Scream — What if this is all Sidney's trauma nightmare?

Have you ever been in the middle of experiencing something so strange, or so cruel or surreal that you think to yourself – I have to be in some kind of nightmare? Well, what if you were? What if it was “all one great big movie”... uhh I mean nightmare?

What if Scream is actually Sidney Prescott’s trauma nightmare? Let’s explore that theory and look at how Scream (1996) portrays the formation of trauma and how it can manifest into nightmares.

Mental Health is Horrifying is hosted by Candis Green, Registered Psychotherapist and owner of Many Moons Therapy.

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Sources:

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The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious by Carl Jung 

Dreams: (From Volumes 4, 8, 12, and 16 of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung) (New in Paper) by C.G. Jung


The Interpretation of Fairy Tales by Marie-Louise von Franz and Kendra Crossen

The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture by Gabor Maté, Daniel Maté


The Scream, 1893 by Edvard Munch

The 1990s Teen Horror Cycle: Final Girls and a New Hollywood Formula by Alexandra West

Transcript

Welcome ghouls to today’s episode of Mental Health is Horrifying. I’m your Horror Barbie host of darkness — Candis Green— Psychotherapist and all around spooky bitch podcasting from my bat-filled cave in Toronto, Canada. Have you ever been in the middle of experiencing something so strange, or so cruel or surreal that you think to yourself – I have to be in some kind of nightmare? Well, what if you were? What if it was “all one great big movie”... uhh I mean nightmare?

On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about what is, in my very humble opinion, the greatest and most important horror movie ever made like it literally changed the world forever – it’s the 1996 absolute masterpiece Scream. I could honestly talk about this movie for the rest of my life because I love it so much and there are SO MANY LAYERS TO IT in terms of not only its representations of trauma and 90s teen culture UGH WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE but also how it completely changed the game for horror movies and nothing has ever been the same since.

BUT I’m going to attempt to maintain my composure and develop a coherent episode here with a bit of a twist. It’s quite obvious to see Ghostface as a specter of trauma. The final girl of my dreams, Sidney Prescott, her mother Maureen was brutally murdered one year prior and she is still trying to come to terms with what happened when all of a sudden a masked murderer is running around all calling people on landlines asking them horror movie trivia questions. 

But… What if Sidney, grappling with the repressed trauma, the trauma that never quite found a home or healed just grew, amplified within her, embedded itself so deep into her psyche that this whole thing, this whole movie complete with a masked villain, a town curfew, an egregiously hot boyfriend, a media frenzy, and an incredibly inappropriate party – what if Sidney has been asleep in her bed all night and this is her nightmare? What if this is her psyche trying to resolve what happened to her and her family?

Okay — so let’s get right into it. Let’s talk about Scream (1996) and how trauma forms and can manifest into nightmares.

Movie synopsis:

In the small town of Woodsboro, California, high school student Casey Becker is spending a hot girl night at home watching scary movies when she received  phone call from an unknown person. She tells him he must have the wrong number but he keeps calling, and keeps her on the line and they chat about horror movies and such until the caller because increasingly aggressive and informs little Casey that he actually has her boyfriend Steve tied up on her patio and that he can see her. To save Steve’s life, the caller demands that she answer trivia questions about horror movies, but when she gives an incorrect answer Steve is disemboweled. Gross. Casey attempts to run away but the caller reveals himself to be wearing a Ghostface costume and also disembowels her and hangs her from a tree. RIP Casey and Steve.

