Fairytales have been a popular form of literature for centuries, and they often are challenging to understand through a modern feminist lens. It seems that there are plenty of issues with how the characters loose themselves in the relationship, the traditional gender roles, and the lack of autonomy for all of the characters. However, fairytales contain archetypal themes and symbols that reflect universal human experiences and can give deep insight into the inner psychology of ourselves.

Dreamwork has long been a part of the practice of certain schools and practices of psychotherapy. Dreams can give a direct access to the psyche and allows an individual to more deeply step into the varied hallways of their unconscious. Since Whole Person Integration bridges the psychological and spiritual human experience, its imperative to explore this topic through a multifaceted lens.

You can communicate with your inner child(ren) as much as you’d like, and as with anything, as long as it doesn’t interfere with other areas of your life. Your active imagination can take you far. Where do you want to go?

Your unconscious is consistently communicating with you and the more you work with the unconscious, the happier, healthier, and more integrated you may feel. That’s what Jung is speaking to in his famous quote, “There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”

Interpreting and processing dreams are ways to bring healing into our lives and allow us to make sense of both internal feelings, responses, and sensations as well as external events, interpersonal relationships, and familial patterns that we may be carrying with us for decades.