How to Begin Dream Work: Listening Before Interpreting
- Maegan Kenney
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Many people want to “work with their dreams.” Few people are taught how to listen to them.
Dream work does not begin with interpretation. It begins with relationship. Before symbols are analyzed or meanings assigned, the psyche needs to feel that its language will be received without domination.
This is why so many people stop dreaming—or stop remembering their dreams—when they try too hard to understand them.
Dreams respond to respect.
What It Means to Begin Dream Work
Beginning dream work is less about technique and more about orientation.
The unconscious does not speak on demand. It speaks when it senses openness, patience, and safety. To begin dream work is to adopt a listening posture rather than a problem-solving one.
This means:
slowing down your engagement with dreams
resisting immediate interpretation
allowing images to remain ambiguous
approaching dreams as communications, not puzzles
Dream work asks the ego to soften its authority.
Dream Tending: A Relational Approach to Dreams
One of the most respectful ways to begin dream work is through the practice of dream tending.
This approach draws inspiration from the practice of dream tending, a depth-oriented model developed by Stephen Aizenstat that treats dreams as living encounters rather than symbolic puzzles. Dream tending emphasizes relationship, presence, and imaginal engagement over interpretation—an orientation that aligns deeply with transpersonal psychology and Jungian approaches to the unconscious.
Dream tending treats dreams as living encounters rather than messages to decode. Instead of asking “What does this dream mean?”, dream tending asks:
What wants my attention here?
How does this image feel?
What is the dream asking me to stay with?
In dream tending, images are not reduced to symbols. They are approached as presences—as if the dream were still happening, and you were being invited back into relationship with it.
This approach protects the dream from being flattened by explanation.
A Simple Way to Practice Dream Tending
When you wake from a dream, begin here:
Record the dream as it appeared. Write it in the present tense. Keep sensory details. Don’t clean it up.
Notice the emotional tone. What feeling lingers? Curiosity? Fear? Tenderness? Confusion?
Choose one image that feels alive. Not the whole dream—just one figure, object, or moment that holds energy.
Stay with the image. Without interpreting it, ask:
Where do I feel this in my body?
What does this image want me to notice?
What happens if I don’t explain it?
Let the image speak symbolically, not literally. The image doesn’t need to be solved. It needs to be heard.
This is already dream work.
Why Recording Dreams Matters
Dreams are fleeting. Without a container, they slip back into the unconscious.
Writing dreams down is not about analysis—it’s about honoring the encounter. Over time, patterns emerge not because you hunted for them, but because the psyche begins to trust your attention.
A dedicated dream journal helps by:
creating continuity
signaling commitment to the unconscious
holding symbols without rushing them
allowing imaginal dialogue to deepen
The journal becomes a threshold object—something that bridges waking life and the imaginal realm.
Dreams are fleeting. Without a container, they slip back into the unconscious before relationship can form. Writing dreams down is not about interpretation—it’s about honoring the encounter and signaling to the psyche that its language matters.
Over time, a dedicated dream journal becomes more than a notebook. It becomes a threshold—something that bridges waking life and the imaginal realm, holding symbols gently without rushing them toward meaning.
If you’d like a structured container for beginning dream work, check out the dream journal available at our partner shop Sacred Psyche Studio on Etsy. This journal is designed specifically for symbolic, imaginal, and transpersonal engagement. You’re welcome to explore it here if it feels supportive.
What to Avoid When Beginning Dream Work
When starting out, it’s helpful to avoid:
dream dictionaries
rigid symbol meanings
rushing to “apply” the dream
turning dreams into self-improvement tasks
Dreams are not productivity tools. They are expressions of psyche.
The unconscious withdraws when it feels used.
Dreams as Ongoing Conversation
As dream work deepens, dreams begin to respond to your attention.
Themes repeat. Figures return. Landscapes evolve. The psyche reveals itself gradually, when it senses respect.
Dream work becomes less about interpretation and more about relationship over time.
This is where dream work intersects with:
shadow integration
imaginal psychology
grief and transformation
the return phase of the heroine’s journey
Dreams often guide us when conscious meaning has collapsed.
A Closing Word
You do not need to understand your dreams to begin working with them.
You only need to listen.
Dream work starts when you stop trying to master the unconscious and allow yourself to be addressed by it—symbolically, patiently, and with humility.
Dreams do not ask for certainty.
They ask for presence.
And when that presence is offered, the psyche begins to speak more clearly—one image at a time.
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