The following morning, the news media descend on the town as a police investigation begins. Teenager Sidney Prescott struggles with the impending first anniversary of the rape and murder of her mother Maureen by some dude named after a t-shirt, Cotton Weary. Sidney and all her friends at school including Tatum Riley, Stu Macher, and Randy Meeks exchange theories about last night’s murders and try to guess who the killer could be. The group also includes Sidney’s hunky hunky boyfriend, Billy Loomis, who crawled through her bedroom window the previous night having just watched The Exorcist and becoming extremely horny. That evening, Sidney receives a call from the same unknown voice that called Casey taunting her about Maureen's death and is attacked by Ghostface, who disappears just before Billy comes through her window. This dude must have watched a lot of Dawson’s Creek and picked up that move from there. However, she becomes suspicious when he drops a cell phone because it’s the 90s and only murderers had cell phones at this point, and he is promptly arrested by Deputy Sheriff Dewey Riley, Tatum's brother. At the police station, Sidney is confronted by investigative journalist Gale Weathers, who wrote a smash hit book about her mother’s death the previous year and is convinced that Cotton Weary was wrongly accused of Maureen’s murder and thirsty for a new story. Sidney promptly punches her in the face. *bam bitch went down clip* 

After his release, Sidney runs into Billy at school who is still mad that they haven’t had gotten it on and further upsets her by comparing his absent mother to Maureen's death. Sidney dramatically runs away to collect herself in the girl’s bathroom, where some mean girls, unaware of Sidney’s presence, gossip about her and suggest she is making the whole thing up for attention. Ghostface also appears in the bathroom and tries to attack Sidney, who is able to escape. Things begin to escalate after Principle Himbry decides to suspend school in the wake of the murders and the town institutes a curfew. Principle Himbry is stabbed to death in his office by Ghostface, so I guess the school closure didn’t really work did it. The students of Woodsboro High literally don’t care that there is a masked serial killer on the loose and everyone is getting murdered so they decide to throw a party at Stu Macher’s house to celebrate this joyous time in their lives. Dewey and Gale keep watch on the party in case the killer strikes again. As Randy details the rules of surviving a horror film, no one at the party follows them including not saying “I’ll be right back”, drinking, having sex, or wandering off alone. One such person is Tatum, who goes to get more beer in the garage and is then murdered in the garage… well the garage door… by Ghostface. After discovering that the principle of their school was murdered, the sensitive high school students drunkenly drive away to check it out, leaving just Sidney and the gang at the house. Billy arrives at the house to reconcile with Sidney, and they finally have sex, which according to the “rules” that Sidney is now a murder target. And sure enough, Ghostface pops up and stabs Billy and Dewey while Sidney flees. She somehow ends up back in the house thinking herself to bse safe, and barricades herself inside, locking Stu and Randy outside and she suspects them of being the killer. 

A seemingly wounded Billy returns and allows Randy inside, but then reveals that it’s just corn syrup like the used in Carrie and reveals that HE is the killer and then shoots Randy! Stu then reveals himself to be his accomplice! Sidney demands a motive from Billy and Stu, and Billy confesses that they killed Maureen because the discovery of her affair with his father was responsible for his mother leaving. The pair also abducted Sidney’s father Neil to frame him for their crimes, who had been tied up in the closet this whole time. Knowing it would look suspicious if everyone else was stabbed and dead and not them, Billy and Stu stab each other to portray themselves to the cops as the only survivors. But suddenly Gale re-appears, giving Sidney the chance to incapacitate Billy and kill Stu by dropping a television set on his head. Billy attempts to stab Sidney but is shot by Gale. After Randy remarks that horror film killers revive for a final scare, Billy sits back up and Sidney shoots him in the head, killing him because she is the ultimate final girl.

As dawn breaks, Neil is rescued, Dewey is taken away by ambulance, and Gale provides an impromptu news report about the night's events. She still looks amazing.

Movie background info:

Firstly, if you haven’t seen Scream for some reason I command you to turn off this podcast immediately, go watch it, and be eternally blessed.

Okay – not to brag or anything but I am literally an encyclopedia of information about Scream, so I’m really going to try and hold it together, be concise here, and speak to the most salient points about the cultural impact of this movie or else this podcast will be 12,000 hours long.

Okay so picture this. It’s 1996 and horror is experiencing a big, shiny renaissance. In the 80s, horror was this sort of low-rent genre largely reserved for B or like D movies, there were boobs everywhere even if there was no need for boobs, it was campy, it was gorey, and horror was really this alternative thing to like. VHS tapes became really popular for horror fans too because a lot of movies were considered so strange, or unacceptable, or weird that they weren’t even being released in theaters, they were just going straight to VHS. And arguably, the genre really catered to male audiences with all the boobs, and gore, and such.

