Culturally Responsive Dreamwork (CRD)

What is CRD?

Culturally Responsive Dreamwork (CRD) focuses counselors on the cultural, religious, and spiritual dimension of dreaming and provides an approach and framework for counselors to center clients' dream beliefs in therapeutic dream discussions. It orients clients to be culturally humble, look for opportunities to explore clients' cultural beliefs and experiences, and focuses clients on the need to be comfortable in discussing culture.

CRD has counselors and psychotherapists ask clients to bring dreams into therapy and has them ask clients about their dream beliefs before discussing their dreams.

For dream discussions, CRD provides a framework orientating counselors and psychotherapists to what can be discussed in relation to dreams. This is the SAFE framework:

Sharing: Eliciting the dream

Appreciating: Focusing on the content of the dream

Finding the Significance: Paying attention to the meaning, purpose, and/or significance of the dream to the dreamer

Editing: Discussing what the client would like to change about the dream or in relation to the dream

Making Nightmare Treatment Culturally Responsive

Imagery Rehearsal Therapy (IRT) is a leading approach for treating nightmares that also addresses PTSD, anxiety, and other mental health symptoms. In the article, Nightmare Relief: Implementing Imagery Rehearsal Therapy in Counseling, we introduce an IRT approach that includes asking clients about their dream beliefs and dream practices. By doing that, you learn more about clients' beliefs, can better determine the appropriateness of IRT for your clients, and can adapt your use of IRT based on their dream beliefs.