Dream Tending and Deep Imagination Immersion
Over the past week, as I navigated my life as a mother, partner, and solo private practice owner (psychotherapy) I have been trying to maintain a hold on what I witnessed, learned, experienced, embodied, and felt after finishing the third weekend of Dr. Stephen Aizenstat’s Dream Tending and Deep Imagination Immersion Program. When I initially registered in December of 2025, I was not aware of the depth and level of immersion this program would go to. If you are not familiar with Dr. Stephen Aizenstat, he is a man of many experiences, travels, and connections with people within the world of depth-oriented psychology, myth making, spirituality, and philosophy. He is the founder of the Pacifica Institute in California; a school built to support those interested in post Jungian theory, depth psychology, mythology, eco-psychology, and psychotherapy. (I would do a PhD there in a heartbeat if finances were not a barrier!). He was invited to speak at the UN with President Gorachev being present on the state of the world, he’s worked with world renowned Jungian psychoanalyst Marion Woodman, archetypal psychologist James Hillman (who met Carl Jung in the 50’s, received his Jungian analyst diploma from the C.G. Jung Institute and went on to be the director of studies), academic Joseph Campbell (influencer of George Lucas and Star Wars franchise with the Hero’s Journey), and the recently departed Jean Houston PhD, who is known for her work in altered states of consciousness and psychedelics, the human potential movement, and co-wrote a book with her spouse called Mind Games, detailing their work with guided imagery and body movements and how they can support reprogramming the brain to experience the world differently (apparently John Lennon called Mind Games ‘one of the two most important books of our time,’ and even has a song and album entitled Mind Games).
Dr Aizenstat has been teaching Dream Tending for many years, and the community is one that many people return to over and over again. It’s a community that brings artists, academics, psychotherapists, mental health workers, dream workers, and curious minds together to share and facilitate dream work, or as Aizenstat refers to it as, ‘Dream Tending,’ tending to one’s dream. The immersion program has a total of 4 live weekends, with three mid-module check ins, weekly dream tending meetups with your Dream Tending triad, and I’ve jumped into two interest groups-one for Carl Jung’s Red Book, and the other for Dreaming with the Land. At the same time, I have also been doing Dr Leslie Ellis’s Embodied Experiential Dreamwork Certification, so needless to say, my cup has been overflowing with dreamwork, meaning making, and embodied experiences of the imaginal.
Soul Companions and Resourcing
As a psychotherapist who practices EMDR (attachment focused AF-EMDR specifically from the Parnell Institute), and works with dreams personally and professionally, I understand the importance of seeking out and installing resources for clients. In this context, I am referring to imaginal resources. In EMDR, we may work with clients on installing a Peaceful Place, while using bilaterial stimulation (BLS) such as the Theratappers or Neurotek handheld buzzers. Laurel Parnell has created a process that she calls Resource Tapping, which expands upon resourcing and uses a framework that includes figures with qualities of nurturing, protection, and wisdom. These figures can be real or imaginal, from books, movies, nature, mythology, religion, or animals. Generally, Resource Tapping is explored before phase 4 of AF-EMDR, which is the desensitization and reprocessing stage, however it can be utilized as an exercise outside of EMDR as a way of tapping into one’s internal, imaginal resources. Similarly, Aizenstat’s written work, the Imagination Matrix also calls upon supportive companions whom he calls Soul Companions. Like Parnell’s figures, he includes The Beloved (nurturer), The Mentor (wise elder), The Guardian (protector), and adds in The Shapeshifter (changemaker, metamorph), as well as Shadow Soul Companions, such as The Dragon (persecutor, critic, intimidator), The Zombie (intruder, trespasser), The Vampire (wounded), and Savior/Rescuer (martyr) (Aizenstat, 2023). Soul Companions can either be illuminated, or transmuted, depending on their qualities, and they can be invited into the process Aizenstat calls ‘The Dig,’ which is a journey of the mind, a process explored and written about by Carl Jung and The Red Book. One might identify their Soul Companions as figures who appear in their dreams, such as a deceased grandparent, a feared snake, a butterfly who invites them down a hallway, like Alice from Alice in Wonderland, chasing the white rabbit.
