DREAMWORK & THE 12 STEPS
Bringing the power of dreams to 12 step recovery work.
"I bring my own personal experience in recovery through the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous to my work with dreamers in recovery. We share a common language and understanding which supports our work together. Dreamwork isn't meant to replace your recovery program. It is meant to augment it with the rich tapestry that is uniquely you... Please contact me if you'd like to find out more, or if you or your group would like to host a free presentation."
—Laura Smith-Riva
Links to my blog series, Archetypal Dreamwork and the 12 Step: The Recovery Chronicles—
I began working with my dreams about 4 years into my recovery. In the years since, I have seen a powerful parallel between the intention of the dreams and the 12 steps of recovery as laid out by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob. It isn't surprising that the great pioneer of the dreams, Dr. Carl Jung, was also a pioneer to Alcoholics Anonymous all those years ago.
In January of 1961, Bill Wilson wrote a letter of "great appreciation...long overdue", letting Dr. Jung know of the great influence he'd had over Rowland H. in the early 1930's. Under Jung's care, the seminal moment came when Mr. H, after having been told by Jung that he was a hopeless case, asked "Are there no exceptions?" To which Jung outlined the possibility of spiritual awakening as the only hope for him. Thus the journey towards spiritual awakening became the foundation upon which the 12 steps of AA were built (see link to letters at the bottom of this article).
Dreamwork is psychospiritual work. As such, dreams support many of the steps to recovery. Dreams will bring us repeatedly to the felt experience of acceptance of our powerlessness, showing us the subtler nuances of how our lives are unmanageable. Our Higher Power will come over and over in the guise of various Archetypes to provoke us, to teach us, and to guide us towards wholeness. We look to our dreams to more fully reveal our habitual patterns, the character defects which block us from our Higher Power, so that we may learn and understand that they are not our only choice. The dreams will support our 11th step work by providing us with the felt experience of our deep connection to Higher Power. They open us to our own gnosis, the Promises, and a wisdom that is unique to each of us as we offer the message of our recovery and the hope for others.
By working with the dreams in a dyadic way, exploring the tension between our character defects and the Promises, which are particular to each of us, we further open our channel to spirit. Do you have particularly irksome character defects that you just seem unwilling or unable to let go of? Sometimes what we think is the defect is not actually the thing. The manifestation of our problem sits on top of a larger issue, one that is perhaps in a blind spot. The dreams are like a lantern shining the Great Spirit's light into our darkest corners.
Sometimes it is unresolved trauma from our family of origin. It is often felt as a lack of faith or an inability to turn it over. Archetypal beings of all kinds come in the dreams to support us in our journey to wholeness. We cannot fully turn it over if we are reacting to old trauma that we carry in our bodies and hearts and minds. The dreams will take us down and through and will not give us more than we can handle. If it comes in the dream, it is something we are meant to look at.
The 12 steps provide us with a guide to daily living...the dreams can offer us the Divine wisdom and guidance to support our desire to achieve spiritual awakening and offering the message of hope to others.