This presentation gives an introduction to the methodology of Dream Weaving (DW) which offers a creative way of working with dreams and the imagination in a group setting. The Dream Weaving (DW) Group Method is a group therapeutic application of Imaginative Movement Therapy (IMT), a facilitative approach to Jung’s Active Imagination (Cassar, 2020, 2021) that ties in Dreaming in group with Weaving. Weaving has long been a metaphor for the creation of something other than cloth, whether a story, a plot or a world. Hence, the art of weaving and ‘dream-weaving’ is also about mythmaking and story-telling emerging from the group’s psyche which evokes the oral tradition. Dream weaving provides another way of working analytically besides other Jungian group approaches like Authentic Movement, social-dreaming matrix, group sand-work, group painting therapy, dream analytic group work, amongst other approaches.

Weber describes the effect of the individualistic world we live in i.e., ‘the terrible sense of psychic isolation – “the unprecedented inner loneliness” – that a competitive sink or swim economy imposed’. In times of isolation and disconnection of the post-modern world, there is a strong felt need of returning to connect to nature and to one another despite the mistrust and hesitation that exists between us. This method provides a unique and creative way of building communities whilst exploring the collective unconscious as it manifests in the group which is formed. Dream Weaving (DW) deliberately diverts the dream medium from the private domestic sphere into a contemporary, free and liberated one.  Yet, it also offers opportunities to get in touch with one’s own personal unconscious. Dream Weaving (DW) provides a way of becoming aware of the collective unconscious of the group, in which the participants are engaged in, and thus can find possible insights and resources through images encountered that can help them bear better their anxieties, conflicts and challenges in the communities and societies they live in. Through the irrepressible desire to play, compose and decompose, the dream-traveller or weaver, finds himself or herself engaging in ‘dream-thread’ activism.

The presentation will include a theoretical part where the steps of this methodology are given and explained together with the rationale behind this methodology.  Examples from past group sessions held will be referred to.

Laner Cassar is a Jungian Analyst, Imaginative Movement Therapist, a Gestalt psychotherapist and a Clinical psychologist. He currently heads the psychology department at the Gozo General Hospital, Gozo, Malta. He has completed a Ph.D from the Centre of Psychoanalytical Studies in Essex and is  the author of book ‘Jung’s Technique of Active Imagination and Desoille’s Directed Waking Dream Method: Bridging the divide’, which was shortlisted for the Gradiva award in 2021. Dr. Cassar is the director of SITE, an online platform where he teaches internationally on the therapeutic method called Imaginative Movement Therapy – I.M.T and Group Dream Weaving – (DW) (www.imaginativemovementtherapy.org). He is also founder and president of the Malta Depth Psychological Association, a developing group of the IAAP. He is passionate about art, visual culture, and the study of symbols and the symbolic life.

*By purchasing a ticket for this or any of the London Arts-Based Research Centre events, you acknowledge and agree to the Terms and conditions and Privacy policy