Link: HOW THE RIGHT-HAND BRAIN WORKS

Dreams have always had a central place in psychology; more recent scientific research (REM sleep, and particularly the role of consciousness in species-evolution) places dreams as essential parts of the processing carried out by the mind in adapting to its environment - but unlike the logical digital synapses of the computer, the mind also uses non-logical, imagistic connections.

These arise in the "right-hand brain". The left-hand brain is the part of us that deals with logic, reason, cause and effect: all vitally necessary for us to survive and adapt. The older part of the brain is the right-hand side, which deals with emotion and intuition. Where the left hand brain tells us that since the sun has risen each morning it is logical to assume that it will do so again, the right hand brain imagines where the sun comes from, goes to, what it would be like to live on it - and what, inside and outside us, the sun means. In this way, the sun has a fantastically wide range of meanings: it is a metaphor.

We use metaphors all the time, but they are a kind of magic: they say that something is, and at the same time, simultaneously, it is something else. Indeed, lots of 'something elses', which connect us at a deeper than conscious level with the vast background - the unconscious, or 'spirit' - the complete mind, which is far more than we can ever consciously know.

We have all had the experience - we struggle to solve a problem, we get stuck, so we take a break, relax, play, daydream; and then, when we come back to the intractable issue - we suddenly solve it! There before us is the answer that has been eluding our consciousness to the point of frustration and headaches. The IMAGO process uses that power of the unconscious - and, by using the imagery of dreams, takes it to a much more effective level. It gives you the power to choose the problem - and how to SOLVE IT!

The dream and its images need have nothing whatsoever to do with the problem. When we enter the dream, we open the door connecting conscious and unconscious, and then let the unconscious do the work. It feels like magic. In a way it is. It's the magic of your own mind.

Link: HISTORY

I offer my services to help people in need identify more clearly their own 'internal' obstacles to progress, and therefore make clear choices about their life and work.

I developed The IMAGO Process - a way of using dreams to deal with various kinds of problems and life-issues (across a very wide range) - while working at Trinity Hospice in Blackpool, England - as a professional writer and a qualified psychotherapist.

The IMAGO Process brings the process out into a wider, non- clinical environment, linking the deepest part of ourselves with our daily experiences: our relationships, our capacities, our ambitions, our health, our self-image and understanding, and so on.

Link: THE ROLE OF DREAMS IN YOUR LIFE

By working with the metaphorical imagery of dreams, we can resolve certain issues or throw a fresh light on them. This is done by taking the 'unconscious' (much-maligned word!) seriously, and letting it do the work. The more we let ourselves 'play' with dream contents, the more we activate our unconscious mind (which is the deepest part of us), and so the more effective the problem-solving.

It's not a quick-fix - but it works!

"IMAGO" is the Latin for image. It also has two modern meanings, which are extremely relevant:

1. the highest form of evolution achieved by metamorphosing creatures (a butterfly is an imago).

2. in psychoanalytic psychotherapy an imago is an image from the past (particularly childhood) stored in the unconscious, and which continues to influence conscious life: e.g. the "mother-imago" and the "father-imago".

Combining them: an imago is a perfect form, adapted to survive and master its environment, derived from the deepest level of the mind.

THIS WEEK'S DREAM
Jane's issue:
She has just opened up a shop selling herbal remedies, ethnic goods, holistic books, that kind of thing. As part of the shop, she has a large notice board for local groups and healers etc to advertise and arrange meetings and so on. She is worried that the financial side of the shop will not bring her the income she requires, she feels not in control of the situation, even though she has set it up.

Jane's dream:
I'm attacked by lice in my hair. There is quite a swarm of them. There seems to be nothing I can do to stop them landing and crawling about on my head.

My response:
Lice would seem to be a metaphor for some kind of parasite, something - someone, many people? - sucking the (emotional?) blood out of you. And you are passive, you feel overwhelmed by this "attack" but you do nothing to stop them. Notice that they attack your head, not the rest of your body. The head: the place where you are in authority, and also the housing of the mind.

The lice are a swarm, a threatening group, rather than isolated individuals. The feeling of threat means that you are unable to deal with each blood-sucker at a time, you can only label them all as lice and shudder at them - and do nothing.

