If the child has been encouraged at home to use his dreams, it seems natural to continue this process at school. Any responsible, caring, perceptive person can foster creative dreaming in children. Knowledge of psychological interpretation of dreams is not necessary. Psychological use of dreams is useful for certain purposes, but dreams can provide much more.

I found that the children told dreams whose stories were strongly connected to the issues that confront everyone in waking life, with themes that present conflict and a degree of anxiety—the nutrients for change. But many factors determine whether conflict produces growth or regression. Learning to recognize anxieties before they build to a crippling proportion seems to be important. Dreams are helpful here because they bring into awareness and identify for us those things that make us feel helpless. I noticed that when the children started to deal creatively with the conflicts their dreams presented, the first step from helplessness to responsibility involved some magical solution or wishful thinking. In finding a solution, the dreamer created a character whose powers were outside the limits of known reality. As the child began to build more self-confidence in his ability to resolve conflicts, the magical elements decreased. And as the dreamer accepted more responsibility for himself, his feelings about conflicts would change to reflect this growth. I would help the child confront what was overwhelming him and encourage him to conquer it in some fashion, either by talking about it or re-dreaming it in fantasy. The following is an example of how I went about encouraging a child to become more confident in creating her own solutions. This dialogue took place between myself and Jane, an 8-year- old: