About Us

What is Natural Dreamwork?

Over the past several years, we’ve developed a new empirical approach to dreams called Natural Dreamwork. In fancy language, our approach is phenomenological — a turn away from theory and back to walking the actual ground of dreams. We want people to come back to their dreams in all their rich subjectivity, to contemplate the unique images and persons they bring us, and the uncanny experience of time space and feeling they create. Instead of puzzling over what your dreams mean, we ask you to dwell on how your dreams feel. We do not interpret dreams for our clients, together we bring them to life. This approach is based on our collective decades of experience of leading people through their dreams, in more than ten thousand hours of sessions. Exploring your dreams naturally has many of the same benefits as walking in a redwood forest or camping in the wild. It’s a return to your roots, a contact with the unbridled imagination within you. In a time when people sometimes rely on drugs to mask every emotional discomfort, dreams offer their own natural medicine. Contemplating images in your dreams heals the broken imagination. Dreams make you whole, change how you relate to others, revive your spirits, and deepen your experience of life. In a Natural Dreamwork session, we act as guides to the unique terrain of the dream and  help you identify the images and presences that have the most potential to heal. We then teach you how to contemplate these images and develop a relationship with these healing presences, and how to bring what you have learned in your dreams into waking life.

 

The Natural Dreamwork Team

RODGER KAMENETZ

unnamed Rodger Kamenetz has been instrumental in shaping and articulating Natural Dreamwork. He is an award-winning author, poet and teacher. Of his fifteen books, his best known is The Jew in the Lotus, the story of rabbis making a holy pilgrimage through India to meet with the Dalai Lama. His account of their historic dialogue became an international bestseller, prompting a reevaluation of Judaism in the light of Buddhist thought. Now in its 36th printing overall, The Jew in the Lotus is a staple of college religion courses. The New York Times has called it a “revered text.” A PBS documentary followed, and a sequel, Stalking Elijah, won him the National Jewish Book Award for Jewish Thought. Kamenetz’s six books of poetry include Yonder and The Lowercase Jew. His memoir Terra Infirma  centered on the impact of a single dream of his mother after her untimely death. After seeing the power of visualization in Tibetan Buddhism, he found teachers to show him a path in dreams and by 2003 began working with clients. When The History of Last Night’s Dream appeared in 2007, Oprah Winfrey interviewed him on her “Soul Series” program, saying, “What’s so exciting about this book is that it talks about how there’s a whole other life that we are living when we sleep and that our dreams are there as offerings and gifts to us if we only recognize what the dreams are there to teach us.”  Since 2014, in collaboration with his students and colleagues, he has been working to refine and clarify the guiding concepts of Natural Dreamwork. Born in Baltimore, Rodger Kamenetz has degrees from Yale, Johns Hopkins and Stanford. At Louisiana State University, he held a dual appointment as a Professor of English and Professor of Religious Studies and founded the MFA program in creative writing and the Jewish Studies minor. His personal website is http://www.kamenetz.com.

MARY JO HEYEN

Mary Jo Heyen, M.Ed., was an author, founding member and certified practitioner of Natural Dreamwork until her death in 2022. She had a diverse private practice working with dream clients of all ages and backgrounds, as well as mentoring dreamwork practitioners in training. For Mary Jo and many of her dream clients exploring the teachings in our dreams was itself a spiritual practice with spiritual language and teachers who come to us nightly to help us remember who we truly are and invite us home to our soul self. Her practice included her volunteer work with the dreams and visions of those in hospice, their families and grief groups, honoring the gift of their dreams at this most important threshold. Her experiences in this area have been published in The Journal of Palliative Medicine and the 2021 release of her book, Dreaming into the Mystery: Explorations into Being with the Dreams and Visions of the Dying. Mary Jo offered presentations, workshops and classes on a variety of dream-related topics including, Who Are Those Guys? based on her dream primer of the same name. Mary Jo was a featured teacher as part of the Shift Network’s Dreamwork Summit. Her work with dreams has been been published in Dream Time, a publication of the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) and she was also a Regional Representative of the IASD. To learn more about Mary Jo’s life and work please see: https://www.thenaturaldream.com/mary-jo-heyen and  www.maryjoheyen.com.

DR. KEREN VISHNY

Keren Vishny is a psychotherapist and certified Natural Dreamwork Practitioner. She is also a teacher and workshop facilitator affiliated  the CG Jung Center, Evanston Illinois and the Marion Woodman Foundation.Over her 28 years of work in the healing arts, Keren has shifted from mainstream medical practice  to a focus on psycho-spiritual healing through dreams. Keren has a master’s in Counseling Psychology from Northwestern University, studied for many years with Jungian Analyst Marion Woodman and completed the BodySoul Rhythms Leadership training offered by the Marion Woodman Foundation. In 2012 she met poet/ dreamwork practitioner Rodger Kamenetz, whose guidance and mentoring provided the capstone to her dreamwork training. Keren has experienced first-hand, the potency of dream healing. For Keren, this transformation has included improved relationships and the reemergence of her poet, after 40 years hibernation. Keren works with clients in her office in Wilmette, Illinois, and nationally via video-conference. Her website and blog can be found at www.kerenvishny.com.