The passivity seems a strong metaphor: that you are a welcome mat for the parasites, an easy-to-board vehicle, to be used. And, because of your passivity, you are unable to identify any individuals: you give them the power of being a swarm. How do you rid yourself of lice? You take a powerful cleansing agent to the affected area - your head, where your ideas emanate - and you drench it. It's quite drastic, but it kills them. Any other remedy simply deals with the symptoms, not the cause (the eggs the lice lay). So what would be the metaphorical equivalent of a cleansing agent to "wash your brain" and kill off not just the lice but their ability to reproduce and stay feeding off you?

Comment: Jane was struck by the aptness of the parasite metaphor. She is, she says, the kind of person who attracts people, and she organises them - and she likes doing it. But more and more people depend on her, use her - exploit her (her word) - and now that she has opened the shop they are not only exploiting her time and goodwill, they are doing it financially as well. And she is allowing them to do it. She decided to make a distinction, for the moment, between her personal/social life and her business life: she hated to split things up in this way, but in order to survive, it had to be done. Later, she could perhaps mix things up again. She was unsure how far she would be able to follow it through, but at least the option was now available to her.

Link: Personal & Professional Development

I HELP organisations and businesses with problems & solutions - for individuals, teams, and workforces.

There's pressure in the market, stress in the workplace. I can help you find the creative resources for you and your team to change pressure into productivity and stress into satisfaction.

I have many years' management experience in education, the health service, and the media, changing people's lives - for the better.

When you have a problem, a difficult decision to make, a wrangle to untangle, don't bang your head against a wall. I'LL HELP YOU work it out, TO improve the quality of your life as well as your productivity.

Any problem, any area. From one-person units to large corporates.

Ideas plus team skills minus "feeling used" = productivity

Scenario 1 The Workforce
They ought to work hard - but they do the absolute least they can. They ought to enjoy their work - but it seems they couldn't care less.

They ought to tell you what's wrong - but they keep to themselves.

Scenario 2 The Team
They ought to be working together - but they're isolated individuals.

They ought to come up with new ideas - but they stick to the old ways.

They ought to be up-and-at-'em! - but they wait for you to tell them.

Scenario 3 The Manager
You want to be fully prepared - but you have to act now.

You want good working relationships - but nobody else seems to! You try not to be stressed - but you don't feel in control.

Scenario 4 The Director
You have to make quick decisions - but you're simply not sure.

You'd like to sleep peacefully - but your nights are disturbed & uneasy.

You need advice - but there's nobody you can ask.

Familiar? Want to improve the situation - and more? contact me for details and terms.

Link: Consultations, Analysis, address

For help with any area of your life, with any dream, e-mail me for a consultation.

SINGLE DREAM ANALYSIS
Send me a description of a dream (a whole dream or a fragment, if that's all there is), and I'll send you back a metaphorical exploration of it to help you interpret it. [Simple dream interpretation - $15 (£10)]

DREAM SERIES ANALYSIS
Send me a number of dreams, and I'll link the metaphors together for a full picture of your inner life. [Series of dreams/inner life meaning - $10 (£7.50) per dream]

IMAGO DREAMWORK PROCESS
Describe an area of life, and an issue in your life, which you wish to explore/develop/understand/enrich, plus a description of a dream (the dream does not have to have any connection to the issue), and I'll explore the metaphorical connections to help you resolve/bring the issue to fulfilment. [Life issue linked to dream - $20 (£15)]

For One-on-one online/phone/postal consultation please e-mail me for details.

For counselling with dreamwork (regular weekly or monthly consultations), please e-mail me with your requirements.

The first step on the way to changing your life!

E-mail me: davimago@aol.com
Postal address: Davidoff-Imago, 10 Devonshire Street,
Skipton, North Yorkshire, BD23 2ET, United Kingdom. Phone
(UK) 01904 424198

Davidoff-IMAGO

Consultancy & Workshops for Personal and Professional Development

The IMAGO Process helps you make discoveries, solve problems, and understand yourself so much better - with very little effort and a whole lot of support.

You can help yourself with the issues you choose -

Relationships

Work & Career

Depression

Stress and Anxiety

Self-Image and Self-Esteem

An easy and effective way of dealing with almost any life- issue, by making use of your own inner resources - through your dreams - to improve the quality of your life.

