Spotlight: Wake Up to Your Dreams
This article first appeared in Whispering Tree, March 2007
by Colleen M. Quinn
The study of dreams is not a new practice; people have analyzed and explained dreams for thousands of years. Ancient peoples saw them as messages from the gods, and today psychologists believe them to be parts of the subconscious appearing during sleep. Regardless of how they are described, dreams are an essential and powerful part of being human. Billie Ortiz, a certified dreamworker in Boulder, Colorado, understands this deep power that our dreams hold. As a dreamworker, Ortiz helps others analyze their dreams and find meaning within them.
Ortiz's dreamwork began nearly eleven years ago with a local dream group in Boulder.
“I thought it would just be something fun to do,” Ortiz says of her reasons for joining the group. “But I became a fixture in that group for five years.” During her time in the group, Ortiz saw a common thread connecting everyone. As members shared their dreams and talked about them, “Everyone's dreams became everyone else's,” she says. The message of their dreams transcended religion, social class, and beliefs. After each session, Ortiz says that she and others often felt a sense of relief.
This is because dreams are so essential to our being, she says. They are pieces of our unconscious that hold important information about our emotions, our feelings, and our mental and physical health. Most of this information is often repressed, either because certain feelings are deemed inappropriate, or because we don’t or can’t confront veiled feelings, emotions, or ideas. Dreams bring this buried knowledge to the surface.
So what exactly is dreamwork? It simply means reflecting on one’s dreams to extract these meanings and internal messages from them. As Ortiz says of her initial experiences with dreamworking, “We were learning something we already knew [from our dreams].” In other words, the information needed to act, heal, or think about is already there; dreamworking helps the dreamer to realize the information.
In her first dream group, Ortiz learned the power of finding meaning in her own dreams. Dreamwork aids in the evolution of consciousness, because dreams are a way to know yourself and others better. “It allows a deeper understanding and compassion,” she says, adding that dreamwork, either individual or group work, is a powerful healing agent. “Every time we understand a dream, we get better – a piece of the fabric of the universe is better,” she says.
At a workshop in 2000, her perspective on how to work with dreams changed when she met Jeremy Taylor, an experienced and distinguished dreamworker. From Taylor, Ortiz learned of the projective method of dreamworking.
In contrast to her first dreamwork leader, who often told dreamers what their dreams meant, Taylor's method simply instructs others to discuss what a person's dream would mean for them. For example, he recommends to start off by saying, “If it were my dream...” and discuss what meaning it would hold for that person. In the end, the dreamer is presented with various possible meanings and messages from others that they can gain insight from.
Ortiz believes that the projective method is a more compassionate way of dreamworking. Dreams are deeply personal, and deciphering meanings from them takes a certain amount of sensitivity.
“I would never tell you what your dreams mean,” she says. “I would explore the dream as if it were my own. Then you could take it or leave it as you like.”
Since her first meeting with Taylor, Ortiz studied and used the projective method of dreamworking and has become a certified dreamworker with the Marin Institute for Projective Dreamwork (MIPD). From her training and passion for dreamworking, Wake Up to Your Dreams, Ortiz’s company, was born.
“Dreams are profound,” Ortiz says, reflecting on her time as a dreamworker. “Watching a group of people come together in the space of an afternoon is amazing.”
This is what commonly happens in the group dreamworking sessions that Wake Up to Your Dreams offers. Members often find a connection with each other that is different from other relationships. Ortiz firmly believes that if anything, dream groups build community by connecting people on an emotional and spiritual level. It’s a “transpersonal experience,” as Ortiz describes it, where everyone projects onto a person’s dream for about 45 minutes. Group sessions offer a safe space to talk about one’s dreams without fear of ridicule or judgment, says Ortiz, which means that a person can gain the most from their dreams.
Ortiz’s groups meet the first and third Wednesdays of every month. Private, one-on-one sessions using the same projective method are also available through Wake Up to Your Dreams, either in person or by phone. More information is available on her website, www.wakeuptoyourdreams.com.
“Together we try to find more than one meaning in a dream, and then explore them,” she says. Ortiz follows a set of Taylor’s guidelines to explore a dream; these guidelines focus on how to work a dream without interpreting it for a person, and how to respectfully work a dream. This dreamwork tool kit can be found on Taylor’s website, www.jeremytaylor.com.
Ortiz spends much of her time leading various workshops on dreamwork. These can be arranged for almost any type of event or gathering, whether it’s for a group of friends or a church or community group. Workshops introduce others to the art of dreamwork, and often are people’s first experience working with their dreams.
In the spring and fall, Wake Up to Your Dreams offers a retreat at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland, Colorado, to which all are welcome. On average, about thirty to forty people gather for a weekend of storytelling, art, and dreamwork. Taylor is a regular guest at these retreats, as well as astrologers and palm readers. One popular activity is dream portrayal, where a group of people act out a dreamer’s dream. Ortiz describes it as a form of projection, since each person is able to physically contribute their own meaning to a person’s dream.
If the job of a dreamworker sounds particularly appealing, Ortiz also assists those interested in dreamworking certification. Dreamworkers are certified with the Marin Institute for Projective Dreamwork; Ortiz mentors dreamworkers and works with them in person or by phone. Some of her workshops may also count as credit towards certification.
Ortiz says she can’t stress enough the importance of dreams and the process of using and knowing them. In many ways, she says, understanding one’s dreams is key to staying sane and healthy, especially in today’s world. Dreamwork allows us to understand ourselves and others a little better and heal from the past, because it forces us to look at the world through the lens of dreams.
“We’re losing the ability to think metaphorically,” she explains, “And once that happens, we lose our imagination, and then we lose our compassion. You can’t understand someone else if you aren’t able to imagine what they feel. Imagination and dreams are necessary to survival.”
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