And then the 90s happens. And MTV or Much Music if you’re in Canada like me is in full-force with music videos, and teenagers have disposable income, and they’re hanging out in malls, and the internet is starting to become a thing. And boy bands. And the spice girls, and grunge, and teen angst, and it’s like the world has exploded into this playground for teenagers. And the horror industry is like this is interesting we better get in on this. 

And what do teens like at this time? Big shiny, beautiful celebrities. So they cast Drew Barrymore, who was a HUGE established star at the time and put her right on the front of the poster. They cast Neve Capbell, who had already established herself as the beautiful girl next door in Party of Five. They cast Courtney Cox from a little show you might know called Friends, and David Arquette, Rose McGowan, Matthew Lillard, Jamie Kennedy, and they cast Skeet Ulrich for boy-crazy girls like me to memorialize on the inside of our junior high school locker shrines. 

Scream was directed by the legendary Wes Craven who at this point was basically a god in the horror realm, with credits like A Nightmare on Elm Street, The People Under the Stairs, and the Hills Have Eyes, . The script was written by Kevin Williamson who is really credited with launching the franchise into stratospheric success, having written the script after learning about a serial killer in Gainesville, Florida who preyed on college students. Williamson wrote the script, originally titled Scary Movie, based on the idea that its characters had seen many classic horror movies and knew all the clichés, introducing the meta-comedy-horror aspect to the genre. Miramax bought the script for $400,000 for their new Dimension Films label in the spring of 1995, renamed it Scream, and released it during the Christmas holidays onDecember 20, 1996. This too was revelatory in the horror industry – this idea of releasing a horror movie during the holidays. As horror was typically seen as a low rent genre for weirdos and losers and the holiday season was considered a prestige season for serious movies, Scream challenged this idea by again connecting with teen culture of the time. The theory was that teenagers are bored being at home with their annoying families during the holiday break and need to escape them, so why wouldn’t they want to go to a movie that is designed specifically for them?

The gamble paid off because Scream became both a commercial and critical success—ultimately drawing $173 million in ticket sales worldwide. Following its wild success, the franchise quickly pumped out 3 more Scream films, creating a blockbuster franchise of 4 and yes I said 4 because the first 4 and the only ones that I will officially observe okay?! 

(The franchise reboot really spits in the face of the original films and fanbase unlike the stellar job they did with the Halloween franchise reboot where they centred it around Laurie Strode because she like.. Hello… built the franchise on her shoulders? And how dare these new directors kill of original cast members and completely break our hearts but YOU KNOW WHAT this is a podcast and not the inside of my personal therapy session.)

On another personal note, Scream was quite literally what called me into the world of horror. This movie came out in 1996 so I was 10 years old (STOP DOING THE MATH), and I believe the first time I saw this movie was when I was 11. And you know maybe 11 was too young to watch Drew Barrymore be hung from a tree because that scene literally made it impossible for me to sleep alone for like the next 2 years, but MAN did this movie do something to me. So no, I didn’t make it through the whole movie the first time. But something happened that fateful night at my childhood best friend Ruth’s house during her Halloween party during which I was dressed as an angel, and she dressed as a devil. Something became alive – this wonder, this excitement or like… what is this thing? Why am I so excited, and curious, but also terrified to know more about what happened and how can all these things be happening inside of me at the same time?! I wanted to know more about this thrilling feeling and over the years, I dipped my toes into the waters of horror more and more, seeing what I could tolerate and what I had to look away from. Loving horror, I realized, was also a way I could sort of practice my passion for Halloween and all things macabre year-round! This obsession was building at a time in my life when I was profoundly self conscious. Having grown 7 inches all in one year, I suffered from WORD CLASS hyperhydrosis. My advanced height combined with the rest of my body that hadn’t quite caught up yet also won me the nickname Ganglor. 