Leslie Davidoff, experienced counsellor and psychotherapist, will gently help you to help yourself: identify your issue, connect with your inner source of help, and clarify and reach a resolution.

The IMAGO Process is not exclusive, you need not be familiar with counselling or therapy to experience the benefits.

Leslie Davidoff says: I'm a qualified psychotherapist, registered with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy, and a professional writer. I discovered the IMAGO process - a way of understanding and overcoming issues/problems of all kinds, by making use of the unconscious. The IMAGO process is an easy and effective way of dealing with almost any life-issue- for individuals, for groups, for organisations - it can make you, and keep you, healthy, wealthy and wise.

We have all had the experience of struggling to solve a problem, we get stuck, so we take a break, relax, play, daydream; and then, when we come back to the intractable issue - we suddenly solve it! There before us is the answer that has been eluding our consciousness to the point of frustration and headaches.

The IMAGO process uses that power of the unconscious - and, by using the imagery of dreams, takes it to a much more effective level. It gives you the power to choose the problem - and how to SOLVE IT!

It is not simply dream interpretation: the dream and its images need have nothing whatsoever to do with the problem. We 'play' with the dream, open the door connecting conscious and unconscious, and then let the unconscious do the work.

It feels like magic. In a way it is. But there's nothing supernatural about it. It's the magic of your own mind.

Personal confidential consultations available face-to-face in the Yorkshire area, or by post, or by phone, or by e- mail. To find out more...

Contact Leslie Davidoff at Davidoff-IMAGO, 10 Devonshire
Street, Skipton, North Yorkshire BD23 2ET, United Kingdom
Tel. 01756 793549

e-mail: davimago@aol.com

Dreams are fascinating, bizarre - and necessary. Whether you remember them or not, they are part of your sleep routine every night. As part of your natural biological- psychological process, they have a function: to connect you with the deepest parts of yourself, and through that to connect you with everything around you - and I mean everything.

By connecting you with your own depths, dreams show you where and who you are - as you are right now, as you've always been, and as you will be. By understanding you dreams more, you understand yourself more.

I stand on the shoulders of giants - the dream pioneers Freud, Jung, Faraday, Perls, Ullman, and many others I've studied - and add my own creative-intuitive ingredient. Let's be clear: nobody understands your dreams better than you yourself, so dreambooks full of "fixed symbols" are more likely to frustrate your quest than fulfil it. But in order to get through life, you put up obstacles and avoidances. They don't let you understand what's going on inside yourself (as a counsellor and psychotherapist I'm used to dealing with this), so you need a guide through - to help you see what's in your dreams, and how they affect and reflect your life.

That guidance is what I offer.

Dreams speak in images, metaphors. My training, study, skill and insight enable me to open up the metaphors, for you to see where the dream is located in you, what it can mean for you, and what your next steps can be.

I link science (psychology & biology) with intuition (knowledge and trust) to make dream guidance a creative activity, one that I love to share. Read through, join me, enquire, and find out what you need to know.

Leslie Davidoff

BIOGRAPHY

Leslie Davidoff is a qualified counselor and psychotherapist, trained at the Institute of Psychotherapy & Social Studies in London, UK, registered with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy - the official register of qualification for therapists in the UK.

He has worked for many years in one-on-one and group therapy (based on psycho-dynamic and humanistic approaches), in informal situations, in education, and in health - in particular, working as a counselor with the creativity and dreams of patients. He is about to start a research project (with the University of Teesside in north-east England) on the use of dreamwork to improve the quality of life of terminally-ill people.

He is a professional actor, director and writer for theatre, radio, television and film, and committed to developing creative talents, both for himself and for others: he has also worked extensively in education, teaching counseling, performance, creative writing, and communication arts in universities, colleges, and schools (currently module director at the University College of Ripon & York St John, in North Yorkshire, and tutor for the University of Hull).

Dreams have always been a source of inspiration for writing, performing and teaching, as well as for the most valuable insights in therapy. In setting up Davidoff-Imago, the work with dreams became not merely a part of Leslie's activities, but took their rightful place, acknowledged as what they have always been - the source and the fulfillment of his work, play, time and place. All of this is ready and offered to you.