Thursday, May 6, 2010

Can Dream Therapy Boost Physical Healthy?

The research literature has linked distress directly to the immune system. That is, studies in psychoneuroimmunology have found that distress (the physical response to stress) can lead to immuno-suppresion. This means that people experiencing stress may get more colds and flu due to the negative impact on the immune system. Furthermore, individuals with diseases such as cancer may decrease their immune system's ability to fight the disease if any distress is experienced. So how does this relate to dream therapy?

It has been found in the literature that dream therapy can decease distress from illness, life-threatening situations, and transition. This begs the question; can dream therapy boost the immune system and therefore, increase physical health? Theoretically, this should certainly be the case and research directly investigating this is in order. Since we know that dream therapy will decrease distress, and, methods such as Meditative Dream Re-entry decrease negative emotions directly, then dream therapy may be a pathway for increasing physical health.

1 comment:

  1. L’azione del sogno e delle immagini sul sistema immunitario e come sia possibile “utilizzare “ questo in terapia mi fa ricordare uno studio fatto a Roma presso un ospedale pediatrico sui bambini leucemici , studio fatto su scene costruite in una sabbiera ( terapia con la sabbia della Dora Kalf)
    I terapeuti notarono che il sistema immunitario era molto più attivo e quindi le terapie molto più efficaci , quando nella sabbiera erano presenti scene di aggressività orale (es: un leone che divora una gazzella), come se questo fosse esattamente quello che stava avvenendo nel corpo in cui le cellule positive devono divorare le negative.
    Credo che questa reattività dell’organismo sia favorita da diverse cose delle quali una importantissima è il sogno…

    ReplyDelete