MARIAN GAY

Marian Enochs Gay is a certified Natural Dreamwork practitioner offering a contemplative approach to dreams as a path to soul. She is devoted to helping dreamers deepen their relationship with their dreams. Her own dream journey began in 2009 with teacher Rodger Kamenetz, and she has worked with clients since 2014. She offers individual sessions in person in the New Orleans area, and anywhere through phone or Skype.  You can find her writings on the Natural Dream blog. Please visit dreamwellspring.com to learn more about her work with dreams. You can email her at menochs6@gmail.com.

KEZIA VIDA

Kezia Vida received a BA in Philosophy from Yale University, and has been working with and studying dreams under the Natural Dreamwork tradition since 2009 and working with clients since 2015. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Counseling degree at Prescott College. Kezia is also a student of shamanic and earth-based traditions, and completed the mentorship program with Nina Palmieri of the New Earth Movement and the year long Shamanic Studies program with The Power Path. Currently, she is the co-director of the All You Need Institute, a nature-based education and retreat center focused on developing human connection and responsiveness to ecological change in the Gulf South. She is the author of The Dreaming I, a dream journal & workbook designed to jumpstart your dream practice and was the co-host of the 2019 Shift Network Dream Summit. She has also led a wide variety of dreamwork workshops, groups, events and retreats, and she currently hosts The Dream Circle, an online dream sharing group for dream enthusiasts. To learn more, visit her website, www.keziavida.com, or follow her YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/c/KeziaVida.

LAURA SMITH-RIVA 

Laura Smith-Riva is a certified practitioner of Natural Dreamwork and practicing Druid of the Green Mountain Druid Order. She offers one-on-one dream consultation to individuals in the US and abroad and is a mentor for Natural Dreamwork Practitioners-in-training. She practices Natural Dreamwork through the cultivation of a dream practice based on the natural healing qualities found in dreams inherent in the sacred objects, symbols, creatures and archetypes that populate the dream landscape. She compassionately creates space for the dreamer to delve deeply into the images and feelings of the dream to find their authenticity, voice, passion and creativity. She lives in the mysterious Green Mountains of Vermont with her partner of 25 years on a small homestead farm. When she’s not wrangling sheep, you can find her painting or writing in her studio, connecting to the healing energy of the earth, or engaged in laughter and general mayhem with her friends and family on various parts of the globe. She regularly blogs about her journey through dreams and vision work on the dream blog In Search of Puella and her art work has been has been featured in several publications and ezines.  For more, please visit Laura Smith-Riva’s website www.archetypaldreamworks.com.

KAT SAMWORTH

Kat Samworth is a certified practitioner of Natural Dreamwork. Her approach is one of deep care and respect for each individual’s soul. She believes that every dream is a precious gem offering inner wisdom that can lead us towards who we are meant to be in this life.  Kat began her own life-changing journey of dreamwork with Rodger Kamenetz in 2009.  She feels privileged to step into the mystery and the magic of dreams with her clients. Kat works in person, over the phone or Skype. To learn more about services and to read Kat’s dream blog, please visit www.dreamforyourlife.com or email dreamforyourlife@gmail.com.

LEIGH RANDOLPH 

As a professor of dentistry and a practicing endodontist, Leigh Randolph saw directly how unresolved pain, fear, and trauma affects how we experience life. Her interest in the human psyche brought a heightened intuitive sensitivity to knowing how the energy of our beliefs and past experiences affects new experiences. In her search to help patients she discovered the profound healing depth of Natural Dreamwork. Leigh has coauthored books on Holistic Healing and shares what she has learned offering classes including “Dreams as a Path to the Soul” and “Dreams, Art, and Gnosis”. Leigh is also a visual artist who facilitates expressive art for healing through dreams. She works with clients in person, through phone and Skype. For more information you can contact her at: JourneywithLeigh@aol.com.   Her website is http://dreamjourneywithleigh.com.

DONNA M. MAZZOLA

Donna Mazzola is a certified practitioner of Natural Dreamwork. She is a passionate advocate for the potency of dreams and their ability to transform one’s waking experience. A student of Rodger Kamenetz since 2016, she began facilitating dream groups and working with individuals in 2009. Donna is a certified Interplay leader, Projective Dreamworker (Marin Institute), and member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. She holds a Master of Education degree and Master of Arts in Wisdom Studies. Donna is available for Natural Dreamwork sessions via Skype, phone, or in-person. Contact Donna at donnmazz@gmail.com.