I actually met both Skeet Ulrich and Neve Campbell at Fan Expo this past summer. I still have not recovered and I deliver you this podcast from beyond the grave. I knew I would cry like the excited lunatic that I am when I met them (thankfully i was able to hold off until after or else they might have called security), and I brought that self-conscious teenager with me. Suddenly, I was a kid again and my favourite final girl just gave me a hug and my teenage crush – the one whose picture hung on my bedroom wall – just put his arm around me and told me he liked my shirt. Again, I am dead.

This is why horror is so important to me. That day, I reached back to find a young part of myself that needed a little boost and sent her some love and healing to that little, hurt place that needed it the most. 

Horror heals, people. Horror heals.

What is Trauma and How Does It Form?

Sidney is experiencing trauma throughout this movie. Her mother’s murder and its aftermath was incredibly traumatic for her. You might ask – Candis, how do you know Sidney is experiencing trauma? And you know, that’s an excellent question so let’s look at what trauma is and how it forms. 

Trauma – everyone has trauma, right? We hear that a lot these days. Concept creep, is the gradual expansion of the definition of a term to include more experiences over time to the point where the original definition begins to change or lose its meaning. And I think it’s really important to clearly understand what trauma is and isn’t to best help people understand, navigate, and process their experiences. 

The word trauma comes from the Greek word for wound. It is a wound that forms inside of you following an incident or experience. And I think this is the most important part of understanding trauma – two people can experience the exact same event and one may experience it as trauma and develop trauma-related symptoms, while the other person may simply have experienced the event as difficult, hard, or challenging. And I’ll talk more about why that is a bit later on.

Renowned Canadian physician, developmental and trauma specialist Gabor Mate wrote a book called The Myth Of Normal that so beautifully and succinctly lays out what trauma is and what it is not. He says – “trauma is not what happens to you. Trauma is what happens inside you as a result of what happened to you.”

Trauma-related symptoms include:

• Difficulties sleeping
• Nightmares or night terrors
• Panic attacks
• Suicidal ideation
• Flashbacks
• Difficulty focusing or making decisions
• Being confused or overwhelmed, even in everyday situations
• Numbness
• Unable to enjoy things like they used to
• Irritability, anger, aggression, or even violence
• Avoiding trauma-related events, places, or people
• Depression
• Anxiety

All of these symptoms demonstrate that the brain may still be in fight-or-flight mode from the traumatic event. Symptoms can last for several months after the precipitating event. Where trauma is considered post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, depends on both its duration and its intensity. 

PTSD is considered when the individual experiences these symptoms for more than 3 months after the precipitation event AND the symptoms are of such severity that it impacts the individual's daily functioning to the point where it is either difficult or impossible to maintain their life – relationships, work, family, community, self-care, and so forth. 

Mate says "Trauma is not the event that inflicted the wound. So, the trauma is not the sexual abuse, the trauma is not the war. Trauma is not the abandonment. The trauma is not the inability of your parents to see you for who you were. Trauma is the wound that you sustained as a result.

"My wound wasn't that my mother gave me [away temporarily] to a stranger [when I was a child]. My wound was that I made that mean that I wasn't lovable and I wasn't wanted and I was being abandoned, which is a good thing. Because if the trauma was what happened to you, guess what? It' ll never unhappen.

"But if the trauma wound happens inside you, the wound that you're carrying? That can heal at any time."

Okay so as I said, how can it be that two people could experience the exact same event – say combat – and one develops trauma or PTSD and the other does not?

