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PTSD Dreams: Healing Nightmares from Trauma at the Source - Test
by Linda Y. Schiller, MSW, LICSW

Course content © copyright 2025 by Linda Y. Schiller, MSW, LICSW. All rights reserved.

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1. Nightmares are frequently one of the most common symptoms of: Help
Depression.
 PTSD.
 Bipolar disorder.
 ADHD.
2. Studying nightmares within the context of what precipitated them has the potential to: Help
Heal the source of the nightmare.
 Find prevention strategies.
 Provide soothing and grounding.
 All of the above
3. Nightmares are defined as: Help
Long complicated dreams.
 Upsetting dreams that occur at the edges of sleep in the hypnopompic or hypnogogic zone.
 Dreams that you would rather not remember.
 Disturbing dreams that engender emotions of fear, dread, anxiety, or pain.
4. The primary reason it is important for clinicians to have a solid understanding of how to work with nightmares is: Help
It is not adequately taught in graduate schools or training programs.
 Clients bring their dreams into sessions.
 Nightmares are a primary feature of trauma and distress, and unresolved they can block treatment progress.
 They often interfere with sleep.
5. The statement "Nightmares can be biologically adaptive" means: Help
Everyone has nightmares.
 Nightmares can be developmentally normative.
 They are biological features of all mammals and quite possibly all animals.
 They provide an opportunity for threat simulation and rehearsal strategies.
6. Research indicates that nightmares experienced by combat veterans often serve to: Help
Reduce PTSD.
 Help the veterans work through the trauma.
 Act as triggers or cues that actually heighten the daytime distress and trigger more nightmares.
 Bring them into treatment.
7. We can ascertain that a traumatic event has been adequately resolved when: Help
The emotions of fear and terror in dreams no longer predominate, and the emotional story of the dreams is calm or neutral.
 The client no longer talks about it in session.
 They no longer remember their dreams or nightmares.
 The client no longer features as the main character in their dream or nightmare story.
8. We work slowly and carefully with nightmares because: Help
We are often unsure of how to proceed.
 The client should take the lead, and we should not prompt them in exploration of their nightmare.
 We want to avoid abreaction or inadvertently triggering a trauma response.
 Nightmares and dreams have multiple layers of meaning.
9. Hartman makes the case that this should be the primary guide for the dreamer and dream worker: Help
The storyline of the dream
 The emotions in the dream
 The characters in the dream
 Repetitive themes or images
10. Keeping a dream journal is important because: Help
It is hard to remember details if they are not recorded.
 They allow us to track our progress on an issue.
 We can better keep track of recurring themes or image.
 All of the above
11. Ideally, we want the nightmare to be resolved with the emotional narrative that accompanies it at: Help
The same SUDS level as it was in the beginning.
 Going up and down throughout the dreamwork.
 The SUDS level lower than it was at the beginning of the work on the dream.
 The ability to rate the level of distress in the nightmare
12. One of the similarities between nightmare resolution and trauma treatment is: Help
A change in the perspective can influence the reaction to and understanding of the material.
 It is always better to work in a group setting.
 The therapist needs to avoid making suggestions or influencing the work.
 It is better to work as quickly as possible with the material.
13. Big-T trauma or nightmares generally refers to: Help
Traumatic events that occur behind closed doors.
 Developmental life stage events.
 Trauma that includes violence, abuse, war, or natural disasters.
 Inherited family trauma.
14. Methylation refers to: Help
Slow careful trauma work.
 Epigenetic chemical changes in the gene marker.
 Good dream digestion.
 A state of vulnerability following traumatic events.
15. Building a bridge between sleeping and waking life allows us to: Help
Notice connections and parallels between the two.
 See how synchronicities and deja vu experiences might replicate dream themes.
 Work with associations to dream and waking life symbols to find deeper meanings.
 All the above
16. Trauma may be defined as: Help
Large life events that are upsetting.
 An injury to our physical, emotional, spiritual, or energetic bodies; witnessed or experienced.
 Only upsetting events that happen to us personally.
 An event that triggers memories in us.
17. Triggering implies that: Help
The trauma is still ongoing.
 Nightmares reactivate the original trauma.
