Leslie – It is my opinion based on experience helping people face waking fears or nightmares, that all such fears have a realistic basis. The basis is usually a fear started when we are pre-verbal, or at a time when we could not meet the intensity of the feelings stimulated.
I know many people say drugs or other methods work best, and I can agree with them on that. The reason is that many adults cannot allow themselves to feel that degree of fear or pain. I worked for years with a man who, as we were getting near to a core fear would get up and leave the room saying, “I don’t come here to feel awful, I want to feel good!” Unfortunately one needs to go through the difficult feelings to really heal it. It is similar to vomiting, difficult but necessary to get rid of the poison. He eventually met his central fear after about ten years.
But on the other hand I have seen people go right through the first time they delve into themselves. For more information on this see these entries:
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/animal-phobias/ and
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/nightmares/ If you can find a sympathetic partner you could try using the Peer Dream Work method.
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/peer-dream-group/By the way, are you left handed, as that can be a factor?
Tony
