Directed waking dream (Desoille)

Domain VI · Brief, integrative, trauma, hypnosis & coaching · Robert Desoille · 1938 · France

What it is

Course structure (classic RED).

Format

• Course structure (classic RED).
• Session length and frequency. Artiles reports sessions of 1.5–2 hours, weekly. The client brings the written account of the previous waking dream and any night dreams. Desoille does not give a fixed length in the sources cited.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Insight with no behavioural change. Keep the focus on small, concrete steps.
• Use contrast to open movement, not to erase the threatening image before it has been met.
• Themes that touch on known trauma, such as water for a near-drowning survivor. Choose another theme.
• Accounts that are missing or very thin (5.4). Also watch for distress while writing; agree a coping plan for it.
• Fear of losing control, or an expectation of hypnosis or of "finding out what really happened". Correct both before starting.

Problems the guide addresses

• No images, or flat images
• Stuck in the scene (impasse, a wall, a monster, a closed door)
• Overwhelm, panic or dissociation during the dream
• Missing written accounts (non-adherence)
• Over-direction and ruptures
• Transference in the imagery
• Defensive brightness or flight into the "heights"
• Requests to "find out what happened" or to be hypnotised
• Risk emerging (suicidal content, psychotic-like experiences)
• Physical symptoms

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.