This evening in the Practitioner Group we had a very interesting discussion about dreams. It is always fascinating as a therapist to work with clients as they try to make sense of their dreams, and to enable them to realise that the principle emotions and themes of their dreams are frequently useful pointers to issues that are engrossing their energy at the subconscious level. I sometimes find that characters in people's dreams who express difficult emotions (bullying, overbearing, tastelessness, insensitivity, illogicality and so on) are really aspects of the person themselves but the dreamer finds it easier to represent these negative emotional experiences by disowning them and giving them to someone else (known or a stranger) to demonstrate.

Unfortunately, I can only ever remember my dreams when I am on holiday because during the working week I wake up to our radio alarm clock. I therefore am under the impression that I am dreaming the 8 o'clock News on BBC Radio 4 every morning. What could be more of a nightmare than that!

Sleep is a fascinating topic. In my translation of an ancient Roman poem (p 16, Eternal Sparrow) I describe the Cave of Dreams where Somnus, God of Sleep, rules his kingdom. I remember writing that piece for homework when I was about 15 years old, and being so pleased when my Latin teacher, Miss Adamson, read it out to the class the next day. How influential good teachers are! I remember how she brought Ancient Rome to life for us and gave us such beautiful literature to translate from Latin into English. Today, that has all the qualities of a good dream itself. I find it hard to believe that it was almost exactly fifty years ago that I was sitting in that classroom in Allerton High School in Leeds, in a dark olive green school uniform, white blouse, green tie with a pink stripe!