The Dream Journal

Why do dreams matter, and how can we use them to support waking life? In this episode of The Dream Journal, host Katherine Bell speaks with Canadian author and health journalist Karen Van Kampen about her book The Brain Never Sleeps: Why We Dream and What It Means for Our Health. Together they explore dream science, memory, mental health, dream sharing, nightmare rescripting, dream engineering, lucid dreaming research, and the emerging study of anesthesia dreams as potentially healing experiences. Karen shares how childhood experiences in her father’s sleep lab shaped her fascination with dreaming, why dreams may act like a “highlight reel” of waking concerns, and how practices such as dream journaling, dream salons, and imagery rehearsal therapy can help us engage dreams with curiosity and care. The conversation also looks at cutting-edge research on guiding dreams, communicating with lucid dreamers, and the possibility that anesthesia dreams may help people revisit difficult memories in a calm, transformative state. Why dreams are connected to memory, mental health and waking life How dream sharing builds empathy and new perspectives Imagery rehearsal therapy and practical ways to rewrite nightmares Dream engineering, sleep onset creativity and technology-assisted dreaming Lucid dreaming research and two-way communication with dreamers Anesthesia dreams, healing dreams and post-traumatic growth How stories, memories and dreams shape identity Timestamps 00:00 Introduction to The Dream Journal 01:02 Meet Karen Van Kampen and The Brain Never Sleeps 03:36 Karen’s early life with her sleep-scientist father 05:12 Dream deprivation, sleep and mental health 07:31 Memory consolidation and the “next up” model of dreaming 09:47 Dream salons, dream sharing and collective insight 15:33 How dreams reveal waking-life concerns 17:16 Thought suppression and why it can rebound in dreams 18:36 Imagery rehearsal therapy and rewriting nightmares 24:44 Dream engineering and guiding dreams with technology 28:20 Lucid dreaming and two-way communication with dreamers 31:46 Anesthesia dreams and healing dream experiences 39:43 Consciousness, memory and dreams as a 24-hour continuum 44:31 Final encouragement: becoming empowered dreamers BIO: Karen van Kampen is a Canadian author and journalist who specializes in health and science. Her latest book is the instant national bestseller “The Brain Never Sleeps: Why We Dream and What it Means for our Health”. Her fascination with dreams began at the age of nine when she was her father’s first sleep lab “assistant,” helping him practice electrode hook-up and testing. Contact our guest: KarenvanKampen.com This show, episode number 368, was recorded during a live broadcast on June 20, 2026 at KSQD.org, community radio of Santa Cruz. SHARE A DREAM FOR THE SHOW or a question or enquire about being a guest on the podcast by emailing Katherine Bell at katherine@ksqd.org. Follow on LI, IG, YT, FB, & LT @ExperientialDreamwork #thedreamjournal. To learn more or to inquire about exploring your own dreams go to ExperientialDreamwork.com. Video podcast available at youtube.com/@experientialdreamwork. Popular playlists: “Dream Journal shorts” and “FULL LENGTH VIDEOS”.     Here are links to some other Dream Journal episodes you might be interested in: Get a Better Night’s Sleep with Dr. Chris Winter Nightmares and Suicide with Dr Michael Nadorff Intro and outro music by Mood Science. Ambient music new every week by Rick Kleffel. Archived music can be found at Pandemiad.com. Many thanks to Rick for also engineering the show and to Erik Nelson for answering the phones. The Dream Journal aims to: Increase awareness of and appreciation for nightly dreams. Inspire dream sharing and other kinds of dream exploration as a way of adding depth and meaningfulness to lives and relationships. Improve society by the increased empathy, emotional balanc

What if your dreams weren’t symbols to decode… but living encounters? Celebrating seven years of Dream Journal episodes, host Katherine Bell welcomes natural dream work practitioner, artist, and druid priestix Laura Smith Riva for a fascinating conversation about rewilding the dream, animism, and reconnecting with the living intelligence within dreams and nature. Together they explore how dream figures can be experienced as relational beings, how ritual and creativity help integrate dream wisdom, and how fear, vulnerability, and imagination open doorways to transformation and healing. You’ll hear powerful dream stories, live listener dream exploration, and practical guidance on how to begin working with your own dreams. ✨ What You’ll Learn What “rewilding the dream” means How animism changes the way we understand dreams Why dream symbols may be experienced as living encounters Techniques used in natural dream work How ritual, art, and creativity help integrate dream messages How dreams support healing, intuition, and imagination Ways to start your own dream practice ⏱ Chapters 00:00 Rewilding the dream: animism, dream wisdom & spiritual awakening02:06 What is druidry? nature spirituality, animism & learning from trees07:22 Natural dream work explained: why dream symbols are living experiences12:06 Sacred dream encounters: fear, transformation & emotional thresholds16:36 Dream rituals & creativity: using art, altars and symbolism to integrate dreams31:50 Listener dream analysis: how dreams reflect memory, ancestry & emotional healing47:15 How to start dream work: practical steps, courses & following your dream intuition 🔗 Learn More & Connect Laura Smith-Riva is a Natural Dreamwork Practitioner and Priestix of the Green Mountain Druid Order in Vermont. She works with dreamers from many parts of the globe and in her personal work is interested in the connection to the natural world through dreams and vision work and offers expressions of her journey using art, poetry and prose. Visit Laura Smith Riva’s work:👉 https://laura-smith-riva.com Explore Experiential Dream Work:👉 https://experientialdreamwork.com 👍 Support the Channel If you enjoy conversations about dreams, spirituality, creativity, and personal growth: ✔ Subscribe✔ Like the video✔ Share with a dream-loving friend✔ Comment with a recent dream or insight   Find a video clip of the conversation @ExperientialDr

