Is that even possible? And if so, does it make sense?
And... are there perhaps even advantages compared to a therapy session in person, in the practice?
Yes. And yes. And yes!
I myself have always been a fan of „real“ encounters. 3D, for touch, old school.
Perhaps because I myself grew up a little older and in a different way. It therefore suited my habits. Moreover, I am a person with a rather tactile and sensory nature. And on top of that, I am not really tech-savvy.
So why online dream therapy?
When I started as a dream therapy practitioner 30 years ago, I had already completed an intensive 3-year training as a body dream therapy practitioner. This meant that in the first years of my practice, I offered my help primarily through a very body-oriented approach to working. This meant that online dream therapy was also directly excluded.
And, just for fun: no one had ever worked online in this field at the time. The „official inauguration“ of the Internet was in April 1993, and it took a few more years before it exploded in popularity and a real shift took place.
In the meantime, I have continuously expanded and deepened my repertoire through diverse training courses, intensive practical work, and my own research. And I have been working for several years now with a synthesis of what I have learned over the decades, adapted and considered to be effective.
In short, my work today consists of a combination of Highly effective neurobiological methods, the ones that sustainable processing of experienced trauma in the nervous system and that serves as a compass for this process. Body sensations uses.
This made physical contact, which was the basis of my very first training, unnecessary, and thus, theoretically, also the offer of a job impossible for me. Online dream therapy possible.
What I never seriously considered, however, and which I only used in exceptional cases (due to special circumstances) for my patients.
How did life itself lead me to online dream therapy?
As life is our best teacher – came Corona. The global lockdowns with the need to open up more opportunities to stay in contact and practice together.
Thus, I was essentially forced to put what until then had been an occasional exception, namely online dream therapy, to the test for myself.
In my opinion, what criteria must a good online dream therapy meet?
That an online dream therapy using the method I developed over the years works for me purely practical It posed no problem at all; that was already clear. This was proven by the occasional exceptions that were practiced. And therefore not the question that interested me.
What bothered me was rather the question, to what extent the exchange of energy fields between patient and therapist, I use this, which I consider the most important factor in therapy, even before the method used. If not, online dream therapy wouldn’t make sense for me.
As I said, in the few hours I had already worked with online dream therapy, I was able to achieve good results. Nevertheless, I remained skeptical. Because I had already known all the patients with whom I had practiced these occasional exceptions personally for a long time and had previously accompanied them in personal sessions at my practice.
The research I conducted about the interactions of our energy fields in the context of online dream therapy did not really lead me anywhere. Partly because my time was limited for that purpose, partly because this question apparently is not necessarily the subject of intensive research.
Even what I have written about it on the website of the HeartMath Institute (www.heartmath.org) found it not to be relevant in terms of online dream therapy. There are studies there, such as one on the topic of „Collective Consciousness and Our Sense of Interconnectedness“, but, as mentioned earlier, not really what I was looking for.
My practical way to online dream therapy
What to do?
There were a few points of reference for me. Some of the international teachers I greatly respect have been working for years with online dream therapy, using their clientele spread all over the world. Here, I could see intensive sessions with really impressive results at demonstrations time and again.
Furthermore, I deliberately booked a few hours of online dream therapy for myself. I thought that it can never hurt, on the one hand. On the other hand, I always try to use all therapies and applications first on myself before they are applied to my patients. Here too, I was absolutely satisfied with both the experience and the results.
Ultimately, quite simply... I then had the Practical test Done. More and more online dream therapy sessions are offered, according to the motto "Learning by doing". Initially, only with patients with whom I had already worked personally, then increasingly with patients with whom I was only in contact online (for example due to distance).
The conclusion of my trial period with online dream therapy
And after 4 years, I dare to say: yes, online dream therapy works wonderfully. And in terms of quality and success, there are no compromises compared to a personal encounter.
Even if one does prefer the personal encounter, which I continue to offer if desired.
Advantages of online dream therapy
Some of the benefits of online dream therapy are obvious.
No set routes, maximum flexibility.
Other possible benefits are a matter of discretion.
Staying in a familiar environment can therefore be a real bonus. On the other hand, it can also be critical if there is not enough personal freedom available. This means, for example, that if the dog, then the young child and finally the partner all burst into tears during therapy. „Ah, I thought you were already done and would like to go to the gym now…“ 😉
Anyway, that can also be clarified in advance.