JULIE FILIPIC

Julie Filipic is a Spiritual Director and a Certified Natural Dreamwork practitioner. She believes that when we pay attention to and trust what our dreams are offering, we recognize our inner wisdom which connects us to our true self, our soul. While Julie has worked with dreams for many years, it was when she began her own journey with Natural Dreamwork several years ago that she discovered the healing power of reconnecting to her feelings on a deeper level. By honoring and being present with the feelings in our dreams, we begin to experience growth and healing in our waking life. Julie offers Natural Dreamwork sessions in person in the Chicago area, or anywhere via phone or Skype. For more information, please contact Julie at jfilipic@comcast.net.  Read more about her work at www.blueheroncompanions.com

 

LIZA HYATT

Liza Hyatt, ATR-BC, LMHC is a board cerified art therapist and license mental health counselor in Indianapolis with over 30 years of trauma-focused counseling experience.  Liza is also a published poet and is adjunct faculty for the Art Therapy Master’s Degree program at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, where she teaches students depth psychology approaches to imagination. Encountering images as alive and the imagination as healing is at the heart of Liza’s approach to art therapy, poetry, and the creative process.  Liza has been engaged in her own dreamwork since 1987. Through working on her own dreams with a Natural Dreamwork practitioner, Liza has found this method of dream tending to be an essential practice that softens reactive ego defenses and frees soul to live with authentic belonging. Having provided art therapy in a domestic violence shelter, a low-income women’s counseling center, a cancer hospital, and an eating disorder treatment center, Liza is now expanding her practice to include Natural Dreamwork, assisting dreamers to compassionately welcome and feel into the images sent by soul to help us heal. Contact Liza at lizahyatt@gmail.com.

ANN SHINE DUCK

Ann Shine Duck works as a psychotherapist and certified Natural Dreamwork practitioner in the Northern Illinois area. She has had a nearly lifelong interest in understanding and relating to her dreams, and has studied  both formally and informally throughout the years. Ann is a current Natural Dreamwork student of Rodger Kamenetz. She received her Ph.D. in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2001. Ann is also a practitioner in both Somatic Experiencing and NueroAffective Relational Model, working with attachment, relational and developmental trauma.  Ann is available for Natural Dreamwork sessions via phone, live video, or in-person.  She can be reached at annshineduck@gmail.com.

ELAZAR BERGMAN

Elazar Bergman was introduced to the awe and power of dreams at an early age. Having never lost sight of the innervision they afford, he is thankful to have discovered a dreamy way to part the darkness and explore the capacity of the soul. Since the early ’80s Elazar has been teaching and mentoring people as old as four and as young as eighty. He is the author of Where Earth and Heaven Kiss, a guide to Rebbe Nachman’s path of meditation. A graduate of The Johns Hopkins University and an ordained rabbi, he and his wife live in Jerusalem, the Heart of the Universe. He teaches, mentors and does Natural DreamWork via Skype, FaceTime, WhatsApp, WhatHaveYou. He can be contacted via email: nekudot@gmail.com.

CARA LIGUORI

Cara Angela Liguori is a Somatic Practitioner and Educator who founded a private practice in NYC after a decade of professional dancing led her to a deeper interest in the human body-mind connection. Cara uses therapeutic touch, movement explorations, deep listening and guided meditation to support her clients’ processes of self-inquiry and body, mind, spirit integration. Her influences draw from studies in a variety of somatic, spiritual and therapeutic traditions namely Zero Balancing, BodyMind Centering and Ideokinesis. As a practitioner in training, currently working under the supervision of Kezia Vida, Cara is thrilled to add Natural Dreamwork to her primary offerings. She sees the Natural Dreamwork approach as an embodiment or somatic practice via dreaming; a building capacity in depth of feeling that links the dreamer’s lived experience to their soul’s journey. Cara has gained much personal clarity, agency and freedom from exploring her own dreams with Keren Vishny since early 2019. She is eager to continue deepening the exploration and offering the medicine of dreams to her clients. You can read some of Cara’s writing on Wellbeing here. For bookings and more details about her work, please visit www.caraliguoriwellbeing.com .