We are the dreams of our ancestors; we are their hopes for the future. But sometimes their trauma is transmitted to us through nightmares. Today&#8217;s guest, Dream Journal regular Linda Schiller, will be talking about how to heal that intergenerational pain and focus on the gifts of ancestral connection. Linda talks about her own ancestors and how her grandfather, who she called Grandpa Joey, fled Kiev with his family at age of three because of the pogroms and how making borscht soup always helped her feel more connected to that side of her family. We talk about the trauma that we inherit from our ancestors but also the caring and resilience. Linda also talks about synchronicity, public trauma vs private trauma, drawing up a family tree, and dream incubation. After the break, we explore a dream of Katherine&#8217;s about doing numerical computations like she used to during her NASA career and about why she might be having this dream now over 20 years after leaving that position. BIO: Linda Yael Schiller, MSW, LICSW is an international teacher, psychotherapist, and dream worker. She is professor emeritus from Boston University School of Social Work and the post-graduate Trauma Certificate program. She is the author of three books: &#8220;PTSDreams: Transform Your Nightmares from Trauma through Healing Dreamwork&#8221; her classic, &#8220;Modern Dreamwork: New Tools for Decoding Your Soul&#8217;s Wisdom,” and her new book “Ancestral Dreaming: Healing Generational Wounds with Active Dreamwork” which comes out this summer and is currently available for pre-order through Llewellyn publishing. Find her at LindaYaelSchiller.com Find a short video clip of the conversation @experientialdreamwork on YouTube on the &#8220;Dream Journal shorts&#8221; playlist, or click here: Find the full video record of the conversation @ExperientialDreamwork on YouTube on the &#8220;Dream Journal podcast FULL LENGTH VIDEOS&#8221; playlist, or click here: BIO: Linda Yael Schiller is an international teacher, psychotherapist, and dream worker. She is professor emeritus from Boston University School of Social Work and the post-graduate Trauma Certificate program. She is the author of three books. Her new book is “Ancestral Dreaming: Healing Generational Wounds with Active Dreamwork”. Find our guest at: LindaYaelSchiller.com This show, episode number 348, was recorded during a live broadcast on January 31, 2026 at KSQD.org, community radio of Santa Cruz. Here are links to some other Dream Journal episodes you might be interested in: Healing Nightmares through Dreamwork with Linda Schiller Trauma, Nightmares and Spirituality with Linda Schiller Intro and outro music by Mood Science. Ambient music new every week by Rick Kleffel. Archived music can be found at Pandemiad.com. Many thanks to Rick for also engineering the show and to Erik Nelson for answering the phones. SHARE A DREAM FOR THE SHOW or a question or enquire about being a guest on the podcast by emailing Katherine Bell at katherine@ksqd.org. Follow on LI, IG, YT, FB, &amp; LT @ExperientialDreamwork #thedreamjournal. To learn more or to inquire about exploring your own dreams go to ExperientialDreamwork.com. The Dream Journal aims to: Increase awareness of and appreciation for nightly dreams. </e

