Dreamwork in schema therapy: Practical steps and case vignettes

Schema therapy is a therapeutic approach to identifying and changing early maladaptive schemas and schema modes that affect the client's emotions and behaviour. Dreamwork is an approach that helps clients explore and transform their schemas and modes in both dream and waking states and find new ways to cope with their problems and needs. Dreamwork involves collaboration between the client and the therapist, who jointly analyze, interpret and modify the dreams according to the goals of schema therapy. However, dreamwork is also limited, and it is not suitable for every client or dream. This article presents practical guidelines and examples for working with dreams in schema therapy. We first introduce the theoretical background of dreamwork in schema therapy. Then we describe the stages and techniques of dreamwork, such as questioning the dream, identifying schemas and modes, imagery rescripting, mode dialogue, and feedback. We also provide several case studies from our practice illustrating how we applied dreamwork with our clients. We summarize dreamwork's main benefits and challenges in schema therapy and suggest future research and development directions.