Do you tell your therapist about dreams?

I'm a male with a female therapist and I've only been with her a few weeks. We haven't discussed any sexual topics yet or anything very deep at all since I'm still trying to trust and I think she's still trying to figure me out. I usually wouldn't bring up anything regarding sex without having a discussion about the topic first.

I usually don't believe in the significance of dreams, but I think this has to mean something. It involved my therapist being a dentist (not a therapist) and me showing up for a cleaning after a day of dirtbiking the dunes. I was wearing my shoulder and chest protector, boots, gloves, but just underwear and no pants. When I got in the chair I had an erection and was trying to cover it up with while I casually chatted about the weather. Embarrassing as heck, thanks a lot brain

Would you tell your therapist? Would you tell but leave part of it out? Is it completely random and irrelevant? I'd be interested to know what she thinks about it but if she's just going to blow it off and say dreams mean nothing then I don't want to embarrass myself for no reason.

I do a lot of dream work as part of my therapy. (my t has a thick folder full of my dreams that I've typed up for her or emailed her over the years.) If you don't know her thoughts on dreams and dream work, you could ask her. Or even just share a really bland dream with no embarrassing parts first, just to test the waters.

(My dream worker self does not think it is random or irrelevant, but then I'm very very into dreams and dream work!)

I don't know if I would have shared something like that really early on, but if I had a dream like that now? I would absolutely tell her but then again we've been working together for going on 6 years. Still, I have had some doozies where I turn about 15 shades of red reading them to her haha. When we work on them, she has me read them out loud and then we discuss them.

Maybe you can ask her what she thinks about dreams, and if she seems open to discussing it, you could kinda introduce it a little by saying "there's a really embarrassing sorta sexual element to it and I don't want to freak you out or anything" and see what she says. Again, I've been with my t a long time, so you might not feel comfortable enough yet to ask that. I dunno. I'm half asleep right now so really rambling. Sorry. I also tend to get carried away with the subject of dream work. I wish you the best whatever you decide to do!

I agree with Art, you might preface telling t about the dream with asking what t thinks about dreams, and then let it guide you.

I think if I were to tell about it, I would tell the whole thing. It seems like trying to understand the meaning wouldn't work real well with only part of the info.

You could interpret it for me pretty please? hah just kidding. I guess I figure it has something to do with me being caught between wanting her help and not wanting to let my guard down. Being half exposed but still trying to keep up my armor in other places. She is very intuitive and has guessed things about me which I didn't willingly share. Being embarrassed about who I am maybe. She was probably a dentist because I have to have a sort of painful procedure done soon and I've been dreading it. I guess that's how I feel about therapy too.

I guess I'm not interested in what she thinks about the dream. I already know what it means. I'm interested in sharing with her how I feel about the process.

Dang I guess that means whatever she's doing is working eh?

Good idea to ask her how she feels about dreams first. I'm very hesitant to share the sexual part because I don't want her to think I feel that way about her. Maybe I'll have to bring them up at the same time.

I believe dreams about our therapist is suppressed emotions. So it manifest in dreams.
But the thing is what ever emotions we feel towards our therapist is relation to our childhood.
So we project our feelings from our childhood to the therapist.

What kind of therapist is your t? I ask because my last t was CBT oriented and had no clue what to do with dream work. A good therapist but not trained in psychodynamic therapy. So I always got a polite blank stare and silence when I brought up dreams. He waited until I brought up something else.

So I agree with others to ask what your t thinks about dreams and if she works with dream material at all.

I'm not sure what kind she is. She has a lot of experience and I wonder if she might tend to use different approaches depending on the person. That would be so awkward to bring up a dream and get nothing, not even a polite I don't see the significance of dreams or something like that.

I've had dreams about my therapist but they've not been sexual. Although I try to be as open as possible with her about everything I'm thinking and feeling, including sharing my dreams, I'm not sure I'd have the courage to share that type of dream with her.

I commend you for your bravery if you end up telling her about it. I think it could be a fruitful conversation.

Obviously I'm not a therapist, but I have done extensive work with dream interpretation, If you were to come to me for a "professional dream analysis" I would tell you that: frequently dreams about sex are not actually about sex, they are often about feeling vulnerable, or being afraid to be open and honest about something. The fact that You're wearing dirt biking gear but no pants supports this notion, as well as indicating that the issues you are dealing with are typically not considered to be "masculine" and you're concerned about being "judged" as less then because of it, and finally dentists, or teeth usually represent deep seeded issues, that are very personal in nature.

Not knowing more of your background I don't know how accurate this interpretation could be, if I were doing a "professional" dream interpretation reading, I would be asking you questions about what certain things mean to you. Dreams are the subconscious way of working out problems, so a lot of your personal experiences may differ from the generalized meaning them.

I've spoken to my psychiatrist about a lot of my dreams. He has some good insight on them. We've spoken a lot about dream interpretation. He told me to not look at dream interpretation sites for my anxiety problems.

Not dreams. I tried telling him about my recurring nightmares but that was a useless exercise. She tried to make it about her even though I've had the same nightmares for years.

Yes, though they are always nightmares. Rarely do I remember "regular" dreams. I don't think I've ever dreamed of my current T, and I've seen her for almost 2 years. I do remember I dreamt of my last T after the first session, and the theme was similar--me being afraid to trust her.

Even now if I had an erotic dream with my T in it (or really...any erotic dream, but especially my T), I doubt I'd tell that part.

Yeah that is exactly how I felt about it. Not that it was erotic to me at all but I didn't want her to get the impression that I was having that sort of transference with her.

That would be incredibly frustrating!

Thanks! That is more or less what I assumed just from the basics of it. I've never gotten into interpretation though so it's good to hear that I was on the right track

For anyone who might read this later, I didn't tell her. I don't think she would have been interested, but it turns out I didn't need to dig too deep anyway. She self disclosed some information which was more or less the reason I wasn't sure if I wanted to work with her or trust her. Knowing the truth about it makes it much easier. I also could have figured out the answer if I had googled her apparently (she said "you didn't google me did you?" and I said only far enough to read reviews, she said "if you had googled more you'd know I'm xyz on this issue professionally and I'll tell you I'm xyz personally") so... +1 for googling your therapist or asking for self-disclosure when its important to the reason why you're in therapy I guess lol