309.81 DSM-IV Criteria for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
B. The traumatic event is persistently reexperienced in one (or more) of the following ways:
(2) recurrent distressing dreams of the event
Most therapists do not utilize dreams in their practice. I find this astounding, given that dreams provide so much useful information about what is going on within the client and where the path of healing is.
Particularly with clients with PTSD, following the dreams provides a measure of how the client is progressing and how much distance they have from the original trauma. (The more the nightmare is a repitition of the trauma, the less distance they are able to get from it.).
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