 A relatively neutral event causes a large distress reaction similar to the traumatic situation.
 The dreamer or client is over-reacting.
18. Epigenetic studies have shown us that: Help
Trauma can be inherited through learned behavior and through DNA in family systems.
 Abusive behaviors tend to be passed on in the family.
 Parenting styles have nothing to do with ancestry or learned behaviors.
 The past and the present exist on a strict linear basis in time.
19. Poly-vagal Theory proposes that: Help
Nightmares can be repetitive until they are resolved.
 The body can retain the trauma response even when the threat or danger is gone.
 There are multiple ways of working with both trauma and nightmares.
 The body responds to acute but not chronic trauma.
20. Public and private trauma is largely differentiated by: Help
The presence or absence of witnesses or pictures/videos.
 How large a scale event(s) it was; that is, how many were involved.
 Whether or not the survivor is believed about their report of trauma.
 When there are differing opinions about the event
21. A clinical DSM diagnosis of PTSD includes the following criteria: Help
Depression, anxiety, and nightmares
 Avoidance strategies, phobias, and personality disorder
 Heightened startle response, rage attacks, and nightmares that persist for over a year
 Intrusive thoughts and flashbacks, negative thought patterns, and hypervigilance
22. Dissociation is an aspect of PTSD that is: Help
Characterized by alternating hyperarousal and constriction.
 A rarely seen unusual aspect of traumatic stress.
 Is a breakdown in the continuity of a person’s sense of time and space and a splitting of awareness.
 Best addressed through talking and processing.
23. Healthy "dream digestion" refers to: Help
Recalling and journaling our dreams and nightmares.
 Memory re-consolidation; where we sort through our memory networks and discern what will be kept, and what released.
 The ability to create associations to the dreamt material in waking life.
 Being able to sort through the symbols and metaphors in a dream or nightmare.
24. Dr. Guy Leschziner proposes that nightmares are unfinished dreams because: Help
We can have repetitive dreams and nightmares on a variety of topics.
 The emotional narrative is negative and intense.
 We wake before we finish the dream when the brain is not able to reduce the emotional intensity.
 Repetitive nightmares are simply replaying the traumatic events over and over.
25. Dr. Ernest Hartman suggests that in general our distressing dreams follow emotionally charged life events because: Help
The dream functions of sorting and problem solving give us opportunities to resolve the issue in our sleep.
 It allows us to experience mastery without having to face the danger again in waking life.
 The sleeping brain can sort through neural networks and make cross connections that our waking brain cannot do.
 All of the above
26. Unprocessed or dissociated memory may appear in dreams directly or indirectly because: Help
Trauma frequently can become lodged in the body beyond the reach of language.
 Dreams tend to use symbol and metaphor to encode their meanings.
 Trauma shows up in dreams as repetitive replays of the original event.
 The dreamer made a conscious decision to not remember upsetting events.
27. The nightmare protocol of Guided Active Imagination Approach is organized by these two main principles: Help
Jungian depth dreamwork and EMDR.
 Current best practice trauma treatment and Jungian depth psychology.
 Body-oriented psychotherapies and gestalt dreamwork.
 Addressing dissociation through dreamwork and body-oriented practices
28. The first step in the GAIA method of nightmare healing is: Help
Addressing the bridge between waking and sleeping life.
 Toggling back and forth between working inside and outside of the dream.
 Interacting with the dream characters in a gestalt or dream theater style.
 Creating safety and the ingathering of resources.
29. Active imagination is a Jungian term that implies: Help
Using our imagination to understand the meanings of the dream.
 Dropping down into the dream landscape to interact with the dream and the characters therein. It is a tool for transformation.
 Uncovering what our dissociated memories are trying to have us recall.
 Finding safe people, objects, and places before engaging in the nightmare material
30. We spend a great deal of time establishing safety and resources before diving into the depth of the nightmare because: Help
This corresponds with best practice trauma interventions.
 We want to avoid abreaction responses or re-traumatization with our clients.
 To build a scaffolding before the deep dive into the nightmare itself.
 All of the above

 

 

  
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