The Meaning of Recurring Dreams

Many people have had the experience of waking from a dream that once or many times before, whether a pleasant or unlpeasant dream. A recurring dream might replay almost exactly each time, or it might appear in slightly different forms with the same core images, settings, or feelings. Over weeks, months, or even years, these dreams can take on a strange persistence, as though they are knocking at the door of your awareness.

If you’ve ever wondered “Why do I keep having this dream?”, you’re not alone. In therapy, recurring dreams can be an invaluable entry point into understanding your inner world.

 

What Are Recurring Dreams Trying to Tell Us?

From a therapeutic perspective, recurring dreams often indicate that there is something in your psyche: an emotion, a part, a memory, conflict, or unmet need, that is asking for attention. The repetition serves as an inner reminder: “There’s something here to be seen, understood, or integrated.”

These dreams are not always negative. Sometimes they bring comfort, inspiration, or a sense of guidance. Other times, they are distressing or even nightmarish, replaying a scenario that leaves you feeling unsettled upon waking.

While there’s no single universal meaning for a recurring dream, the persistence suggests that the image or situation carries importance for your emotional and psychological life.

 

Examples of Common Recurring Dream Themes

While each person’s dreams are unique, certain themes tend to surface repeatedly in recurring dreams:

• Being chased: often linked to avoidance of a conflict, fear, or part of the self

• Losing teeth: sometimes connected to vulnerability, loss, or major life changes

• Being back in school: often tied to self-judgment, performance pressure, or unresolved developmental stages

• Driving or losing control of a vehicle: can represent autonomy, life direction, or feelings of helplessness

• Encountering the same place or house: often a symbol for aspects of the self or life situations that need exploration

In therapy, we look at these themes not as fixed symbols, but as living images that need to be explored in the context of your personal history and current life circumstances.

 

How Therapy Works with Recurring Dream Symbols

Working with recurring dreams in therapy is not about “decoding” them into a single answer. Instead, it’s about engaging in an ongoing dialogue with the images, emotions, and narratives they contain.

Here’s how that process often unfolds:

1. Recording the Dream: Writing it down soon after waking helps capture details before they fade.

2. Exploring Emotional Tone: We look at how the dream feels: frightening, peaceful, hopeful, urgent, or otherwise.

3. Connecting to Waking Life: We explore parallels between the dream and your current or past dynamics and experiences.

4. Tracking Changes Over Time: When a recurring dream shifts in tone or content, that can signal psychological growth or change.

5. Considering Archetypal Patterns: Drawing from Jungian and archetypal psychology, we examine how universal motifs or figures may be shaping the dream’s narrative.

By returning to the same dream image again and again, you begin to see it as a living presence in the psyche; one that evolves alongside your own inner changes.

 

Recurring Dreams in Psychodynamic and Psychoanalytic Therapy

In psychodynamic and psychoanalytic psychotherapy, dreams are seen as expressions of unconscious processes. Any dream, but especially recurring dreams, can highlight invitations for growth, unresolved emotional conflicts, defense mechanisms, or unprocessed memories that are influencing current thoughts, feelings, and relationships.

When a dream repeats, it can be a sign that the unconscious is persistently trying to bring an issue to the surface, even moreso if it’s something that is hard to acknowledge consciously. In therapy, this becomes an opportunity to work through that material in a safe and contained environment, often leading to symptom relief and a stronger sense of self-understanding.

 

Recurring Dreams in Jungian and Archetypal Psychology

In Jungian therapy, recurring dreams often point to important archetypal material which are timeless patterns of human experience that appear in myths, stories, and art across cultures. These archetypes may appear in your dreams as specific figures (eg. animal symbolism or human characters) or as symbolic situations (eg. a journey, a test, a transformation).

James Hillman’s archetypal psychology invites us to treat these images not as “codes” to crack, but as living beings within the psyche. Instead of trying to explain them away, we approach them with curiosity, asking:

• Why is this image or figure returning now?

• How is it connected to what is happening in my life?

• What does it want from me?

This approach can make recurring dreams feel less like unsolved puzzles and more like ongoing conversations with the deeper layers of your mind.

 

When Recurring Dreams Change or Stop

An interesting feature of recurring dreams is that they often shift, reduce, or stop when something changes internally. For example:

• A nightmare about being chased may resolve when you face a real-life conflict you’ve been avoiding.

• A dream of being trapped in a room may evolve into finding a key or stepping outside after a significant personal breakthrough.

Tracking these changes in therapy can be deeply validating, as the dream itself reflects your emotional and psychological growth.

 

Tips for Working with Recurring Dreams

• Keep a Dream Journal: Write down your dreams immediately after waking. Even fragments can be valuable.

• Note Life Context: Record what’s happening in your waking life when the dream occurs.

• Pay Attention to Feelings: Both in the dream and upon waking; these emotional tones are often key to understanding the dream’s message.

• Bring Dreams to Therapy: Recurring dreams offer a rich entry point for therapeutic exploration and can accelerate self-awareness.

 

Dreams & Therapy

Recurring dreams can be frustrating, unsettling, or mysterious, but they are rarely meaningless. In fact, their persistence is often a sign of something important seeking your attention.

By exploring them in therapy, especially through psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, and Jungian perspectives, you can uncover the hidden layers of meaning they carry, work through unresolved emotional material, and invite transformation in both your inner and outer life.

If you’ve been experiencing recurring dreams and are curious about what they might be telling you, I offer a safe, collaborative space to explore them at Smart Therapy™, serving clients across Ontario through secure virtual sessions. Together, we can bring the themes of your dreams into the light of conscious understanding.

 

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Meet Rebecca Steele, Registered Social Worker, Psychotherapist (MA, MSW, RSW, CCC)

Rebecca is a Waterloo-based trauma therapist offering virtual counselling across Ontario. With over a decade of experience, she helps adults navigate trauma, anxiety, OCD (including “Pure O” presentations), and life transitions. Her insight-driven depth therapy approach supports self-understanding, emotional healing, and lasting change. Book an appointment or learn more about her online therapy services.

Located outside Ontario? You can explore Rebecca’s coaching and consulting offerings here.