The DreamStar Certificate Program Course

1. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Welcome to the slideshow workshop... Putting the Five Star Method to Work Dr. G. Scott Sparrow, Ed.D., L.P.C., L.M.F.T.

2. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Before you begin the slideshow workshop... Make sure that you have: * Read the paper, “Monty’s Dream and the Development of the FiveStar Method” * Viewed the Introductory video on the FiveStar Method *Viewed Video Demo #1 of the Five Star Method.” * Opened the one-page overview of the Five Star Method so you can refer to it on your desktop at any point during this slideshow workshop.

3. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course • Before starting to work with any dream, it is very important to ask dreamer to retell the dream in the present tense, and to listen to the dream as if it were your own. Then, and only then, proceed as follows: • Step 1: Solicit feelings from the dreamer, and share what feelings arise as you live the dream vicariously. • Step 2: Formulate a theme or process narrative. • Step 3: Analyze the dreamer’s responses against what the dreamer could have done, or would have preferred to do. Review of the Steps of the Five Star Method

4. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Review of the Steps of the Five Star Method • Step 4: Analyze the images, using amplification and/or role playing. More importantly, however, consider what changes occurred in the imagery alongside the dreamer’s responses, and what changes could have occurred alongside different responses. • Step 5: Explore the application of the dream work in terms of planning new responses, either in future dreams of a similar nature, and/or in parallel waking life scenarios.

5. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course What? Dream work without a dreamer? Before we begin to work on some sample dreams, it’s obvious that the dreamer will not be available to participate in this process. However, you can still practice the steps, partly by imagining what the dreamer might say, and partly by pretending that you are the dreamer. Actually, because the Five Star Method focuses on dreamer-dream interaction––on process rather than content––your main job is to describe what is clearly present, rather than imposing interpretive interventions. So, you don’t need the dreamer as much to verify your observations as when you are interpreting content. Now, let’s start with the first of three dreams ...

6. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Feedback after Each Task I have provided suggestions and/or commentary after each task, so please stop the slideshow when I ask you to do something and do your best before going to the next slide, where you will find my feedback. Don’t worry if your work is different than mine; but look for consistent parallels. If you feel that my contributions are significantly different than yours, you may want to review the paper and the video before going further.

7. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Dream #1 I am sitting at my desk with my back to the sliding glass doors on the patio. I am working on the paper that we have to do for class, and I am feeling anxious about completing it. I hear a knock on the door, and turn around to see my deceased father dressed in a suit standing outside the sliding glass door, obviously wanting to be let in. I am irritated at the interruption,and think to myself, “I’ve got work to do,” and turn back around. He keeps knocking for a while, and then leaves.

8. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course • Step One: Feelings • What feelings arose in you as you read the dream as if it were yours? These should be single words, such as “sad,” “afraid,” or “grateful.” • _______________ • _______________ • _______________ • _______________

9. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course • Step One: Feelings • When I listen to this dream, these are the feelings that come up. How do they compare with yours? • irritated • frustrated • desperate • sad • disappointed

10. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course • Step One: Feelings • This is a good example of a dream in which the dreamer may not feel “desperate,” “sad,” or “disappointed.” Your feelings may challenge the dreamer to look at what the other dream characters may have experienced, but he did not allow himself to feel. Remember, dreams come to illuminate blind spots in our response to life. Thus, to some extent, dream work will raise issues that the dreamer may find it difficult to consider. Dream work is almost always a subtle “ordeal,” and is therapeutic by nature.

11. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step One: Feelings • So, while your feelings may not coincide exactly with what the dreamer experienced, the differences between your feelings and the dreamer’s may become useful in helping the dreamer/client get in touch with feelings that could have been experienced, but were not. • Much of the time, however, your feelings will be very close if not the same as the dreamer’s feelings. This congruence will establish an “affective bridge” between you and your client, as well as clarifying the emotional context or climate of the dream drama.

12. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course • Step Two: Theme or Process Narrative • Without mentioning any specific person or thing, ask yourself the question, “What happens in this dream?” Remember to begin with “Someone...” and use words like “somewhere,” “something,” and “somewhere.” It may take more than one sentence. Go back to the dream and read it again before summarizing the process narrative.

13. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course • Step Two: Theme or Process Narrative • Because formulating the process narrative can be particularly difficult at first, I’ve come up with my own assessment, so you can compare my work with yours. If your theme/process narrative is roughly similar to mine, then go on to the next slide. If not, review the section on extracting the theme in the paper, “Working with Dreams as Co-created Outcomes,” or the course video. I think the theme or process narrative of this dream can be stated as: Someone becomes aware of someone someone that wants his attention, but decides that he has something more important to do, and so he avoids the encounter until the opportunity passes.

14. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course • Step three: Dreamer responses • Find the places where the dreamer, felt, thought, or acted in response to what what happening in the dream. Consider what the dreamer could have done differently, as well. The dreamer’s response was: and it could have been: ____________________ _____________ ____________________ ___________________ ____________________ _____________

15. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step three: Dreamer responses This is what I came up with. How does it compare with your list? The dreamer’s response was: and it could have been: irritated and annoyedcurious and inquiring committed to his taskwilling to postpone duties ignored his father’s presence approached and opened the door

16. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step three: Dreamer responses • Remember, a dreamer response can be anything from an emotion to an assumption to a physical behavior. Any reaction, however subtle, can change the whole course of the dream. Over time, you will become increasingly sensitive to picking out less obvious responses, and helping the dreamer see that any reaction can be a “codetermining” force in the dream’s unfoldment, just as any reaction to another person in waking life can precipitate an escalating dynamic in one direction or the other.

17. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step three: Dreamer responses • Without the dreamer present, you obviously cannot explore what responses the dreamer would prefer to have made, if given another chance. This conversation is especially valuable, because not only does it potentially shift the dreamer’s view his or her own capabilities, but it paves the way for enacting new responses in future dreams, as well as in parallel waking situations––the goal of Step Five. • Be careful that you do not impose your views of what the dreamer should have done. If you know the dreamer, you may have an accurate view of his or her “chronic” style of responding to life, and can make accurate observations about what was unfortunate, and what would have improved the dream outcome. But remember: It’s up to the dreamer/client to determine the direction of desirable change. • In the absence of the dreamer, what you think the ideal response could or should have been. Do you think this is the “best” response for anyone?

18. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step three: Dreamer responses • This is important: What’s creative or “new” for one client/dreamer may be “habitual” for another, and vice versa. So, when you vicariously live the dream, your sense of what you would prefer to have done differently may not fit with the dreamer’s view, or need. For instance, in regard to this particular dream, this dreamer may have been previously susceptible to pressure from his family of origin. So perhaps he did “well” in resisting his father’s unspoken request. Or perhaps the dreamer is “too good” at putting less important things above his need to resolve conflicts with others. In that case, the dreamer may have missed an important opportunity for resolving some unfinished business with his dead father. Knowing the dreamer’s history makes your observations much more likely to be on target, but dream work always opens the door to your invasive projections. Further, even if your observations are entirely accurate, the client may not be ready to hear the truth. So try to keep your suggestions tentative, and base them on what you know about the dreamer’s history.

19. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step Four: Imagery Analysis: Amplification Developed by Carl Jung, amplification is optional in the Five Star Method. It is a process of asking, “What do I know about ... (this image)... ? What is ... (this image)... good for? What do I like or dislike about ... (this image)? You can contribute, as well, to this process. Your associations may illuminate qualities of the image that the dreamer may not be aware of. For practice, choose one image from this dream and amplify it from your own experience and associations.

20. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step Four: Imagery Analysis: Amplification For instance, the dreamer might decide to amplify the image of his father. He might say, “Dad and I were close, but he always expressed very narrow, rigid views. When I married my Asian wife when I was stationed in Korea, and brought her to meet my family, he dismissed her harshly from his home. To protect her and my family, I left and never spoke with him again, and feel that he got exactly what he deserved. I heard through Mom that he was sorry, but he never told me, so I stood firm until he died.” Obviously, this amplification would help you establish a larger context for the dreamer’s reaction to his father. The dreamer did as he had always done, and it made sense, but the dream might have been prompting him to finally deal with the unfinished business from that relationship.

21. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step Four: Imagery Analysis: Dialoguing or Role Playing This method comes right out of Gestalt therapy. It is optional, too, but often useful as a way to deepen the relationship between the dreamer and the dream imagery further. Again, as the facilitator, you would ask the dreamer to become a particular dream image, and have a dialogue with the dreamer. Questions or suggestions such as, “Describe yourself,” “What do you want to say to the dreamer/dream image?” “What do you want?” or “What do you feel?” are excellent questions. Questions that start with “Why ...?” or “What do you think...?” should be avoided because they take the client out of the immediacy of their experience, and encourage an intellectual approach.

22. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step Four: Imagery Analysis: Dialoguing or Role Playing Even though you aren’t the dreamer, imagine yourself conducting a dialogue with one of the dream images (e.g. father, sliding glass door, or the professor who has given the assignment). Describe yourself as the image, state what you feel and want, and tell the dreamer what you want from him/her. Then pretend you are the dreamer and respond to what the image has said. In this way, you will become familiar with the back-and-forth exchange that you need to facilitate between your client and their dream images.

23. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step Four: Imagery Analysis: Dialoguing or Role Playing You might start off becoming the father and giving him a voice. He might say, “Let me in. I want to talk to you. I’ve come back because we never spoke about happened.” Becoming the dreamer, you might say, “I don’t want to let you in. You hurt me bad, and I don’t want to let you hurt me again. You don’t deserve my love.” Perhaps the father would then say, “I know I hurt you. I was too proud to apologize. Losing you was the hardest thing that every happened to me. You were just as mean and arrogant as I was to stay away for 15 years, and to let me die without letting me see you again. At least I’m trying. You just keep turning away.”

24. A professional continuing education course sponsored by Atlantic University The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step Four: Imagery Change Analysis Imagery transformations • This is crucial to the Five Star Method! Consider what changes occurred in the imagery alongside the dreamer’s responses, and what changes could have occurred alongside different responses. This additional relational analysis is somewhat unique to the Five Star Method.

25. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step Four: Imagery Analysis Imagery transformations In the case of this dream, the imagery didn’t really change. But neither did the dreamer’s response to it. It is important to highlight the implied impasse between the dreamer’s response and the dream image. They are both “stuck,” and you can suggest that the imagery is, in part, “bound” to the dreamer’s reactions. This is typically hard for the dreamer to see, much in the way that a person who is having marital problems may have a hard time seeing how his or her response to the spouse is just as intransigent as the partner’s response.

26. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step Four: Imagery Analysis Imagery transformations This sophisticated analysis permits what family therapists would call a “circular causal” perspective. That is, it introduces the idea that the dreamer’s responses and the imagery changes are in a reciprocal relationship, giving rise to a cocreated or codetermined outcome. Reciprocity––the “governing principle in relationships” according to systems theory––functions in any “real” relationship, so this invaluable aspect of the Five State Method permits a mapping of the dreamer-dream interactive process onto ongoing waking relationships, permitting the dreamer to become aware of relationship patterns that exist in both domains. It preserves a sense of personal responsibility without imputing “blame” to the dreamer for the entire outcome.

27. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step Five: Application Imagine what the dreamer could hope to do (in terms of new responses) in future dreams of a similar nature, or plan to do in scenarios that parallel the dream drama. By applying the dream work in either or both of these two ways, the dreamer develops or strengthens new responses toward life that may resolve longstanding dilemmas and integrate essential new awarenesses and behaviors. In this case, the dreamer may want to visit his father’s grave and have a long overdue conversation. Or he may identify other areas of his life where he has cut off people and opportunities because he saw superficial similarity between those situations and his relationship with his father. In the case of the real dreamer, he was able to see that he had “walked away” from several problems. He had previously seen this as a strength––because when he left his father’s home, he had done so to protect his wife and unborn child. But the dream work raised the possibility that he had been taking this “strength” too far.

28. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Dream #2 I am riding in a car with several people. A young man comes up to the car, and breaks through an already broken (and taped) window on the left side of the car. He climbs in and takes over the car. He is angry and violent, and I'm quite afraid of him. Eventually, we arrive at a place out in the country -- on a dirt road between two fields. We get out of the car. The young man is still violent and threatening. However, he unwittingly stands alongside a deep ditch. So I run up to him, and push him over the lip. He falls about 15-20 feet, gets up and tries to climb out. But each time he reaches the edge, we push him back over. My friends and I are feeling in control now. Just as we get ready to leave, the man turns into a dog, runs up the embankment, and jumps into the car. I grab him by the scruff, and he bites me. Even so, I carry him to edge of the ditch and hurl him into it. He falls, and the fall seems finally to kill him, or incapacitate him.

29. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course • Step One: Feelings • What feelings arose in you as you read the dream as if it were yours? These should be single words, such as “sad,” “afraid,” or “grateful.” I’m going to let you do this task without providing any feedback this time. • _______________ • _______________ • _______________ • _______________

30. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step One: Feelings • This is what comes up for me • fear • anger • lonely • stubborn

31. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course • Step Two: Theme or Process Narrative • Without mentioning any specific person or thing, what happens in this dream? Remember to begin with “Someone...” and use words like “somewhere,” “something,” and “somewhere.” It may take more than one sentence. Go back to the dream and read it again before summarizing the process narrative. The theme or process narrative is: ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________

32. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course • Step Two: Theme or Process Narrative! • Once again, given the difficulty of this task, I’ve provided a dream theme, so you can compare my work with yours. I think the theme or process narrative of this dream can be stated as: Someone feels threatened by something that initially overwhelms him. He eventually takes control of it, and tries to get rid of it. It resists his efforts but he ultimately asserts control over it.

33. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course • Step three: Dreamer responses • Find the places where the dreamer, felt, thought, or acted in response to what what happening in the dream. Consider what the dreamer could have done differently, as well. The dreamer’s response was: and it could have been: ____________________ _____________ ____________________ ___________________ ____________________ _____________

34. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step three: Dreamer responses • This is what I came up with: The dreamer’s response was: and it could have been: acting powerlessactingconfrontive and inquiring driving to the country confronting the intruder attacking the young mantalking to the young man subduing the dog allowing the dog to stay

35. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course • Step three: Dreamer responses • Again, without the dreamer present, you cannot explore what the dreamer would have ideally done, if given another chance. But imagine yourself as the dreamer, and decide what you would have done differently if it had been your dream. What impact would your new responses have on the dream outcome? • Perhaps the you as the dreamer would decide that confronting the young man verbally early in the dream might have resulted in some immediate reduction of conflict. Perhaps by asking the young man why he was so upset, the dreamer would have discovered the young’s man’s grievance, and could have worked something out.

36. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step Four: Imagery Analysis: Amplification Remember, amplification is a process of asking, “What do I know about ... ? What is ... good for? What do I like or dislike about ... ? What images would you ask the dreamer to amplify? You can contribute, as well, to this process. For practice, choose one image from this dream and amplify it from your own experience and associations.

37. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step Four: Imagery Analysis: Amplification In this case, there is nothing distinct about the imagery in the dream––no identification of the young man, his friends, or the dog. So the dreamer can’t tell you what he knows specifically about any of the dream images. But he can amplify the image of the car, his friends, the broken and taped window, the country, the ditch, and dogs in general. In regard to the broken and taped window, the dreamer might say, “The window needs fixing, but I’ve obviously decided to put it off., and it gave the young man a chance to get in the car. I guess the broken window is like my tendency to postpone doing things right. It’s also like my boundaries with people. I have a hard time knowing whom to trust, so I often don’t whether to allow someone in my life, or to restrict access.

38. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step Four: Imagery Analysis Dialoguing or Role Playing Again, as the facilitator, you might ask the dreamer to become a particular dream image, and have a dialogue with the dreamer. Questions or suggestions such as, “Describe yourself,” What do you want to say to the dreamer/dream image?” “What do you want?” or “What do you feel?” are excellent questions. Questions that start with “Why ...?” or “What do you think...?” should be avoided because they take the client out of the immediacy of their experience, and encourage an intellectual approach.

39. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step Four: Imagery Analysis Dialoguing or Role Playing Again, even though you aren’t the dreamer, imagine yourself conducting a dialogue with one of the dream images (e.g.). Describe yourself as the image, state what you feel and want, and tell the dreamer what you want from him/her. Then pretend you are the dreamer and respond to what the image has said. Obviously, the young man and the dog are images with which the dreamer experiences intense conflict. By becoming each of these images, and addressing the dreamer, the dreamer will begin a process of engagement and integration that could not occur in the dream.

40. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step Four: Imagery Analysis Dialoguing or Role Playing It is important for you, as the dream worker, not to have a goal in mind when facilitating this process. The sufficient goal is greater awareness of the various positions represented by the dream imagery and the dreamer. Dialoguing supports reapproachement and integration of these diverse perspectives, but it’s important to let it happen on its own. Don’t impose an agenda, or rush the process. The process itself is the “goal,” not some particular insight or cathartic release.

41. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step Four: Imagery Analysis Imagery transformations • Again, this is crucial to the Five Star Method! Consider what changes occurred in the imagery alongside the dreamer’s responses, and what changes could have occurred alongside different responses. In regard to this dream, we can see what might be termed a “regressive transformation.” That is, once the dreamer is “successful” in overpowering the young man, the young man returns as a dog and climbs back in the car. The problem doesn’t just go away because we have been able to suppress it: It changes form and returns! If the dreamer suppresses or kills something, it returns in a more primitive form. If he or she reaches out to it, it usually transforms into a higher form. Remember the rats and the snow leopard in the my dream paper? The snow leopard appeared on the heels of the dreamer’s courageous response. This is a very predictable dream dynamic, as you will see in Dream #3.

42. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step Five: Application Again, imagine what the dreamer could hope to do (in terms of new responses) in future dreams of a similar nature, or plan to do in scenarios that parallel the dream drama. By applying the dream work in either or both of these two ways, the dreamer develops or strengthens new responses toward life that may resolve longstanding dilemmas and integrate essential new awarenesses and behaviors. The dreamer may conclude that he has rejected a part of himself that needs to loved and welcomed. His lack of affection and flexibility can be a real problem in his relationships, so he decides that the best way to work on it is to “love his instinctual self” more, and He may decide to spend more time resting and playing, so he doesn’t develop anger over being “deserted” by his work ethic. He also decides that if he dreams of a “shadow” figure again, he wants to engage it in a less frightened manner. He may fantasize about this encounter as a way to encourage it in future dreams.

43. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Dream #3 This one’s longer, but don’t let its length intimidate you. Break it up into sections, and come up with a theme for each section. Then put the statements together. I am at our cabin. The cabin is built over a cave or grotto, in which there is a dark pool. There is a stairway leading downward from the living level to the grotto. I tell the people I'm with that people have seen primitive, giant fish and other sea creatures in the pool As we talk about these denizens of the pool, I hear some movement from the grotto, and become afraid that something is emerging from the pool. Peering over the edge of the stairway, I see movement in the dark, but can't make out the shapes. I decide that there is no way for me to remain in the cabin at night; so I leave with Roger, and go to find a place to stay. However, I soon realize that my fear of the grotto has rendered the cabin virtually unusable. So I return to try to figure out how to live with the threat. When I return, I hear something emerging from the pool. It comes up the stairs, and appears as an elderly woman -- unsmiling but not mean or evil-looking. She seems to want clarification as to our intentions, i.e. how we can plan to co-exist with "them" in such close proximity. (This is an interpretation of some unexpressed, nonverbal impressions.) After she returns to the grotto, another woman emerges. She is somewhat younger, but still in her 50's or early 60's. She is more communicative, though I can't remember any details of our communications. Once again, she seems concerned about how we can co-exist. I become aware that we must make a lot of noise, walking on the wooden floor above their habitation; so I reassure her that there are rarely more than a couple of people at the cabin at any one time. Later, after she's returned to the grotto, I am acutely aware of the noise my feet make on the hardwood floor.

44. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course • Step One: Feelings • Again, what feelings arose in you as you read this dream as if it were yours? These should be single words, such as “sad,” “afraid,” or “grateful.” • _______________ • _______________ • _______________ • _______________

45. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step One: Feelings • These are the feelings that I have when I experience this dream vicariously: • fear • anxiety • courage • relief

46. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course • Step Two: Theme or Process Narrative • Again, without mentioning any specific person or thing, what happens in this dream? Remember to begin with “Someone...” and use words like “somewhere,” “something,” and “somewhere.” It may take more than one sentence. Go back to the dream and read it again before summarizing the process narrative. The theme or process narrative is: ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________

47. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step Two: Theme or Process Narrative I think the theme or process narrative of this dream is something like: Someone discovers something that feels threatening and decides to avoid it, but realizes that the avoidance results in the loss of something precious. By facing the threat, he discovers not only that it is less threatening than he imagined, but that he can now reclaim what he was afraid of losing.

48. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course • Step three: Dreamer responses • Again, find the places where the dreamer, felt, thought, or acted in response to what what happening in the dream. Consider what the dreamer could have done differently, as well. The dreamer’s response was: and it could have been: ____________________ _____________ ____________________ ___________________ ____________________ _____________

49. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step three: Dreamer responses • This is what I came up with: The dreamer’s response was: and it could have been: perceiving threat suspending judgment leaving the cabin waiting to see what appeared returning to the cabinnot returning courageously waiting for the unknown to reveal itself reacting and avoiding the encounter talking to the woman refusing to talk to her reassuring her not reassuring her

50. The DreamStar Certificate Program Course Step three: Dreamer responses Clearly, the dreamer’s responses shift dramatically in the middle of the dream––from avoidance to engagement. So your list of responses effectively highlights the dreamer’s courage and competency from the moment he decides to return to the cabin until the end of the dream. Just as one would support a competency in Solution-Focused Brief therapy, you might spend some time marveling at the dreamer’s courage, and the remarkable developments that ensued. This noninterpretive, respectful underscoring of dreamer effectiveness has a way of consolidating and strengthening your client’s strengths.