiene and discovering our resistance to sleep. We can train ourselves to look forward to sleep. Courtney explained how the homeostatic sleep cycle is like a cell phone which runs down during the day and needs to be recharged at night. We also talked about the circadian rhythm and how it varies at different ages. We finished with a call from Lucille from Cambria who worried about her late sleep hours. Courtney encouraged her to consider whether she might not just be a “night owl”. This show is shorter than usual because of the fire updates about the CZU Lightning Fires raging in the Santa Cruz area.

Bio. Courtney Bolstad is a third-year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program at Mississippi State University working under the direction of Dr. Michael Nadorff. Courtney received her bachelor’s degree from North Dakota State University where she became interested in behavioral sleep research as she worked with Dr. Leah Irish. As a student clinician, Courtney treats clients with sleep concerns at Mississippi State University’s Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic. As an animal-lover, Courtney conducts research on the psychological consequences of owning a pet in addition to her research on older adults and sleep behaviors. Courtney is currently exploring the impact owning a pet has on pet owners’ sleep habits and quality of sleep.

You can keep up with Courtney’s research at Dr. Nadorff’s Sleep, Suicide, and Aging lab Facebook page or website or check out her informative video here.

Show aired on August 22, 2020.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page is found here.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

Apple Podcasts

Google Play

Stitcher 

Spotify

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at  ExperientialDreamwork.com.

We discuss an easy-to-use, evidence-based technique called Imagery Rehearsal Therapy (IRT) which can eliminate recurring nightmares in as little as one session. In IRT the dreamer creates their own dream that they WANT to have and, by practicing that good dream during the day time, they can drive out nightmares. Dr Nadorff also shares information about a free app called “Dream EZ” which uses IRT to allow users to reduce their own nightmares. Reducing nightmares is critical because frequent nightmares accompanied by suicidal ideation are much more likely to result in attempted suicide. Thus healing nightmares has the potential to save lives. We finish with a caller who has been experiencing frequent nightmares and suicidal thoughts who spoke about her work with Internal Family Systems and lucid dreaming.

BIO: Dr. Michael Nadorff is an associate professor of psychology at Mississippi State University where he also directs the clinical psychology PhD program.  He is the director of the Sleep, Suicide and Aging Lab, and his research focuses on the association between sleep difficulties, particularly nightmares, and suicidal behavior.  He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed manuscripts and received more than $3.4 million in external grant funding from NIMH, SAMHSA, and the CDC.  Dr. Nadorff is an expert in Imagery Rehearsal Therapy, a nightmare treatment that he believes has a lot of potential to not only improve nightmares, but also a myriad of other mental health disorders.

Dr. Nadorff can be reached through his website SuicideLab.com

Show aired on August 15, 2020.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page is found here.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

Apple Podcasts

Google Play

Stitcher 

Spotify

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at  ExperientialDreamwork.com.

We talked with Dr. Leslie Ellis about the value of nightmares and recurring dreams in connecting us with what is going on inside. We spoke about two different kinds of nightmares (post-traumatic and the more common idiopathic) and the different ways to work with each. A powerful way of working with both kinds of nightmares is to find “the help” in the dream which allows us to face the difficult issues that the dreams are pointing to. Both Leslie and Katherine shared personal traumatic events and the dreams that helped them to process those experiences. Dr Ellis also described the Focusing process which enhances therapeutic effects by magnifying the felt sense in the body. We finished off by describing the relationship between night dreams and day dreams.

Bio:

Dr. Leslie Ellis is an author, teacher, speaker and clinical dreamworker. Her recent book, A Clinician’s Guide to Dream Therapy (Routledge, 2019) offers therapists a primer in modern, experiential dreamwork methods. Her award-winning PhD research developed a nightmare treatment process for refugees. She honed her somatic, experiential focus through extensive study of focusing, a gentle embodied approach to therapy and she is currently president of The International Focusing Institute. She studied depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute and her practice is a hybrid of Jungian and focusing-oriented approaches. She is also an expert in treatment of complex trauma and post-traumatic stress injury and developed and taught trauma work at Adler University in Vancouver.

You can reach Dr. Ellis at her webpage DrLeslieEllis.com or at this link here: DreamsDemystified.

Show aired on August 8, 2020.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page is found here.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

Apple Podcasts

Google Play

Stitcher 

Spotify

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at  ExperientialDreamwork.com.

Show aired on August 1, 2020.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page is found here.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

Apple Podcasts

Google Play

Stitcher 

Spotify

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at  ExperientialDreamwork.com.

Dream Coach Kathleen Sullivan jumped right in by offering me insights on my check-in dream. We talked about the importance of nightmares as well as how helpful it is to acknowledge our true feelings even if they are unpleasant. She shared some of her recent dream-mediated breakthroughs and gave examples of how dream groups bring people together and inspire growth.

Bio: In 1980 Kathleen’s dream journey began with a traumatic nightmare that controlled her for three days.  A Sunday emergency appointment with her therapist resolved her dream grief and terror and established her life’s direction since then.

A chance meeting with Joseph Campbell solidified her complete trust and commitment to literally doing what and following where her dreams led her.  Thus, dreams directed her commitment to writing books and enjoying a weekly dream show for 12 years.  Kathleen has delighted in a 40 year run with her private dream groups. “I consider myself the luckiest woman in the world.” 

You can contact Kathleen through her web page KathleenSullivanDreams.com

Show aired on July 25, 2020.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM, streaming live at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific time.  Catch it live and call in with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773.

The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page is found here.

You can also check out The Dream Journal on the following podcast platforms:  Rate it, review it, subscribe and tell your friends.

Apple Podcasts

Google Play

Stitcher 

Spotify

If you want to contact Katherine Bell with feedback, suggestions for future shows or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her, contact [email protected], or find out more about her at  ExperientialDreamwork.com.