Transforming Nightmares into Inner Guides through Jungian Art Therapy

Nightmares can feel really uncomfortable. They can bring up so much fear and panic that you dread going back to sleep. But by facing our nightmares, we can actually become free from them—and if we don’t face them, we remain their prisoner. In this post I'd like to share some ways that will help you flip the script from being haunted by your inner world to being in a relationship and dialogue with it. We’ll look at the Jungian perspective on nightmares, and I’ll also introduce two practical creative exercises that you can try for yourself to transform your nightmares into helping guides.

The Healing Intention of Dreams

Jungian analyst Marie-Louise von Franz has said:

"Dreams cannot protect us from the vicissitudes and illnesses and sad events of human existence. But they do give us a guiding line on how to cope with them, how to find meaning in our lives, how to fulfill our destiny—follow our own star, so to speak—in order to realize the greater potential of life within us."

And I think this is a really important point to understand before we go further into nightmares. It’s good to first remember that the intention of our dreammaker in bringing us these dreams, even nightmares, is ultimately good. Because the feelings we have in dreams can put us in touch with the feelings we may not be able to experience in our waking life, and that allows them into consciousness. In this sense, the dreams help us to stay balanced, and they help us to self-regulate. Carl Jung said:

“Over and over again I have seen how thoughts that were not thought and feelings that were not felt by day afterwards appeared in dreams, and in this way reached consciousness indirectly.”

The stronger we experience a feeling such as fear or anxiety in a dream, the more the dream is trying to alert us to something in our waking life. Therefore, when we see nightmares—in other words, dreams where we experience extreme terror and fear—those dreams are already like shock therapy for us. The dreammaker really wants to bring our attention to something very important, and it usually means that there has been something culminating inside for a while that we haven’t paid attention to.

So the dreammaker is always trying to help us—it’s always on our side and is trying to move these difficult emotions towards consciousness. So even though nightmares can be really unpleasant, they are brought to us by a part of our psyche that wishes us healing and wholeness. The dreammaker is always on our side.

The Exercises 

Next, I want to show you two practical exercises that you can do to work on your nightmares. Being a Jungian-oriented art therapist, I work with people exploring their unconscious—including their dreams—through different kinds of art practices. And I actually run an international online program called Unveiling the Unconscious, where I do exactly this. It's a program I created especially for those who are looking for a deeper connection to themselves through creativity. If that resonates with you, I warmly welcome you to apply.

Exercise 1:

One of the first things we do when we explore dreams is to pay attention to the emotions we experience in them, and this is especially true for nightmares. In this first exercise, we’re going to address the emotions connected to the nightmare we want to explore by painting or drawing them. You honestly don’t need any artistic ability to do this—the objective is not to make an image that you can frame and display, but rather an image that’s purely for yourself, that speaks to your inner world and helps you connect with yourself in a deeper way.

To do this exercise, you’ll just need two pieces of paper, a pencil, and colors of your choice—such as crayons or paints.

First, bring to your awareness the nightmare you want to work with. Revisit that nightmare so that you try to attune to and embody the feeling of that nightmare as fully as possible, and pay attention also to how it feels in your body. When you do this, notice if there are any visual associations to this emotion—maybe some colors or textures or shapes naturally arise. Next, take two pieces of paper and draw a circle on both pieces. On the first paper, draw or paint this emotion inside the circle. You can imagine the circle as a container for this emotion. You can express the emotion either as an abstract image—just different colors or shapes or textures that you associate with the feeling—or it can be representative. There’s absolutely no right or wrong way to do this.

Next, think of what the opposite of this emotion would be. Probably, this will be much more of a positive emotion. Again, attune to that opposite emotion and feel how that feels in your body.

When you are done, look at the first circle and ask yourself: What five words intuitively arise in me when I look at this circle? How does this first circle feel about the second circle?

Then look at the second circle and ask yourself: What five words intuitively arise in me when I look at this circle? How does this second circle feel about the first circle?

After this, reflect on your process with these questions: Where in your waking life are you experiencing these emotions now? Where have you experienced them previously? Do these emotions—especially the one in the first circle—correspond to feelings you might be unaware of or have been repressing? How might these emotions be helping you?

Dreams as a Reflection of the Inner World

Another good thing to know about dreams is that they are usually describing the state of our inner world rather than our outer world. For this reason, whatever elements or figures appear in your dreams, they are still pointing out something about you and how you are in relation to different aspects of yourself.

As Jung said:

“Your dreams are an expression of your inner life, and they can show you through what false attitude you have landed yourself in this blind alley.”
—C. G. Jung

So when we experience fear in our dreams, the dream is often portraying an aspect of us that feels dangerous—an aspect that we have, for some reason or other, and often actually for a very understandable reason, disowned or disallowed. These aspects of ourselves are what make up our shadow. The way this shows up in dreams is that the “you” in the dream—or in Jungian terms, the dream ego—will feel afraid of an element in the dream that is representing that other part of yourself, the shadow part. These forbidden aspects of us can bring up fear because they challenge our view of ourselves.

An example of this would be a nightmare where you are chased. This is a pretty common dream and a universal image of fear. In these kinds of dreams, we’re often pursued by a part of us that we have banished—a part of our shadow. And now that part is coming up in the dream because it’s demanding our conscious recognition and integration. Often when we can turn and face the pursuer, these types of dreams shift, and we may understand something important about that which we fear.

When you have dreams that bring up fear, it’s good to ask yourself: What might that element which evokes fear in the dream be wanting to communicate to me?

Exercise 2: 

One of the best ways to communicate with these elements is to make an image of them first. When we make an image of a dream—especially a nightmare—we are facing this part in a more intentional way. We give it space in our waking life and allow it consciously to express itself. So for this second exercise, I’d like you to paint or draw the figure or element in the nightmare which feels scary to you. This will probably be something more representative than the first exercise on the emotion. But again, the idea is not to make an image that necessarily looks good, but rather to allow this aspect to be seen and made concrete.

After you’ve made the image, I’d like you to write a dialogue with this figure or element. You can do this like writing a screenplay—you can say or ask something, and the figure or element can answer you. One of the best questions you can ask this figure is: “What have you come to tell me or show me?” “What advice can you give me?” “What guidance can you offer me?”. You can also ask "Ho do you feel?" or "What do you need?".

After you’ve worked with your nightmare, you might reflect on how this nightmare relates to your life. Maybe there is something that the dream is inviting you to do in your life—it could be a concrete action, or it could be, for example, some symbolic gesture. So think about: What in your life can you do to honor the dream?

Harnessing A Living Dialogue with Dreams

As you work with your nightmares, you may see them change and evolve over time. And of course, dream journaling is a great tool to keep track of how your dreams and the themes in them change. I want to end with a quote by Marie-Louise von Franz, who said:

“I was once told that it wasn't important if I understood my dreams. What was important was that the dreams understood me. My attitude toward my dreams would determine their attitude toward me. It's a living dialogue. When we listen to dreams, we change, and when dreams are heard, they change.”

So I hope this helps you towards this living dialogue with the dreamworld and brought you some insights.