Routledge Dreaming, Healing and Imaginative Arts Practice

In Dreaming, Healing and Imaginative Arts Practice, Kathleen Anne Connellan brings dream theory together with art practice and art psychotherapy to demonstrate how releasing the imagination can open-up processes of healing. In this interdisciplinary and richly innovative book, Connellan focuses on nocturnal dreams, day dreams, memory and reverie, and she explores how to access, depict and use these dream images to discover personal healing. Unlike other dream journals, Connellan encourages visual recording and personal experimentation with a variety of materials and modalities, regardless of artistic ability. Each chapter is divided into a theoretical and practical half, where the theoretical section addresses the foundations of dream theory and philosophy, and the practical section offers step-by-step exercises that lead you to the creation of something restorative. Connellan covers a theme in each chapter which helps merge the unconscious with the conscious: the nature of dreaming and the constitution of the psyche, the archetype and our shadow selves, belonging, moving, pain and pleasure, and all the senses in remembering. Dreaming, Healing and Imaginative Arts Practice is a unique blend of scholarly research, beautiful illustration and hands-on practicality that allows the reader to interpret their dreams for self-expression and self-knowledge. This work will be of great interest to those studying post-graduate psychology, social work, art and arts therapy, and an essential resource for art therapists, creative therapists, alternative psychotherapists and social workers in practice and in training. Review "A fascinating yet practical blend of imagination, art and embodiment that will speak both to the clinical field and to those involved in thinking about their art practices, Connellan is experienced, erudite, lucid and, in creatively crossing outmoded disciplinary boundaries, exceptionally brave and challenging." - Andrew Samuels, Professor of Analytical Psychology, University of Essex, UK About the Author Dr Kathleen Anne Connellan is a retired Senior Lecturer from the School of Art, Architecture and Design at the University of South Australia. She is now a creative therapist and author committed to bringing the mind, body and soul together, and she specialises in incorporating the therapeutic benefits of creativity in healing spaces.