Dreams after Traumatic Experiences

Traumatic experiences are prevalent in our society. Many individuals experience physical violence, sexual violence, death of loved ones, car accidents, and many other traumatic events that leave them with feelings of fear and terror. Many soldiers are returning from war with not only physical wounds but also emotional pain that stems from the trauma of wartime experiences. Natural disasters have also pervaded parts of the United States of America as well as other countries across the world, leaving people dead, wounded, and homeless. Some of the victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 are still displaced and searching for family members or lost pets. The United States National Comorbidity Survey of 1995 reported that 61% of men and 51% of women experienced at least one traumatic event in their lifetime.

The effects of trauma on the psyche are profound. Following extremely painful experiences, individuals may feel an array of conflicting and confusing emotions including anger, sadness, guilt, regret, and fear. Sometimes people lose memory of what happened. These memories may come back piece by piece which also triggers many difficult feelings. Dreams may also become frightening. Nightmares can be quite frequent after someone experiences something traumatic. An expert on the psychological effects of trauma, Donald Kalsched, said, “Trauma…continues unabated in the inner world of the trauma victim, whose dreams are often haunted by persecutory inner figures.” Dreams tend to symbolically reflect the complexity of emotions that victims of trauma endure.

In therapy, it can be helpful to explore these dreams in order to safely and carefully unravel these feelings during the healing process. Due to the disturbing nature of trauma and the pain that it evokes, individuals may be reluctant to directly attend to painful emotions. Exploring dreams may offer an indirect and less frightening way to get in touch with all these difficult and confusing feelings in a more comfortable way. By working with dreams in therapy, these powerful emotions can eventually become less overwhelming which allows the person to heal their wounds of the past.