In general, I recommend that my patients, regardless of whether the trauma therapy takes place online or in my office, should allow for some space immediately after the session.
The process that serves to enable the profitable processing of the experience ends. no with the therapy session (Blog article to follow) Dream therapy basics). But, often Therapy opens the door only to the processing process. The nervous system then proceeds on its own, in its own wisdom and way, maximally adapted to the individual affected person.
One of the countless wonders of our nervous system! There is even a commonly used saying for this:. „The decisive thing often happens between the meetings.“
Now, back to the point that was crucial for me in the question:
Does online dream therapy work as well as in-person dream therapy?
As mentioned above, my main concerns were related to the question of whether the aspect that is so important to me was taken into account. Exchange of energy fields between patient and therapist This is also guaranteed with online dream therapy.
What exactly do I mean by that?
I will try to explain this in a very simple and straightforward way, without extensive scientific explanations or evidence. Since it is not a scientific treatise but much more about making the essential principles behind effective therapy easily understandable, I will focus only on that.
As we know today, Our energy fields are in constant exchange. That is, when two people sit together in a room, The nervous systems of these two people exchange information with each other continuously. Whether we consciously register this or not. Incredibly exciting, isn't it?
Even during therapy, the nervous systems of the patient and therapist exchange information with each other. And ideally, the patient’s nervous system can regulate itself using the therapist’s nervous system. This allows the patient to enter a mode that actually enables the processing of trauma.
An example of how our nervous systems regulate each other.
We all know a very simple practical example of this.
A crying baby can best be regulated by a relaxed parent who takes it in their arms and offers it regulation and reassurance.
In this case, the physical contact a role, for example through skin contact, which in turn leads to the release of soothing hormones such as oxytocin. But it is not only this that causes the calming effect. Because the decisive factor is the mood of the parent., who wants to calm down.
If the parent is themselves tense, excited, and therefore Imbalanced It is very difficult for the baby’s nervous system to regulate itself in relation to the parent’s nervous system, regardless of how much physical contact is offered.
Mood and mindset of the therapist in trauma therapy
Therefore, the therapist’s emotional state is a very important and, in my opinion, often neglected aspect of (trauma-)therapy for me.
I also consider mindset and the therapist’s own experiences to be equally important. All information that the patient’s nervous system can access during therapy.
For me, it makes a crucial difference whether the therapist – let’s be brutally honest – believes in true healing (and strives for it) or „harm reduction“ as the goal. non plus ultra considered.
For example, there are truly shocking examples from psychiatry. If schizophrenia is considered an incurable hereditary disease by the treating therapist (team), it does not look good for the person affected. In this case, their options are limited to inpatient care, harsh medications, and possibly electroshock therapy or surgical separation of the cerebral hemispheres.
Not with the goal of healing, but to provide maximum relief of the symptoms.
To be honest, that really makes everything feel medieval to me. And I am just glad that the insulin shock therapy (which, to my knowledge, was completely ineffective in terms of the disease process) or even the lobotomy (surgical destruction of specific brain regions) have been removed from the treatment list.
When a person with the same diagnosis comes to a therapist (team) with a different mindset, such as the assumption that the schizophrenic is merely the most sensitive person in their family system and is living out the patterns successfully suppressed by all the other members, profound healing can occur.
Assuming that, that healing in the context of therapy is largely achieved through the exchange of information between the patient's and therapist's nervous systems, Then of course they also play The experiences stored in the therapist’s nervous system play a crucial role in therapy..
Here again, we have a simple practical example. A former successful football player will usually become a more successful coach than another coach who has never played himself. Rather, his knowledge is based solely on theory.
In my experience, this is also how a therapist can best help in the areas to which he or she has a special connection. Whether that is based on direct personal experience or, for example, on family experiences.
My conclusion regarding the crucial question:
Can the patient's nervous system also extract all this information from the therapist's nervous system during online trauma therapy?
Fortunately, my answer is: YES!
Funded primarily through From my practical experience.
Theoretically, so far, that is the case. Morphological field the best explanation I can give for this phenomenon. I would be happy to provide another detailed explanation at a later time. (Blog article to follow) Trauma therapy and the morphic field).
For today I am simply happy to be able to share that Online dream therapy Works very excellently.
Which gives us new options. Let's make the best out of it!
You want to know more about the wonderful possibilities of dream therapy? (coming soon...)