ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a model of dreamwork guided by our current understanding of the neurobiology of both dreaming and of transformational change. It begins by summarizing an updated view of the unconscious and dreaming in light of current neuroscience. A brief and selective synthesis follows describing how dreams may contribute to memory reconsolidation, how memory reconsolidation facilitates transformation, and how these two phenomena might work together in a clinical setting. The author suggests that dreams can provide an important avenue for therapists to facilitate emotional memory reconsolidation. Because there has been considerable advancement in our knowledge of these processes over the past decade or two, it is now possible to understand more about how new learning and change happen during the various stages of sleep, giving us a more sure-footed approach to transformational dreamwork. The chapter refers to clinical examples to ground these ideas in practice, and concludes with an overview of terrain covered in this book, ending with an optimistic sense of the future of dreamwork.
