A relational psychoanalytic approach to working with dreams
In this live webinar, Alicia Ann MacDougall will offer a relational psychoanalytic perspective on dreamwork in the therapy room, outlining the role of dreams in shaping our relational living.
In the first part of the webinar, Alicia will delineate the ways in which dreams provide a foundation for relating; provide a container (Bion, 1967/1993) for the unthought known (Bollas, 1987); create meaning through relationships, and ultimately foster dispersion of relational dynamics originating from the culture of the times and more. Alicia will explain the use of dreams as a tool in psychotherapy to provide meaning, establish and maintain a therapeutic relationship, and thus enhance and progress treatment.
She will explore the synergistic qualities between dreams and relationships, and how that synergy generates biographically, professionally, and psychotherapeutically formative experiences.
In the second part, Alicia will share how an intersubjective approach to dreamwork can be applied in clinical practice, drawing on dream vignettes from client material. Participants will also be invited to share their own dreams or their anonymised clients’ dreams (with prior consent) for exploration and discussion.
This workshop is inspired by Alicia’s recent book The Relational Interpretation of Dreams: When it’s about more than your mother (2023), Routledge.
About the speaker
Alicia MacDougall, PsyD, ABPP, is a clinical psychologist, Board Certified in Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Psychology. She received her doctorate from Antioch University New England and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School, working on child and adolescent psychiatric inpatient units. She holds multiple leadership positions, including Academy Coordinator, American Board and Academy of Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Psychology; Early Career Representative, Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Psychology and Psychoanalysis Specialty Council; and Co-Chair of the APA Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (Division 39) Early Career Committee.
Currently, she is in private practice in Keene, New Hampshire, working with children, adolescents, and adults presenting with severe and persistent mental illness, mood and personality disorders, complications from emergency medical events, pervasive medical diagnoses, somatic symptomatology, and various forms of psychological and physical abuse. She also provides support to parents with children with current or past NICU experiences and provides psychotherapeutic services for perinatal and postpartum concerns.
Dr. MacDougall provides consultation and assessment services to schools from a relational psychoanalytic perspective. She is Affiliate Faculty, Department of Clinical Psychology, Antioch University New England, where she is an instructor and clinical supervisor. Book author of The Relational Interpretation of Dreams: When it’s About More Than Your Mother, Dr. MacDougall is a firm believer in the synergistic quality of dreams and relationships and utilizes dreams as tools for enhancing the intersubjective spaces of the many worlds in which her work encompasses.