Anima Dreams, Personal Neurobiology, and Hispanic Identity with John Valenzuela, PhD

An anima dream series and personal neurobiology. Also Dreams about love and, just in time for Hispanic heritage month, Mexican American male identity formation. A conversation with John Valenzuela, PhD.

John describes that the anima and animus figures we meet in our dreams are autonomous spiritual beings AND also parts of us and that the gender distinction is probably a cultural artifact. We talk about the distinction between when a dream figure is a someone we know from waking life vs a stranger. John describes a few dream from his own anima series and talks about the way dreams reveal our “personality landscape.” He talks about the nine domains of integration from the work of Dan Siegal and says that dreams are helping with this integration. Those oh-so-common dreams of trying to find something are probably our own brains in the process of integration.

We take a call from Rochelle from San Diego who shares a dream series about her teeth falling out while on a date. We end by talking about John’s research into dreams and identity formation in Mexican American males.

BIO: John Valenzuela, earned his Ph.D. from Pacifica Graduate Institute’s Clinical Psychology program. His dissertation Psyche’s Response to the Intersections of Cultural Complexes: Mexican American Male Identity Formation explores dreams and their symbolic connections to Aztec culture. His dream work explores the intersections between Jungian archetypes and neuroscience.

Find our guest at: MentalWellnessDoctor.com , IG: @integrated.dreamwork, LI: @john-valenzuela-ph-d-590b633

Show aired on September 16, 2023.

Intro music is Water over Stones and outro music is Everything both by Mood Science. Ambient music is created new every week by Rick Kleffel. The audio can be found at Pandemiad.com. Many thanks to Rick Kleffel for also engineering the show and to Tony Russomano for answering the phones.

 

Contact Katherine Bell with feedback or suggestions for future shows at katherine@ksqd.org. Follow her on FB and IG @ExperientialDreamwork to find out about upcoming shows. To learn more or to inquire about exploring your own dreams with her go to ExperientialDreamwork.com.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM. Catch it streaming LIVE at KSQD.org 10-11am Saturday mornings Pacific Time. 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 and are released the Monday following the live show. The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page can be found at ksqd.org/the-dream-journal/.

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