AYANA OTTEMAN

Ayana Otteman is a Natural Dreamwork Practitioner who is an ardent lover of the Dream and seeker of Soul! She is an avid adventurer and student of the world. She has spent time working with kids in Peru, organic farming in Southeast Asia, and studying in ashrams in India. She also attended CU Boulder where she received Bachelor’s degrees in both Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Philosophy. Currently, she is becoming certified in multiple healing/coaching modalities including Life and Success Coaching, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Emotional Freedom Technique, Hypnosis, and Integrative Alchemy. She believes that these modalities, as well as Natural Dreamwork, offer a unique path for others on a healing journey toward a more authentic relationship with themselves and their work in the world. She is so excited and humbled by the opportunity to share and facilitate the medicine and healing power of the Dreams! You may reach her at ottemanayana@gmail.com

BRINDA JACOB-JANVRIN

 Brinda Jacob-Janvrin is a movement based expressive arts therapist and a contemporary dancer/choreographer with more than 25 years of performing experience. A trained counselor, Brinda has been working extensively with body work and movement therapy since 2003 and with expressive arts therapy since 2012. An Authentic Movement practitioner and facilitator, she is passionate about the arts, the mysterious workings of the Psyche-Soma and connections between the Body and Earth. Brinda is the founder of the Studio for Movement Arts and Therapies Trust,  a registered charitable Trust, created in January 2011 with the following vision and mission: Vision: With resilient and empowered individuals, a healed world emerges. Mission: We craft creatively alive spaces to nurture & catalyze self-inquiry, expression & its integration. Today Brinda practices expressive arts therapy with individual and group clients, trains, teaches, performs and choreographs. You can contact Brinda at  brinda@smartmove.co.in. Her website is www.smartmove.co.in.

 

JENNIFER BADOT

Jennifer Badot is a poet, visual artist, Tarot reader, and Natural Dreamwork practitioner in training, working under the supervision of Natural Dreamwork practitioner Dr. Keren Vishny. A life-long devotee of dreaming, Badot welcomes the opportunity to stand beside you as you draw from the deep well of your dreams to heal and nourish your heart and soul. She believes that our world needs engaged and activated dreamers now more than ever — as a pathway for individual and collective healing and as a way toward imagining a just and healthy future, for ourselves and our planet, one dream at a time. She welcomes you to contact her at jenniferbadot@gmail.com with questions and/or to begin a conversation about working with your dreams.

JEN SONSTEIN MAIDENBERG

Jen Sonstein Maidenberg is a journalist, essayist, and dreamworker. In addition to dreams and dreaming, she is currently researching precognition, synchronicity, memory, and time, all inside the framework of healing. While living in the Northern Israel community of Kibbutz Hannaton from 2011-2017, she earned an M.A. in English Literature from the Shaindy Rudoff Creative Writing Program at Bar-Ilan University. In 2021, she switched career paths, moving away from content marketing for high tech companies and toward dream research and dreamwork. Jen has been working her dreams with Rodger Kamenetz using Natural Dreamwork since 2021. She also is a student of Jewish mysticism, Classical Chinese medicine, and watercolor painting. Jen lives in New Jersey with her three children. You may contact her at jensonsteinmaidenberg@gmail.com and read dream-related content on her website at jenmaidenberg.com.

HENRY SHUKMAN 

Henry Shukman, a certified Natural Dreamwork practitioner, is a poet, novelist and writer, born in the UK and now resident in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he leads the Mountain Cloud Zen Center. He is an associate master of Sanbo Zen of Kamakura, Japan, as well as a dreamwork practitioner with a small practice since 2012, His award-winning poetry collections and novels have been Books of the Year in the London Guardian and Times, and New York Times Editor’s Choice. He sees working with dreams as a powerful path of healing and growth which, whether undertaken in parallel with a meditation training or in its own, can be deeply important and helpful.  www.mountaincloud.org

 

MICHELLE MACNEIL

Michelle MacNeil is an artist healer who has been exploring her dreams for 23 years on her own journey to openness and healing. She is a passionate believer in the ability of ones dreams to lead towards deep healing and wholeness, a knowing of our true selves, a knowing of our work in the world, and to sensing our spiritual connection. Michelle is an architect, planner, dream practitioner, visionary, and community builder. She has collaborated on three films about dreams. The films are titled; Telling Dreams, Telling Dreams of the Departed, and most recently, Dreams of Transformation,  which explores the transformative quality of dreams to help us transition through life’s phases. Her dream practice includes presentations and events centered around the labyrinth, arts, community and 12 step programs. She offers workshops and retreats which provide a safe space to journey into the soul, in community, and one-on-one dream sessions with individuals in person or by phone. For more information and to view her films, please visit her website at: https://www.dreamjourneyofthesoul.com.

DR. DARREN JAKUBEC

Darren Jakubec, a certified Natural Dreamwork practitioner, lives in the town of Smithers in British Columbia, Canada. He has been practicing medicine since 1996. In 2012 Darren added dreamwork and increasingly has been integrating the two practices. Primarily Dr. Jakubec serves the people in his community, especially those with diagnoses of chronic pain and depression or chronic diseases. For more information about his work please visit www.thetruthiswithin.com.