Episode Details

In this episode of The Dream Journal, host Katherine Bell speaks with dreamwork pioneer Robert Bosnak, founder of Embodied Imagination, about how to work with dreams, symptoms, memories, and trauma without forcing interpretation. Bosnak shares why “not knowing” can be the most skillful stance in dreamwork, how to re-enter a dream through flashback memory, and how shifting perspective—from the “narrator” to the environment or other beings—can unlock relief, agency, and integration.

Keywords: dreamwork, embodied imagination, Robert Bosnak, Katherine Bell, experiential dreamwork, flashback memory, non-interpretive dreamwork, trauma nightmares, somatic symptoms, neutral witness, psychedelic integration, imaginal realm, dual consciousness

Key takeaways

• Start with not knowing. A dream can be meaningful even when you can’t explain it; “not understanding” can keep you closer to the living experience of the dream.
• Re-enter the dream as a place. Instead of treating dreams as stories to decode, Embodied Imagination uses flashback memory to return to the dream environment and feel it in the body.
• The body leads the mind. Sensation and affect often arrive before conscious meaning—so the work begins with what the body is already doing.
• Work with symptoms as imagery. By focusing attention on the location of a symptom, spontaneous images can arise (distinct from mental “fabrication”).
• Shift perspective to create change. Moving from the “I/narrator” to the viewpoint of the image (e.g., the mountains, a closet, a wall) can soften overwhelm and open new possibilities.
• Use a neutral witness for trauma. Approaching a traumatic scene from the perspective of a steady object in the environment can reduce re-traumatization while allowing the experience to be processed.
• Dual consciousness supports integration. In psychedelic or numinous states, holding “two worlds at once” helps you stay grounded while engaging the imaginal reality.
• Integration is a practice. Returning to the experience, slowing it down, and revisiting it from multiple perspectives can turn a peak moment into an embodied daily exercise.

BIO: Robert Bosnak is a Zurich-trained Jungian psychoanalyst specializing in dreaming. He founded Embodied Imagination and is a past IASD president, a fiction and non-fiction book author, and psychiatry faculty at the SUNY Upstate Medical University. He is also presenting at the IASD conference in June up in Ashland Oregon.

Learn more at EmbodiedImagination.com

To donate to the show’s host community radio station, go to KSQD.org

The IASD conference is June 13-17 in Ashland Oregon. Find out more at IASDconferences.org/2026/

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 Experient