As Gabor Mate said, trauma is not what happens to you but what happens inside of you. It is the wound that forms inside of you and wounds form when they are not tended to. Factors that increase the likelihood of a psychic wound, or trauma forming include –

• Severity of the incident (of course)
• Pre-existing vulnerabilities (adverse childhood experiences, or lack of current support, security, or resourcing in one’s life)
• Lack of access to mental health treatment or resources following the incident
• And most importantly in my opinion – lack of community (meaning friends, family, and other community members) support, acknowledgement, and acceptance following the incident

*werewolf transition*

The whole lack of community support is absolutely the case with Sidney in Scream. As we see throughout the film, the memory of Sidney’s mother has been completely scandalized throughout the town and the way that the press covered the event. Her mother has been branded a whore who had it coming and the mean girls in school even wager that Sidney is making this whole Ghostface thing up for attention and that she is just a slut like her mother. 

Okay Ricky Lake would never and go get a hobby or something Susan.

Like, can you literally imagine what it would be like trying to grieve your mother while a media circus swirls through your life creating a TMZ episode of the worst thing that has ever happened to you? And then your boyfriend is all like okay yeah it’s sad and all Sidney but can’t you just like… get over it it’s been a WHOLE YEAR are you going to be all sad and depressed forever God I have needs. Teenage boy needs. 

Her mother’s death and her community’s lack of care and support following the event has created shame in Sidney and a repression of the very real wound that has been created. When we are lacking in care and support following difficult events, we internalize shame rather than moving through a process of integration, acceptance, or even meaning. It’s evident that Sidney internalized this shame as she attempts to get close to Billly after his REPEATED shading that she is still grieving saying “I can’t wallow in the grief process forever.” It’s only been a year girl!

It’s no wonder that on the one year anniversary of her mother’s murder, Sidney is being smacked in the face with her trauma, creating a nightmare for young Prescott in the form of a masked Ghostface who she must now fight to reclaim her grief and avenge her mother. 

What Are Nightmares?

Okay so what are nightmares?

Even though nightmares can be very scary and unpleasant, all dreams are actually here to help us along in our healing journeys. This is how dreams were understood and revered in ancient civilizations who, when someone was sick or ailing, would often be sent to a dream temple to receive diving healing from the Gods above and our dearly departed who they believed we connect with when we dream. Dreams perform a number of functions for us including emotional regulation, memory consolidation, spiritual exploration, and meaning-making – even when it’s a horribly scary dream about SOMEONE WHO CALLS YOU ON A LANDLINE PHONE. Do you Gen Zs even know what a landline phone is?! It’s a phone that isn’t connected to the internet that is installed into a wall and can only receive or make phone calls THAT’S IT and when it rings, ANYONE IN YOUR HOUSE CAN ANSWER IT like your mom or annoying brother. So like, when Suzy calls you to talk about her crush on Scooter, she has to talk to you MOTHER first before she can talk to you. And don’t even get me started on the household battles between using the phone AND dial up internet at the same time. SCARY STUFF, KIDS.

Where was I? Right – landline phones – nightmares. 

A nightmare is an extremely dysphoric dream that typically wakes you up before it ends. Think back to your own nightmares – the majority of the time, they have no conclusion, right? At the most frightening part, the dreamer tends to wake up and this is part of what can make nightmares so upsetting – they have no conclusion, no resolution. 

There are a couple of different kinds of nightmares – idiopathic and trauma nightmares. 

Idopathic nightmares are more “normal” nightmares – they are extremely common dysphoric dreams, but are not related to specific traumas experienced in one’s life. They may be related to difficult experiences or more implicit memories.

Trauma nightmares on the other hand, tend to relate to a specific trauma and can even be an exact replay of a specific event. In this sense, they can sometimes be more like flashbacks. These nightmares are indications that the event has not moved into long term memory – which is an indication of trauma. 

Dreams and nightmares have typical elements in them including a suspension of reality or logic, archetypal figures, reflections of the collective unconscious, and attempts of the psyche to try to create internal balance. Let’s look at how all of those elements are present in Sidney’s trauma nightmare aka Scream the movie. But first – a message from our sponsors.

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Beginning and the May 6 dark moon, you will receive psychoeducaiton about dreams, a framework for developing your own personal dreamwork practice, and an audio guided journey into your unconscious where you will be guided to discover what a dream of your choosing means to you. 