Does a traumatic childhood doom you to unhappiness and dysfunction? Meet Wendy Correa who overcame a horrific youth. Dreams were a key part of her recovery! Wendy&#8217;s debut book is memoir My Pretty Baby: Seeking Truth and Finding Healing. Wendy starts with a pivotal dream of a black jaguar which had her face then talks about how childhood trauma affects life-long mental health including addiction, depression, and even physical ailments like irritable bowel syndrome and heart disease. She says that 64% of people have experienced at least one of the ten traumas highlighted by the &#8220;ACE&#8221; scale which lists Adverse Childhood Experiences. She encourages listeners to google the ACEs quiz to start thinking about how trauma might be informing our own lives. She describes some of the modalities that were healing for her including meditation, psychotherapy, music, somatic practices saying &#8220;the issues are in the tissues.&#8221; Wendy describes the work by Bessel van der Kolk and his seminal book &#8220;The Body Keeps the Score.&#8221; After the break we talk about the dangers of toxic positivity and the art of learning &#8220;to suffer well&#8221; of which a pivotal component is forgiveness. She also mentions Whitney Goodman and Joan Didion. Here is a link to a short video clip of the conversation: The Full-Length video can be found here: BIO: Wendy B. Correa is a writer, yogi, hiker and public speaker. She has worked in film, music, and radio. She holds bachelor’s degrees in psychology and theater arts. A wife and mother, she resides in Denver, Colorado. My Pretty Baby, an Amazon #1 Best Seller, is her debut book. WendyBCorrea.com This show, episode number 346, was recorded during a live broadcast on January 17, 2026 at KSQD.org, community radio of Santa Cruz. Here are links to other Dream Journal episodes you might be interested in: Meditation and Trauma Recovery with Edit B Kiss Post Traumatic Spiritual Growth with Linda Schiller Intro and outro music by Mood Science. Ambient music new every week by Rick Kleffel. Archived music can be found at Pandemiad.com. Many thanks to Rick for also engineering the show and to Erik Nelson for answering the phones. SHARE A DREAM FOR THE SHOW or a question or enquire about being a guest on the podcast by emailing Katherine Bell at katherine@ksqd.org. Follow on LI, IG, YT, FB, &amp; LT @ExperientialDreamwork #thedreamjournal. To learn more or to inquire about exploring your own dreams go to ExperientialDreamwork.com. The Dream Journal aims to: Increase awareness of and appreciation for nightly dreams. Inspire dream sharing and other kinds of dream exploration as a way of adding depth and meaningfulness to lives and relationships. Improve society by the increased empathy, emotional balance, and sense of wonder which dream exploration invites. A dream can be meaningful even if you don&#8217;t know what it means. The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM. Catch it streaming LIVE at KSQD.org 10-11am Pacific Time on Saturdays. Call or text with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773 or email at onair@ksqd.org. Podcasts are available on all major

We start the new years by welcoming Katrina Dreamer who talks about social justice dreaming and how we can start to dream up the kind of world we&#8217;d like to live in. Here is a link to a short video clip of the conversation: https://youtu.be/VPc75rnn3BA Katrina starts by talking about harnessing the power of dreaming for social justice including using dreaming to build support and to find and connect with people. We speak about connecting to ancestors, mutual dreaming, and dream incubation. We then talk about dreaming up the kind of world we&#8217;d like to live in and why that can be difficult. The class they are hosting called Social Justice Dreaming has a new cohort starting February 6. You can get 25% off the cost by registering here by January 23: community.dreamstudies.org/c/social-justice-dreaming-winter-2026 After the break, we take a question from Max about day dreams and hear about a precognitive dream from Ellen from Santa Cruz which tried to warn her about getting arrested on a train in Europe. BIO: Katrina Dreamer: Katrina is a pagan/Druid who co-hosts the podcast Dreaming Back to the Earth. They teach dream workshops on the Dream Portal, have presented multiple times at IASD conferences, and have written for Dreamtime magazine. They also write a web comic and are a tutor for disabled students. This show, episode number 344, was recorded during a live broadcast on January 3, 2026 at KSQD.org, community radio of Santa Cruz. You might be interested in these related Dream Journal episodes: Gender and Dreams with Katrina Dreamer Radical Resistance with Victor Lee Lewis Intro and outro music by Mood Science. Ambient music new every week by Rick Kleffel. Archived music can be found at Pandemiad.com. Many thanks to Rick for also engineering the show and to Erik Nelson for answering the phones. SHARE A DREAM FOR THE SHOW or a question or enquire about being a guest on the podcast by emailing Katherine Bell at katherine@ksqd.org. Follow on FB, IG, LI, &amp; YT @ExperientialDreamwork #thedreamjournal. To learn more or to inquire about exploring your own dreams go to ExperientialDreamwork.com. The Dream Journal aims to: Increase awareness of and appreciation for nightly dreams. Inspire dream sharing and other kinds of dream exploration as a way of adding depth and meaningfulness to lives and relationships. Improve society by the increased empathy, emotional balance, and sense of wonder which dream exploration invites. A dream can be meaningful even if you don&#8217;t know what it means. The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM. Catch it streaming LIVE at KSQD.org 10-11am Pacific Time on Saturdays. Call or text with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773 or email at onair@ksqd.org. Podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms the Monday following the live show. The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page can be found at ksqd.org/the-dream-journal/. Closed captioning is available on the YouTube versi