C: Yeah. You start paying attention to that time of your life when you are sleeping and you are dreaming.

R: You get to realize it.

C: I'm seeing differences in the kinds of dreams that you're having, or even the fantasies. You are beginning to be comfortable with them, I think. You have a chance to talk about them.

And so the children said it better than I ever could. "Dreams," as the kids called the workshop, was over, but they will continue to dream. I hope whoever reads this will realize that dreams are a potential source of creativity and problem solving and will be stimulated to use this form of visual thinking in the home and in the schools.

HELPING CHILDREN WITH NIGHTMARES

"The Amelioration of Nightmares in Children." Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 1972,9,54-56. By Leonard Handler, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37916.

Here is a synopsis of a published case report on the treatment of a child with nightmares. The child was a boy of 11 years who, by the time he was brought to the therapist, Dr. Handler, had been having nightmares about two to three times a week for over a year. The boy had become insistent on sleeping with the light on in his room. Still, whenever he would have one of his nightmares he would come into his parents' bed. The boy told the therapist that in his nightmares a "monster" would chase him, sometimes catching and hurting him. After the boy indicated that he would like some help getting rid of the monster, the therapist invited the boy onto his lap and asked him to close his eyes and pretend that the monster was there. When the boy indicated that the monster was present, the therapist held the boy tightly and then pounded his desk while shouting, "Get out of here, you lousy monster! Leave my friend alone!" After a couple of tries the monster left. The therapist then repeated the procedure, this time getting the boy to help with the pounding and shouting. Afterwards, the child beamed victorious. Then they tried it with the lights out. The first time the therapist had to chase away the monster all by himself, but the second time the boy helped out. The therapist then instructed the boy to try this method for himself at home. When the child returned the following week, he reported that the monster had returned once, but left after the boy yelled at him. By the next week, the nightmares had ceased and soon the boy was sleeping with the lights out.