Sign up today by visiting manymoonstherapy.com/finalgirlsclub.

Dream Elements

Dreams do not abide by our regular dumb rules of reality. They observe a suspension of rules about space, time, logic, AND reason.

I have a theory that horror movies are collective dreams due to their reflection of the collective unconscious, the shadow, and because they really do be suspending space, time, logic and reason, don’t they?

There are so many strange elements in this dream that I’m sure many of us have experienced. A strange voice on the phone who is suddenly asking weird questions about 80s horror movies, a ghost man who pops out of the closet when you don’t even know how it got there in the first place, and the strangeness of all the kids from school throwing a party on the anniversary of your mother’s death to celebrate the school closing following a murder spree of some dude dressed as an Edvard Munch painting. 

In dreams, we do things that don’t make sense. LIke when Sidney laments how stupid big breasted girls in horror movies always run up the stairs when they should be running out the door, then Sidney subsequently takes her yabbos up the stairs and suddenly Billy appears in her window like Dawon from the creek. 

Archetypes

Each of us holds within us a combination of 12 main archetypal figures in any given situation in life. Our archetypes gradually develop and change over time due to our life circumstances and personal growth. These archetypes provide general explanations for our various methods of feeling and reasoning. 

Archetypal figures or personality types often show up in our dreams and nightmares, which is definitely the case for Sidney. I have noted a few.

Bily Loomis – the Lover. The Lover ignites the flames of lust and seeks an emotional high. Although initially energetic, their struggles with true intimacy can ultimately fence them in. Yes, hello emotionally unavailable but extremely hot boyfriend. Furthermore, is Billy Loomis actually that hot Sidney’s real life or is this a total exaggeration amplification of her feelings of lust for him maybe? Cause like… JESUS I DIGRESS. 

Gale Weathers, I would argue, is the Sage. Because GALE BE KNOWIN. Also she has amazing suits. That lime green one is absolute perfection and I want to wear it everyday of my life. Perhaps Sidney does too, and admires the confidence and tenacity with which she approaches life? In being the Sage, Gale reflects a sense of Sidney’s own uncertainty of Cotton Weary being her mother’s true killer. The archetypal Sage values knowledge above all and will go to great lengths to get their hands on information in order to make sense of the world. Unfortunately, this can lead to a lack of empathy or make them judgemental. Such as Gale proclaiming I’LL SEND YOU A COPY (referring to her book about her dead mother) to Sidney after she was almost murdered in her home on a school night. 

And Ghostface… well Ghostface is what is called the Doomling. In classical myths and fairytales, the doomling was the character who represented the thing the furthest away from the dominant attitude. It also represents the greatest force of change. An agent of chaos. And Ghostface absolutely represents that. He is this powerful force inside of Sidney’s psyche screaming EVERYTHING IS NOT OKAY HERE SIDNEY PAY ATTENTION OKAY. Ghostface’s reign on terror jolts Sidney back into the trauma of her mother’s death, forcing her to confront the reality that everything is defintely not okay – I mean a) with her, but also b) that this thing isn’t over because the real killers (we find out) are still out there. 

The Shadow

As the Doomling, Ghostface is an aspect of Sidney’s shadow – a repressed part of her that perhaps did not want to admit that she herself may have had doubts about Cotton Weary’s guilt. Seriously, who named that guy?

Reflections of Sidney’s feelings of unsafety since her mother died are echoed in the invasions of privacy. A phone, a simple household item is amplified to represent a threat piercing into the home environment. A murderer climbs through her window into her bedroom multiple times, Ghostface hides in the girl’s bathroom, in closets. Her friends aren’t safe – Stu turns out to be one of the killers (and I believe still out there somewhere…), her dad has left on a trip, and she eventually unknowingly sleeps with the enemy – the ultimate invasion of safety. 

For Sidney, much of this nightmare also feels like a flashback. When her high school is flooded with reporters like Gale Weathers, she says “policy and reporters everywhere, it’s like deja vu.”