Jungian analyst Robert Bosnak, founder of Embodied Imagination mentions that archetypal psychologist James Hillman focused his work on the psyche as a simultaneous multiplicity of autonomous states (Embodied Imagination, 2026). There is a difference between imagination and the imaginal. Imaginal states appear, like dreams, where no other world exists. Moving back to EMDR for a moment, we know the research focuses on neuroplasticity, using dual awareness, and the imaginal to reconstruct new narratives to traumatic events. Both Parnell and Aizenstat are crossing into the threshold of the transpersonal and altered states, with the use of Resource Tapping and Soul Companions, inviting people to strengthen their inner resources and relationships to the imaginal to support them on their inner journeys.
Dream Council and Dream Circles
The experience that left me feeling nourished, inspired, deeply grateful, and desiring more connection with a dream community was the Dream Council. During the afternoon of the third day, we were asked to bring an item of clothing (hat, scarf…) to wear that would almost act as a portal for us to step into our Soul Companion, or Dream Figure. We changed our names on Zoom to the name of our Soul Companion. With respect to the group, and their Soul Companions, I will speak generally here as to how and what was explored. People embodied loved ones who passed, nature elements, fears (shadows), wisdom, medicine, and figures of support and guidance. As each person identified who they were, and what their offer was, the entire group would verbally welcome them, using their Soul Companion’s name. It was closest to the experience of sitting with Fritz Perls and his embodied way of processing and understanding dream elements that I have gotten to. Certain groups of similar Soul Companions were spot lit, so they could speak to one another, and there was an invitation for anyone in the group to request to speak with another Soul Companion if they were sitting in a place of inquiry or curiosity. The entire experience felt like improvisation, evocation, and opening a portal to altered states of consciousness.
Non-Ordinary States, The Imaginal, and Psychedelics in Psychotherapy
Imagination has always existed in psychotherapy, as we have Narrative Therapy, a way to explore psychopathologies through storytelling, or Gestalt Therapy and Fritz Perl’s interventions of Empty Chair, where the client literally speaks to an empty chair as they work through conflict or a dilemma. However, I believe that the imaginal has been overlooked as behaviorism stepped into the forefront, and evidence-based techniques like CBT have been qualified as the Gold Standard for treatment as the profession of mental health focuses on pathology and improving symptoms of anxiety, depression, and/or trauma. From an inclusive perspective, one that also supports cross-cultural approaches, indigenous practices and traditions, I think the redirection to the imaginal can be incredibly supportive and enriching. Presently, we are in an era where plant medicine and psychedelic assisted psychotherapy are being supported and researched again-the ‘psychedelic renaissance’ as some are calling it. People, psychotherapists and clients alike, are seeking holistic approaches for not only treatment, but as a way of being in the world. As artificial intelligence (AI) is making a rapid entrance into all ways of life, I believe people are seeking out more connection to earth, nature, animals, community, and the universe. We also have more of an understanding, and curiosity of altered states of being, its effects and transformations. Dreamwork, and dream incubation was once a readily known source of treatment for thousands of years, in Asceplian Temples in Greece. Again, a more integrated and holistic approach for ailments and way of being. As systems and policies are being studied, written and put in place for psychedelic assisted psychotherapy, and big pharma capitalizes on accessibility, I want to offer that dream work, Dream Tending, Lucid Dreaming, Active Imagination, and the use of the Imaginal are all accessible ways to drop into non-ordinary and altered states of consciousness, for ways of understanding, journeying, connecting, and healing.
Resources
Aizenstat, S. (2023). The Imagination Matrix. Boulder, CO.
Embodied Imagination, (n.d). The International Society for Embodied Imagination. https://embodiedimagination.com/embodied-imagination/
Parnell, L. (2008). Tapping In: A Step-by-Step Guide to Activating Your Healing Resources Through Bilateral Stimulation. Boulder, CO.
Author
Written by Melissa M White, Registered Psychotherapist and owner of private practice Sojourn Psychotherapy located in Dundas ON, Canada. Melissa White RP is currently studying Dreamwork with two of the world’s leading experts-Dr. Stephen Aizenstat (Dream Tending and Deep Imagination Immersion), and Dr. Leslie Ellis (Embodied Experiential Dreamwork). She uses depth and experiential approaches in psychotherapy, such as attachment focused AF-EMDR, Jungian Sandplay, Sound Therapy, and Dreamwork and Active Imagination.
If you are interested in reaching out for a consultation for psychotherapy or dreamwork, please visit the contact page at https://sojournpsychotherapy.ca or email melissamichellewhite@gmail.com
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