The Collective Unconscious

Dreams connect us to the time and society in which we are dreaming. We don’t live in bubbles, so naturally the world around us, and the general attitudes and feelings of the culture, make their way into our dreams.

So Sidney is a teenager in 1996 – what’s going on then? Well, there is a rise in high school violence in the United States and it’s all over the news. Suddenly, her high school is under threat and the whole school has to be shut down and the town under curfew.

It’s clear that Sidney is likely a horror fan. Look how many horror references are in her nightmares! Her anxiety latches on to one horror movie she has likely seen, The Town That Dreaded Sundown. The reference mirrors her fear of night – the time when a masked killer stalks the town.

(Curfew — the town that dreaded sundown — afraid of the night, a time of nightmares (clip from 58:40)

How about the fact that the Fonz from Happy Days is now Sidney’s school principal? This cool guy is now this boring authoritarian. 

And what about the Ghostface mask itself? What about this as a symbol? Sidney, like most of us, is likely familiar with this image from an incredibly famous painting by Edvard Much called The Scream. In it, we see an long, agonized face, similar to that of Ghostface, Screaming against a backdrop of swirls of blue and orange. The painting symbolizes the anxiety of the human condition and for Munch in particular, his agony following his sister’s commitment to what was called at the time – a lunatic asylum. In dreams, our psyches borrow symbols, images, and people from our lives to reflect internal processes, memories, and emotions. Like Sidney, Ghostface is a symbol that everything is not right – the anxiety and the horror in which Sidney finds herself. 

Conclusion

The GOOD NEWS is that when it comes to nightmares, if we track them through dreamwork, we can notice that progress has been made in processing trauma through a dream includes tone or feel changing in the dream, fewer flashbacks, and more dream-like elements being included in the dream. 

In doing experiential, embodied dreamwork with nightmares, what can be really helpful is to actually re-enter the dream right before the part where you wake up, and dream it-forward. This is imaging a completely different scenario in the dream that feels healing to the dreamer. And what’s incredible is that this shift can occur in as little as one dreamwork session where the dream is processed and dreamt forward. 

This is helpful because if helps to alleviate the emotional charge that the dream has on the person, and recognizing the dreams are often are unconscious mind’s way of trying to work through a problem, using our conscious imaginations – which are linked to the dreamworld – helps us to imagine a new way forward, a new way of feeling and resourcing, which can be incredibly therapeutic. In therapy this is called re-experiencing.

This is all very hopeful for Sidney! As we have seen, there are actually quite a few dream elements already present within her dream, which is a clear indication that psychic balancing is occurring within her. This is her psyche’s attempt to process her trauma, reconcile her own shame and confusion, and even reconnect with the spirit of her mother who it seems like Sidney still needs some guidance from.

Or you know… maybe not because there are still 3 more movies in this franchise sooooo… maybe she’s not quite done yet. Yes I said 3. 

Outro:

And that my ghouls is the story of Scream. God I love this movie SO MUCH – can you tell? It’s my total comfort movie. I actually dressed up as Casey Becker for Halloween a couple of years ago and just covered myself in blood and screamed into a phone all night. It was amazing. 

I love this franchise so much – the first 4 I mean – DON’T GET ME STARTED UP AGAIN ON THE REBOOT. 

Mental Health is Horrifying is entirely researched, written, edited, and produced by me, Candis Green, Registered (and spooky) Psychotherapist, with artwork by the ghoulishly talented Chloe Hurst. If you like this podcast, please consider rating and reviewing on your preferred listening platform. It really helps the show to reach all the other spooky ghouls out there and I will be eternally grateful – and an eternity is a very long time for a vampire, okay? 

Visit my website manymoonstherapy.com to sign up for Through The Dream Veil – my 5 week email course where you will learn how to enhance your psychic abilities by developing your own personal dreamwork practice. We begin our journey through the veil on May 6. You can follow me on Instagram at @manymoonstherapy and you can also learn more about me and my services through my website manymoonstherapy.com.

OR you can also howl at the moon and I will hear your call.

Bright blessings.